Without question, stress can be deadly.
Whether it's the stress from a major life crisis, such as job loss, divorce or injury, or just how you react to everyday events, like getting stuck in traffic or running late to an appointment, it's all the same.
Your body can't tell the difference – it's all stress. And the end result is the same.
When you experience stress, your levels of the stress hormone cortisol rise. This can have negative effects on your health, like lowering your immune function and bone density, raising your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and even interfering with your memory and learning.
Not only that, but the most stressed-out individuals have the highest risk of premature death, too.
A study of 1,293 older men who reported their daily lives as being very stressful experienced a 43% increased risk of premature death – and were three times more likely to die during the 16-year study period.
You're not alone if you feel stressed out. A recent poll found that 55% of Americans experience stress during the day, with 94% of workers reporting feeling stressed at their jobs.
I don't tell you these numbers to scare you. Rather, I want to increase your awareness of how on-going stress, when not addressed, can jeopardize your physical, mental and emotional well-being.
We live in a fast-paced world where escaping stressful situations is practically impossible. So, what can you do to reduce its ill effects?
Here's the key... The way you view and respond to stressful situations is what matters most.
As Greek philosopher, Epictetus, once said...
“People are disturbed not by a thing, but by their perception of a thing.”
Let's dig deeper and discover how we can take control and help minimize the potentially harmful effects of stress. And get back to a feeling of centeredness and calm.
What Happens When You Live With Stress
What happens in your body when you experience stress?
When your body first senses a perceived threat, it goes into “fight or flight” mode. It's your body's way of mobilizing its defenses to address the threat, whether it's real or not.
Your brain's hypothalamus sounds the alarm and tells your adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol into your blood stream.
This dumping of stress hormones causes your blood pressure to rise as blood floods to the areas which may need it to fight back against the threat – your muscles, heart and other organs.
During a “fight or flight” response, you can experience many effects: heartburn from increased stomach acid, depression from emotional stress, headaches, tense muscles, sleep issues, increased heart and respiratory concerns, high blood sugar, a weakened immune response and even fertility problems.
Once the perceived threat is over, your hypothalamus should tell your central nervous system that everything is now okay. Unfortunately, with on-going stress, the response can continue. And that's where the problem lies.
When our ancestors faced a major challenge, such as confronting a wild animal, a “fight or flight” response made sense for survival.
However, running late for an appointment or getting stuck in traffic hardly constitutes a life-threatening situation. Yet, your body reacts the same way.
When you experience on-going, even minimal everyday stress – and you do nothing to help ease it – conditions like these can arise:
- Blood sugar issues due to your body struggling to keep up with the extra surges of glucose
- Cardiovascular problems because your heart is working overtime and having to deal with the rise in blood pressure
- Immune system weakening from the overstimulation of stress hormones
- Weight gain, especially around the abdomen and face
- Difficulty breathing due to the effects of increased stress hormones
- Gastrointestinal issues from the increased stomach acid
- Regularity problems due to a change in how food moves through your digestive tract
- Tight muscles, body aches and headaches due to tension
- A decrease in muscle strength as stress hormones can break down muscle proteins
- A loss of bone mass and increased risk of fractures as excess cortisol can decrease bone density
- Decreased sex and reproductive hormone levels such as testosterone and estrogen
- Eating disorders, alcohol or drug abuse, as well as social withdrawal
And, unfortunately, that's not all...
How On-Going Stress Affects Your Brain
Even worse, everyday stress can make your brain shrink. Yes, you heard me correctly. Stress can kill off brain cells and actually make it smaller.
And the more stress you experience, the faster your brain deteriorates.
While the stress hormone cortisol may be a good thing when you're truly in danger, as it provides your brain with the agility it needs to respond, too much can be harmful.
Elevated blood levels of cortisol have a corrosive effect in your brain and impair your thinking skills and memory over time, as it leads to the die off of brain cells.
The areas of your brain most affected by excess cortisol are your amygdala, the area of your brain responsible for your emotional response, and your hippocampus, the brain's memory center. Cortisol can wear down the synapses responsible for memory storage and processing.
