Stand Up to Stress: How to Unwind Your Body and Mind

Stand Up to Stress: How to Unwind Your Body and Mind

by Stanley Miller
Stand Up to Stress: How to Unwind Your Body and Mind

Stand Up to Stress: How to Unwind Your Body and Mind

by Stanley Miller

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Overview

Everyone suffers from stress. If you don't handle it properly, however, it can ruin your life. That's why Dr. Stanley Miller, a chiropractor and nutrition expert, is passionate about helping people battle stress.

In this guide to dealing with stress, he offers tips, strategies, and analysis to help you

- understand the physiology of stress;
- boost your health with practical, down-to-earth exercises;
- use vitamins and supplements safely and effectively; and
- match the success of others who have overcome stress.

You're not alone; roughly twenty-seven million Americans are on prescription medication for depression and anxiety. With more people struggling financially, that number is only going to increase.

But you don't have to be a statistic. You can cope with stress on a daily basis and protect yourself from disease and sickness. Dr. Miller takes you through his thirty years of clinical experience in his busy chiropractic practice so you can change your life for the better and Stand Up to Stress.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781475994407
Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date: 08/23/2013
Pages: 124
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.29(d)

Read an Excerpt

STAND UP TO STRESS

How to Unwind Your Body and Mind


By STANLEY MILLER

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Stanley Miller
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-9440-7



CHAPTER 1

NEUROTRANSMITTERS


Why Do I Feel This Way?

An old proverb says, "Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug." In other words, sometimes you're moving confidently through life, and obstacles just bounce off of you. Other times, though, life hits you smack in the head and you aren't able to cope as well. Some days you wake up in a great mood and other days you don't.

Many people don't understand where moods come from. But there is an actual, biological basis for our moods: whether we feel happy or sad depends on two distinct yet dissimilar factors: neurotransmitters and posture.


Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are chemicals produced in the brain that are directly responsible for creating your moods and emotions. If your brain releases a certain neurotransmitter, you'll feel loving and peaceful. If your brain fails to release another neurotransmitter, you'll feel angry or depressed.

Neurotransmitters transmit messages from the brain to nerve cells. They allow the nerves to communicate to each other and therefore affect basic body functions such as allowing your heart to beat and your lungs to breathe. But they are also responsible for affecting your mood.

The most common brain neurotransmitters that affect mood are serotonin, GABA, acetylcholine, and dopamine. If your brain does not produce enough of any of these neurotransmitters, you may present with different types of mood disorders.

For example, if you have low levels of serotonin, it can cause you to show a general disinterest in life. You may find yourself depressed, having no hobbies, no excitement, no joie de vivre. If you seek out medical help, your doctor would typically put you on an antidepressant. According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly 10 percent of Americans were taking antidepressant as of 1995. This was about twenty-seven million people, and the number has kept rising. Common serotonin medications include Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. They can be helpful, but they can also cause side effects such as nausea, dry mouth, headache, and even restlessness and agitation.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) relaxes the central nervous system, so if you are low on this neurotransmitter, your mind will tend to race, and you may feel extremely anxious.

Acetylcholine affects your memory, ability to calculate numbers, judgment, and mental acuity. This neurotransmitter has been associated with such degenerative diseases as Alzheimer's and dementia in older people.

Among the key signs of dopamine deficiency can be loss of temper and extreme bouts of anger and aggression.


Natural Neurotransmitters

It's amazing how these brain chemicals can influence how we feel.

Many people believe that we have to depend on medications in order to be mentally stable and healthy. This is not the case! We have just established that the brain produces its own neurotransmitters. So we have a choice. We can take medications, or we can allow our brain to produce its own. Through proper supplementation, diet, and mood control, neurotransmitters can balance themselves effectively without the need for medication.

In my practice, I have you fill out a neurotransmitter questionnaire, evaluate your diet, and then give you recommendations for proper nutritional supplementation. The supplements I use for this purpose are formulated by Dr. Datis Kharrazian for Apex Energetics. Contained in each formulation is a combination of precursors that the brain uses to stimulate the production of a particular neurotransmitter. Patients report wonderful results without the side effects of taking prescription medications.

