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How to Stop Stress, Live, Love and Play at your Best And Stay Productive Even in the Face of Seemingly Overwhelming Pressure

Dear Friend,

By now many of you know of my own personal battle with High Blood Pressure.

I will not go through all the details but let's just say that the effects of stress, long hours and hard physical training overstressed my body if not my mind.

After a long period of soul searching I came to the conclusion that while I was not recognizing the stress, it was recognizing me.

Also, I felt absolutely awful on prescription meds to the point where I had almost decided that the risks of such high blood pressure were almost worth it!

I got a real piece of humble pie there and learned what it is like to be a patient.

My approach to healing myself came from applying some old ideas, and seeking out some new ones.

As you know Dr Dave's Best my Nutraceutical and vitamin Company is the direct result of this experimentation and knowledge.

In Vol 1 # 5 of the newsletters which a that time were only going out very 4 to 6 weeks I detailed the dramatic and negative effects of chronic stress on the human body.

The main player in this game is a hormone known as Cortisol.

It has received a lot attention lately from the TV ads that claim there is a compound that blocks it and reduces the fat around your belly.

The short lived nature of these ads says it all. It obviously didn't work!

In anti-aging Circles, cortisol is know as the Aging hormone because the long term effects of high cortisol levels mimic in many ways the aging process.

It is the ONLY hormone that routinely rises with advancing age, and thus is a target for all of us to keep at a reasonable level.

At the time My Blood Pressure problem was diagnosed my own Cortisol levels were sky high. A medical workup (which should always be done) showed no apparent medical cause.

I was pretty sure that if I could get my cortisol down, my blood pressure problem would get a lot better too.

While this was a multi faceted approach of diet exercise and life style, the biggest improvements came from proper supplementation.

I'll never forget how glad and how amazed I was when my supplement choices finally solved my problem with both my cortisol levels and my high blood pressure.

As I suspected the 2 went hand in hand.

Long term and short term stress can affect our bodies and minds in many ways. Long term stress naturally seems to be much harder on us.

Often we get sick with colds or other viruses, chronic fatigue, sleep disturbances and depression. It can lead to poor sex drive and sexual performance, poor job performance and poor physical performance as well.

Ultimately I believe it can lead to high blood pressure heart attack and stroke to name just a few.

There have been studies that show a direct relation to depression and cortisol as well. It seems that the higher the cortisol goes, the higher the likelihood of depression. Also each stimulates the other leading to a kind of vicious cycle.

I am 100% sure that Fish Oil added years to my life by reducing my cortisol levels back to well with in the normal limits.

There are other hormones that also are critical in stress called "catecholamines". The effect of catecholamines on people is universal: elevated blood pressure, elevated heart rate, tremors, and sleep deprivation. They are basically the bodies own natural speed.

People involved in life or death combat situations often experience a kind of paralysis called "Adrenalin Dump". This is where a massive dischage of catecholamines overwhelms the body, and there person basically freezes.

The other name for adrenalin is Epinephrine which is one of those catecholamines.

Caffeine and Ephedra are also examples of catecholamine like compounds. As you may know Ephedra was recently banned because of causing possible heart attacks and strokes.

The death of Orioles pitcher Steve Blecher ultimately led to the banning of ephedra.

It becomes critical to block the effects of both the catecholamines and cortisol to reduce their harmful effects. I am certai that Fish Oil did this for me.

In the references below I found several bits of hard core evidence that this is so.

Initially studies were done to see the effect of Fish Oil or its components on aggressive behavior induced by stress. Not surprisingly Fish Oil reduces the level of aggressive behavior and returned the subjects to a more balanced emotional state.

Next a study was done in med students during exams! Plasma levels of Cortisol and catecholamines were measured in the treated and nontreated groups, and lo and behold there was a 31% reduction in the stress hormones.

I'll bet they did better on their tests too. I sure wish I had known about Fish Oil during Med School. Interestingly the dose of Fish Oil in this study was quite high, 10 capsules a day.

1: J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 1999 Oct;45(5):655-65. Related Articles, Links

The effect of docosahexaenoic acid on plasma catecholamine concentrations and glucose tolerance during long-lasting psychological stress: a double-blind placebo-controlled study.

Sawazaki S, Hamazaki T, Yazawa K, Kobayashi M.

Biofactors. 2000;13(1-4):41-5. Related Articles, Links

Anti-stress effects of DHA.

Hamazaki T, Itomura M, Sawazaki S, Nagao Y.

Now a little more of how the body works is in order to understand the last of today's studies.

The chemicals that respond to stress come from a gland that sits on top of your kidneys called the "adrenal gland"

Cortisol and all of the catecholamines come from this area.

While this gland can presumably operate on its own in response to circulating stress messengers, it also gets direct signals from the brain via nerves as well.

In the study below the effects of mental stress on all of the typical and harmful chemicals produced during chronic stress were blunted significantly by Fish Oil.

Once again the doses were quite high, 7.2 grams of fish Oil a day.

Diabetes Metab. 2003 Jun;29(3):289-95. Related Articles, Links

Fish oil prevents the adrenal activation elicited by mental stress in healthy men.

Delarue J, Matzinger O, Binnert C, Schneiter P, Chiolero R, Tappy L.

Laboratoire regional de nutrition humaine, Hopital de la Cavale Blanche, Brest, France.

OBJECTIVES: A diet rich in n-3 fatty acids (fish oils) is associated with reduced risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, but the mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Sympathoadrenal activation is postulated to be involved in the pathogenesis of these diseases, and may be inhibited by n-3 fatty acids. We therefore evaluated the effects of a diet supplemented with n-3 fatty acids on the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and of stress hormones elicited by a mental stress. METHODS: Seven human volunteers were studied on two occasions, before and after 3 weeks of supplementation with 7.2 g/day fish oil. On each occasion, the concentrations of plasma cortisol, and catecholamines, energy expenditure (indirect calorimetry), and adipose tissue lipolysis (plasma non esterified fatty acid concentrations) were monitored in basal conditions followed by a 30 min mental stress (mental arithmetics and Stroop's test) and a 30 min recovery period. RESULTS: In control conditions, mental stress significantly increased heart rate, mean blood pressure, and energy expenditure. It increased plasma epinephrine from 60.9 +/- 6.2 to 89.3 +/- 16.1 pg/ml (p<0.05), plasma cortisol from 291 +/- 32 to 372 +/- 37 micromol/l (p<0.05) and plasma non esterified fatty acids from 409 +/- 113 to 544 +/- 89 micromol/l (p<0.05). After 3 weeks of a diet supplemented with n-3 fatty acids, the stimulation by mental stress of plasma epinephrine, cortisol, energy expenditure, and plasma non esterified fatty acids concentrations, were all significantly blunted. CONCLUSION: Supplementation with n-3 fatty acids inhibits the adrenal activation elicited by a mental stress, presumably through effects exerted at the level of the central nervous system. PMID: 12909818 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

So, you can decide how much of a role stress plays in your life, and do something very positive and healthful about it to keep you living, loving and playing at your best no matter what they throw at you.

Best,

Dave Woynarowski, M.D., CPT
The Nation's #1 Anti-Aging Physician

P.S. For the worlds best anti-aging supplements including Dr Dave's Best Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil go here and order now. Don't delay; you are not getting any younger, YET!