Looking closer at the link between on-going stress and brain shrinkage, researchers with the Framingham Heart Study identified 2,200 people without any cognitive concerns and followed them for eight years.
Measuring memory, abstract reasoning, attention and visual perception through testing, they found that compared with people with average levels of cortisol, those with the highest levels had lower scores on the cognitive tests.
The study showed a link in women (but not in men) between higher cortisol levels and reduced brain volume.
There is some positive news here... You can help your brain recover by reducing the stress you're feeling. This can be accomplished in several different ways...
9 Effective Ways to De-Stress Your Body and Brain
There are many things you can do on your own – or with a group – to help counter the negative effects of stress on your physical, emotional and mental well-being:
- Regular exercise can help regulate your fight-or-flight response, and it can nourish areas of the brain to improve brain capacity and function. However, moderation is key as overdoing exercise can increase cortisol levels.
- Immerse yourself in nature, such as gardening. A study showed gardening led to a significant decrease in cortisol, helped restore a positive mood and promoted relief from on-going stress.
- Meditation and mindfulness can help lower levels of cortisol and have been shown in studies to have positive effects on attention, socio-emotional well-being, as well as resting brain activity.
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) increases positive emotions, such as joy and hope, and decrease negative emotional states, including stress. Studies show EFT substantially reduces cortisol levels and promotes a sense of calm, with results comparable to cognitive behavior therapy.
- Yoga reduces the parameters of stress and significantly lowers cortisol levels and boosts mood, by its “anti-stress” effects on your hypothalamus.
- Relaxation techniques, like massage, warm baths and reading an enjoyable book before bedtime can help you de-stress and ready yourself for sleep.
- Social support and connectedness can help reduce stress on your body, as we are wired to have close connections with other people.
- Limiting excess caffeine, sugar and unhealthy fats (linoleic acid) in your diet helps reduce cortisol levels.
- Consider one or more supplements that can help balance cortisol levels, such as L-Theanine, GABA, Phosphatidylserine and adaptogens, like Ashwagandha, Rhodiola and Holy Basil. Magnesium and Vitamin C support adrenal gland function, so they may also help support healthy cortisol levels.*
Keep in mind... Stress management is highly individualized. If yoga isn't your “thing,” don't stress yourself because you're not doing yoga! Find out what works best for you and commit to doing it daily.
Calm Your Stress, Promote Mood and Cognition With L-Theanine
L-Theanine is an amino acid found in tea leaves, especially green tea. It's what makes a cup of tea so soothing and relaxing.
Also known as the “serenity molecule,” this amino acid has a long history of helping to relieve stress, as well as having a positive effect on both mood and sleep. It's been shown to...
- Enhance relaxation without causing drowsiness
- Boost mental sharpness
- Enhance sleep quality
In a study with 30 healthy participants, ages 36 to 60 years old, one group took 200 mg of L-theanine a day and the other received a placebo over a four-week period.
The L-theanine group reported fewer stress-related symptoms, as well as a reduction in sleep latency (the time it takes you to fall asleep) and sleep disturbances.
In terms of cognitive function, verbal fluency and executive function scores improved after taking L-theanine.
Another study with middle aged and older individuals – a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study with groups of Japanese men and women aged 50-69 years showed similar results.
Taking L-theanine over a 12-week period revealed an improvement in attention and enhanced working memory and executive functions.*
L-theanine can be especially useful for daytime use when you want to be able to focus without feeling stressed. It all comes down to increasing your brain's alpha wave production...
While Beta waves happen when you're wide awake and excited, they can also peak when you are stressed.
Research shows that L-theanine safely supports the production of alpha brain waves, which leads to a calm, alert state associated with better focus.
Want to be “in the zone” during work or study, or when you're exercising or competing in an event? Reach for L-theanine, or nature's own “serenity molecule.”
Rest and Relax in Just Minutes With GABA
When you remain in a fight-or-flight mode, your nervous system is in sympathetic mode. Your body is focused on survival, at the expense of some of its other important functions.
Take your body's normal detoxification processes, for example...