Note: If you are already taking antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, you must first consult your doctor before taking supplements. If you are considering stopping the medication, you must discuss this with your doctor as well.

Another benefit to the natural sources of neurotransmitters is that you won't become addicted to them. Instead, your brain produces its own "feel-good chemicals," and you just feel good naturally all the time. Throughout this book, I will be giving you tips on how to enhance your brain's production of neurotransmitters to improve your mental health.

Here is a case study that shows just how effective balancing of neurochemicals can be.


The Autistic Teen

I once had a teenage patient come in to my office who was unable to go to school. She was autistic, she was angry, and she was throwing temper tantrums. Her parents did not know what to do with her; they were even considering hospitalization.

When this patient was brought into our office, we treated her for about four to six weeks. We gave her Dopatone by Apex Energetics. Dopatone contains vitamins and herbs specially formulated to increase the body's natural production of dopamine. Within four weeks, she was a different child! To this day, her family and friends cannot get over the amazing change in this teenage girl. She was a totally a different child—happy and smiling. You could actually talk to her. What an incredible change in this young woman's life!


Chapter 1: Neurotransmitters

What You Have Learned in Chapter 1

1. Neurotransmitters are protein molecules produced in the brain that can have a major impact on your emotional health and mood.

2. Neurotransmitters that affect emotion are: serotonin, GABA, dopamine, and acetylcholine.

3. Serotonin can affect your "interest in life." It helps you to "feel good."

4. GABA relaxes the central nervous system. A GABA deficiency can cause you to feel anxious and can cause your brain to race.

5. Dopamine deficiency can lead to extreme bouts of anger and aggression.

6. Acetylcholine affects your memory, ability to calculate numbers, and judgment; it also enhances mental acuity.

7. The standard medical treatment for anxiety and depression is to treat with medications.

8. There is a natural alternative to antianxiety medication through natural dietary supplements that help your brain produce its own neurotransmitters.


Action Step for Chapter 1

You can take natural supplements to stimulate your brain's ability to produce its own neurotransmitters. If you are already on medication, talk this over with your doctor first.

CHAPTER 2

POSTURE


The second major factor that affects your mood is posture. Many people may find this surprising. But think about it! How many people are bending over all day long—bending over books, bending over the computer, working at their desks? If you just look around you, you can see how many people have bad posture. Look at your own family. Look at your kids. Who has posture problems there?

Did you realize that posture affects your brain chemicals too?

You may have heard of neurotransmitters called endorphins. These are chemicals that are secreted by the brain that function a lot like morphine. In fact, the word endorphin is a shortened version of the words endogenous morphine. Endorphins make you feel good. They cause "runner's high" when running stimulates the release of these hormones.

Believe it or not, you can stimulate the release of endorphins by having good posture too! If you have good posture and are standing up straight, you'll have an extra 25 percent more oxygen in your lungs. This helps the brain to release endorphins, and you'll look good, you'll feel good, and you'll actually feel better about yourself when you have good posture.


Mirror Exercise

There are exercises that you can do to build your posture. Posture exercises and mood go hand in hand. Look at yourself in the mirror. What is your posture like?

• Is your head forward from your shoulders, or is it right over your shoulders where it belongs?

• Is your chest upward or is it bent in and downward?

• If you always find yourself looking down, that's a problem.

• Do you tend to slouch?

• Are you always sitting in a recliner?

• How many hours a day are you at your computer? Chances are that if you are like most Americans, you are spending at least four hours a day at your workstation with your head forward, your neck strained, and your shoulder muscles tight.


Posture Tip 1:

Try this now, as you're reading this book. It can be done either standing or sitting.

1. Bring your arms in back of you.

2. Clasp your hands.

3. Lift up your chest and lift up your clasped hands in back simultaneously.


You may be doing this as a natural way to relax your shoulders. When done together with my other posture exercises, it can not only relax your shoulders, but it will improve your posture as well.


