Boost Immunity By Managing Stress Hormones

With so much media coverage about COVID-19, it’s natural to have concerns for your health. But spending too much time focused on the Coronavirus, infection rates or the latest social restrictions can also have a negative impact on your health both mentally and physically. As the media looks to keep your attention with scary words like pandemic, lock-down, stay-at-home or infection rates, we find it so very important to change the narrative.

Living in a constant state of anxiety and stress does the exact opposite of what we should be focused on at a time like this. Staying healthy and boosting your immune system by managing your stress hormones in Springfield Missouri.

Just being anxious and stressed can make us more susceptible to illnesses like colds and viruses. A powerful way for you to reduce your risk and stay healthy is to practice stress management techniques, which researchers suggest have potentially powerful effects on your immune system.

We all have the ability to improve our overall health and wellness by conquering our stress and anxiety. Here are six stress-management strategies to help you stay well.

Get Plenty of Exercise

Exercise is a great distraction from the stressors of everyday life. Physical exercise can result in an increased expression of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which make us feel good.

Make your exercise routine something you truly enjoy. Anything from walking to running, dancing or yoga, swimming or hiking can be beneficial. As always, being outdoors while you exercise just increases the positive effects on your health.

Practice Mindful Meditation

Setting aside time daily for mindfulness medication can have a great impact on your mental and physical health by helping to reduce your stress hormones.

Use your resources to find helpful videos and even apps for your devices to assist you in developing the right routine for meditation.

Display Thankfulness

During stressful and anxious times it is easy to be overcome with negative thoughts. Showing gratitude can help you transition your mindset to a more positive place. Thankfulness is also contagious, so not only can you improve your mindset but you will likely help improve someone else’s too.

Send someone a gratitude text, thankful email or better yet a handwritten letter expressing your thankfulness for them.

Develop A Clean Routine

When dealing with a virus that is highly contagious and can be spread in so many different ways, coming up with a set routine for good cleaning habits can provide a calm to the madness. When returning home from being out develop a routine of proper hand washing and sanitizing of items being brought into your home. This routine can give you the peace of mind of knowing you are doing your part to protect yourself and your loved ones and reduce your stress hormones.

Lighting candles or using calming aromatherapy as a part of your homecoming routine to add to the calming effect.

Practice Healthy Food Habits

Making positive changes in your daily habits can provide some peace of mind that you are making changes to improve your overall health and wellness. Even finding the smallest of good dietary changes to make can have a huge impact. Specifically in stressful times we want to avoid sugars and processed foods.

So pick an item that you eat or drink on a regular basis and set a goal for reducing or even eliminating that item from your diet. Sugary drinks and foods weaken our immune system for several hours after eating or drinking them.

Celebrate your progress and victories by sharing them with others or posting about them to your friends and family. Any positive lifestyle change is worth celebrating.

Avoid Information Overload

It’s way too easy to get caught up in all the latest information, research, new reports and government updates. As we know this information is changing multiple times per day so what we read in the morning is probably out of date by lunch. Focusing on what you can control and not trying to control the things you can’t will help put everything in perspective.

Do the things that you can control to help you stay healthy and vibrant. Focus on your health, your prevention and your future. Set boundaries or time limits on yourself for researching and reading the latest relevant information.

Practicing good stress management can protect you from many of life’s illnesses. It just takes a little self-discipline and desire to change your mindset from one of anxiety and fear to one of hope and happiness. Not only will these techniques help us through this abundantly stressful time, but they will continue to serve us well as life returns to normal.

At Kare Health and Wellness, our Functional Medicine approach to your overall health means taking a look at everything we put into our body. Food, medicine and even your own thoughts. If you’d like help in making sure you’re doing everything you can to live a happy and healthy life, call us today and let our team work with you on putting together a plan to look and feel great from the inside out.

Keri Sutton - RN, MSN, ANP-C, AGPCNP-BC

Keri is a Nurse Practitioner and founder at Kare Health & Wellness. Keri's pursuit of personal answers to her own health issues landed her in the top of Functional Medicine. As she utilized functional Medicine to get her own health and life back, she made it her life's work to bring this empowering form of healthcare to as many people as she can.

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