Detoxification happens during parasympathetic mode when you're resting and relaxed – the other end of the scale from sympathetic or stress mode. So, your body may not be fully able to perform these normal processes when you're in stress mode.
The amino acid GABA, or Gamma aminobutyric acid, plays an important role here – it helps put you into parasympathetic mode.
So, GABA indirectly supports your body's detoxification processes, as well as other functions, like digestion and brain activity, that occur during the relaxed mode and when your body feels “safe.”
GABA is an amino acid that naturally exists in vegetables and animals, as well as in your body. It is primarily found in your brain and spinal cord. You have GABA receptors throughout your nervous system, as well as in your immune and liver cells, muscles and gastrointestinal tract.
These receptors play an important role in the firing of neurons, regulating your emotions, and controlling cognition, pain, sleep and motor function.
How do you know if you have enough GABA?
A GABA deficiency can show up as mood concerns, feeling fearful, having a short temper, digestive issues, addictions, allergies, body discomfort, headaches, frequent urination, flushing, salt cravings and muscle tension.
There are natural ways to help increase your levels of GABA – exercise, meditation, mindfulness training, yoga and breathing exercises. All of these help put you into a parasympathetic state, thus raising GABA.
Why You Need GABA for Adequate Deep Sleep
Do you have occasional problems getting a restful night's sleep? You may have low levels of GABA.
Research shows that those who experience occasional sleep difficulties may have as much as a 30% lower level of GABA in their brains, compared to individuals reporting no issues with sleep.
Regardless of age, those with lower levels of GABA were also found to be more likely to awaken after falling asleep. Overall, sleep quality was rated highest among those with higher GABA levels.
So, how does this amino acid support deep sleep?
During your body's stages of slow-wave or deep sleep, GABA helps maintain healthy levels of the stress hormone cortisol. You're more likely to experience deep sleep when your levels of cortisol remain low.*
If your levels of GABA are low, you may wake easily and often throughout the night, as low GABA levels are known to interfere with deep sleep. You're likely missing out on adequate amounts of valuable slow-wave sleep if you have low levels.
Because GABA promotes the normal activity of brain cells and helps your brain avoid becoming overwhelmed with thoughts, it may help you relax and feel sleepy, thus reducing the time it takes to fall asleep. *
When you are well rested with sufficient deep sleep, your immune system works better. It's able to launch a faster and more effective response to threats.
L-Theanine and GABA – The Real Happiness Duo?
According to conventional medicine (supported and funded by the pharmaceutical industry), serotonin is the “happiness hormone” and the answer to mood issues. The party line goes... Increase your levels of serotonin to “fix” your mental health challenges.
Let me assure you – serotonin is not the “fix.”
Contrary to popular belief, this strategy can cause significant problems. Multiple studies show increasing serotonin levels can inflict great harm on your mental health, and actually turn off important emotions, like empathy, love and wisdom.
High levels of serotonin can also impair thyroid function, reduce metabolism, cause recurring nightmares, and raise your risk for cardiac and pulmonary issues.
Ideally, you want to keep your serotonin level as low as possible, and I believe the best strategy for doing that is to use GABA, as it increases the degradation rate of serotonin.
In my opinion, GABA is the easiest solution for both mental and sleep issues.*
GABA is a powerful neurotransmitter that inhibits the ability of nerve cells to receive, create and send messages. Your body uses GABA to dampen nerve activity in your brain, which leads to feelings of calm and relaxation.
On the other hand, glutamine, or glutamate once it reaches your brain, is your body's primary excitatory neurotransmitter. It continually works with GABA to maintain balance.
Here's the challenge... Glutamate converts into GABA in your brain, yet a number of underlying factors can prevent this from happening, allowing glutamate to accumulate and cause excitatory-like symptoms.
On-going stress – and elevated stress hormones like cortisol – are two factors that may inhibit the production of GABA. Fasting can also deplete your GABA reserves.
And this can have major implications for your mood and mental health...
According to Bulgarian bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov, as little as 100 mg of GABA taken orally was enough to improve scores on a major inventory assessment for mental health.*
Dinkov goes on to suggest combining it with L-theanine, as it dramatically increases the effects of GABA. L-theanine, like GABA, supports healthy, low levels of serotonin in the brain – exactly what you want for optimal mental health as well as quality sleep.