Posture Tip 2:

You can do this if you are sitting or standing.

1. Be aware of your chest.

2. Pretend that a string is attached from the sky to your chest.

3. Mentally pull that string upward so it can lift up your chest.

4. Notice how you are standing or sitting now. Your posture should be in proper alignment.


Posture Tip 3:

1. Clasp your hands in front of your body.

2. Lift up your arms over your head with your hands clasped.

3. Stretch them up and back, and then ...

4. Bring them down sideways, like a bird in the air.


In all of these exercises, take notice of your breathing. As your posture improves, your breathing should deepen, and this should have a direct impact on your self-image and your ability to handle stress.

Do you notice how you feel?

Look again at yourself in the mirror.

You can improve your mental clarity and instantly increase your energy by correcting your posture.

Start to become aware of your sitting habits—either at school or work or at home.

• Don't allow the stress of your work to translate into tight and painful muscles.

• Stay relaxed.

• Keep your head over your shoulders, and don't protrude your neck toward the computer screen.

• Don't hold your telephone to your shoulder as you talk. Get a headset or speakerphone. Holding your phone with your shoulder can create long-term spasms of the neck and lead to chronic headaches and stress galore.


Let's work on your lifestyle, from the way you work to the way you play, so that you can create a totally stress-free environment for yourself.

In later sections of this book, I will be giving you some more practical exercises to release stress from your inner self. But first we must digress to present some of the basics, to show how stress can affect your health, and to explain the importance of developing a system of stress reduction in order to maintain your health.


Chapter 2: Posture

What You Have Learned in Chapter 2

1. Endorphins produced in the brain help you feel good.

2. Running and good posture can stimulate endorphins.

3. Long hours over the computer, talking on the phone with your head to your shoulder, and stress can cause stiff and tight muscles in the neck and both the upper and lower back.

4. Maintaining good posture at work, at your desk, and throughout the day can increase the oxygen to your lungs and help you feel more energetic.


Action Steps for Chapter 2

1. Perform the three posture exercises shown in this chapter at least twice daily.

2. Be aware of your posture throughout the day. Lift up your chest and bring your head over your shoulders. Keep your shoulders relaxed while doing this.

CHAPTER 3

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF STRESS


What happens to our bodies when we have stress for a long period of time? How does the body adapt to chronic stress? And, more importantly, what can happen if the stress continues?

In the 1950s a medical doctor by the name of Hans Selye discovered that stress can cause a breakdown of the body's function. He called this the general adaptation syndrome, or the GAS (Hans Selye 1978). He divided the process of breakdown into three stages:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]


Alarm Reaction Stage

The first stage of the stress syndrome is called the alarm reaction. This is the initial shock you get when you hear that somebody has passed away or that your house is going into foreclosure. Your body goes to an immediate physical reaction called fight or flight. This prepares you for a life-threatening situation. Your muscles tense, your heart beats faster, and you're given a momentary boost to do whatever it takes to survive.

Everyone has heard the story about a mother who, upon seeing her child trapped under a car, amasses so much strength that she singlehandedly lifts up the car to save her child. This is because the mother has gone into the fight-or-flight syndrome. Her body is able to perform an amazing feat because of the severity of the impending danger.

But when the stress continues, as it so often does, the body becomes susceptible to disease as the immune system wears down. It's one thing for the stress to be an emergency; it's another for that emergency to go on and on.


Resistance Stage

Continuing stress leads to the second stage of the GAS, which is called the resistance stage. We all have the ability to adapt to changes in our lives. We learn to adapt to stress; we may think that we are handling it okay when we really aren't. So our bodies have an alarm reaction. If it goes on long enough, the body tries to adapt. You think you're doing well coping with the stress, but inside, your body is still under stress and is still working hard to cope.

If the stress goes on long enough, your ability to adapt to it starts to weaken. Consider this scenario: You're holding a heavy piece of furniture. You can do it for a short period of time, but eventually your muscles start to fatigue, and you can't hold it up any longer. Similarly, your body can tolerate stress for only so long before your immune system starts to break down. You lose your ability to fight illness.