Because GABA by itself may not cross your blood-brain barrier with ease, combining it with L-theanine can help you achieve optimal levels of GABA in your brain. L-theanine is fat-soluble and does cross your blood-brain barrier.
Relax Your Body and Mind With Our Combo Formula L-Theanine Plus GABA
As we've seen, two of the most potent nutrients I know of for combating stress and creating a feeling of calm are L-theanine and GABA.
We've combined both in our combo formula L-Theanine Plus GABA, which I believe is an ideal antidote for a stress-filled life.
Depending on when you take it, this powerful duo can either help you fall asleep or it can promote focus and clarity, as well as a positive mood.*
Each two-capsule serving provides 200 mg of L-Theanine as Suntheanine and 100 mg of GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid).
A pure form of the amino acid L-theanine, Suntheanine® is produced by a patented enzymatic process that mimics the natural process in green tea leaves, resulting in a 100% pure L-isomer-theanine, the active form of theanine.
The GABA in our formula is a patented natural form of GABA produced with the help of Lactobacillus hilgardii – a beneficial lactic acid bacteria used in the making of the traditional Korean dish known as kimchi.
Our formula is non-GMO, gluten free, vegan and doesn't include any unwanted ingredients that might be harmful.
For sleep, we recommend taking L-Theanine Plus GABA 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime. Through its effects on neurotransmitters in your brain, these two amino acids can help prepare your body for a restful and relaxing night of sleep.
You can also use L-Theanine Plus GABA during the day to maximize its potential benefits for your mental health and cognition.
So, what exactly is Suntheanine, and how does it compare to regular L-theanine?
Sleep Better at Night and Enjoy More Energy by Day With Suntheanine®
Suntheanine® is backed by more than 80 trials. No L-theanine product has been studied more for safety and efficacy, or the ability to provide you with the benefits you want most.
Like regular L-theanine, Suntheanine promotes a calming effect and helps your brain stay balanced and focused. Unlike other stress-reducing supplements, it does not cause drowsiness.
How does Suntheanine work?
When you take Suntheanine, it is absorbed in your gut. It then enters your blood stream and crosses your blood brain barrier – the border that protects your brain.
Within 30 to 60 minutes, you start feeling its effects. It supports the healthy production of alpha brain waves and a decrease in beta brain waves associated with stress. This is the state of mind people who meditate seek to attain. It's when you feel relaxed, calm, focused and mentally alert, yet without unwanted excitability.
Studies show Suntheanine® helps...
- Reduce stress.*
- Promote relaxation without drowsiness.*
- Improve focus, attention, concentration, learning performance and mental clarity.*
- Restore mental alertness or wakefulness.*
- Reduce the negative effects of caffeine, such as jitters*
- Enhance the quality of your sleep, allowing you to wake up feeling refreshed and not groggy.*
In one recent study with healthy middle-aged men and women, participants consumed 100 mg of Suntheanine. Parameters were measured 50 minutes later, and then after daily consumption for 12 weeks.
Attention, reaction time and working memory significantly improved 50 minutes after taking Suntheanine.
This quick response confirms previous studies at higher doses – 200 mg L-theanine – showing Suntheanine is effective even at a lower dose of 100 mg.
Stop Letting Stress Rule Your Life – Break Free With L-Theanine Plus GABA
There's no question... We live in a fast-paced world where escaping stressful situations is practically impossible. Yet, you don't need to suffer the negative consequences on your well-being.
Not when you have effective solutions to help you counter the stress, like tweaking your lifestyle to include more de-stressing activities – and adding L-Theanine Plus GABA to your daily routine.
L-Theanine Plus GABA can help you reclaim your life – and improve your response to stressful situations.
Whether you use it during the day to get “in the zone” or support your mental health, or take it before bedtime to help you unwind from your day and settle into a restful night's slumber, L-Theanine Plus GABA can help make the difference you're seeking.
Order L-Theanine Plus GABA today and start living the serene life you were meant to live.