People in the second stage of adrenal exhaustion tend to get colds often, and they feel always fatigued. Their immune and adrenal systems are working overtime, and if this continues, their adrenals eventually burn out. This leads to the third stage, the exhaustion stage.


Exhaustion Stage

In the exhaustion stage, the body just breaks down and becomes unwell. If this situation is not addressed, it can even lead to breakdown of all body systems and functions. One possible cause of cancer is extreme stress. Researchers have noted that people who have contracted cancer usually have had some form of major stress in their lives some time prior to the diagnosis.


Chapter 3: The Physiology of Stress

What You Have Learned in Chapter 3

1. Dr. Hans Selye discovered the general adaptation syndrome (GAS), which describes the stages we go through when we are under stress.

2. The alarm reaction is the first stage. When faced with a stressful situation, our bodies go into an initial shock. Our hearts beat faster, and we sweat.

3. The resistance stage is when the stress continues. We become accustomed to it and adapt. In this stage, our bodies begin to weaken. For example, if you are holding a piece of furniture for a long period of time your muscles begin to fatigue. If stress continues, our bodies become weak and we can start to develop ongoing colds and infections.

4. The exhaustion stage is when our adrenal glands become exhausted. We feel tired all day and can't sleep well at night. People in this stage tend to be not well and typically show many symptoms of deterioration. There are some studies that show a correlation with people who have contracted cancer and some form of stress that showed up in their lives.

CHAPTER 4

DIAGNOSING STRESS


Is there a way to know where we are in the stress adaptation process? Yes! There are diagnostic procedures that we can go through.


Blood Work

For example, when your doctor takes your blood for laboratory analysis, you can ask him to measure your cortisol levels. In my office, I use saliva testing, which provides a more accurate measurement of cortisol levels.

The adrenals produce cortisol. When the body is in a normal, peaceful state, cortisol distributes fatty acids to the glands for use in hormone production. That's what preserves the health of all of our hormones. But when the body is in stress, it takes these hormones from the cortisol and uses it to sustain the fight-or-flight reaction described in chapter 3.

If this state is prolonged, the body can become sick from not producing enough hormones to allow for normal glandular function. Basically, the body steals pregnenolone from cholesterol to make more cortisol in times of chronic stress. Dr. Datis Kharrazian calls this the "pregnenolone steal" (2010).

If your symptoms are hormone based—tiredness, sluggishness, or low thyroid function—or if you are female and have irregular menstrual cycles, your condition might be the result of a poorly functioning adrenal gland.

I will give you a complete program to improve adrenal function later on in this book.
(Continues...)


Excerpted from STAND UP TO STRESS by STANLEY MILLER. Copyright © 2013 Dr. Stanley Miller. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments....................     vii     

Introduction....................     ix     

Part One: The Effect of Stress on Physiology....................          

Chapter 1: Neurotransmitters....................     3     

Chapter 2: Posture....................     9     

Chapter 3: The Physiology of Stress....................     17     

Chapter 4: Diagnosing Stress....................     21     

Chapter 5: Hypoadrenia and Sugar....................     27     

Chapter 6: Overcoming Physical Stress with Exercise....................     31     

Part Two: The Effects of Diet on Stress....................          

Chapter 7: Healthy Eating to Strengthen the Adrenals....................     39     

Chapter 8: Overcoming Stress with Vitamins and Supplements.................     47     

Chapter 9: The Power of Water to Reduce Stress....................     51     

Chapter 10: A Stress-Free Eating Environment....................     55     

Part Three: Overcoming Stress....................          

Chapter 11: The Psychology of Stress....................     59     

Chapter 12: Handling Emotional Stress....................     67     

Chapter 13: Manual Therapeutics and Energy Work....................     83     

Chapter 14: Putting It All Together....................     93     

Conclusion....................     99     

Resources....................     101     

References....................     103     

Index....................     105     

About Dr. Stanley Miller....................     111     

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