However, the excessive chronic anxiety that comes with conditions such as Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), Panic disorders, and Phobias is dysfunctional and can even be debilitating.
Anxiety disorders can lead to a variety of symptoms, including:
Anxiety Management Strategies
The most important focus is always on root cause resolution. Secondarily, we can implement powerful lifestyle changes that help maintain a balanced mental state, and tertiarily, we can use supplements and herbs to help bridge the gap until the root causes are resolved and lifestyle changes become solidified to improve emotional resilience.
Root cause resolution is what we specialize in with our comprehensive natural consult service at mygotodoc.com/hakim.
While pulling up the roots can take time, various lifestyle changes can often have a more immediate effect or help the body put up with the destabilizing influences of deeper problems. In many patients, lifestyle change can completely counteract the ability of the root cause problems to create an anxious state since the body is very adept at maintaining balance when it has access to the right environmental inputs and nutrients and is shielded from the wrong ones.
The most effective lifestyle levers we can manipulate to give the body a good chance of rebalancing the emotional state are:
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Intimacy, Socializing, and Religiosity: We’re in the midst of an intimacy crisis in the modern industrial world. The amount of intimacy in people's lives is the single greatest predictor of longevity and is crucial for balanced mental health. The best way to develop real intimacy is to ask probing questions, e.g., these have been studied and proven to quickly generate intimacy even between complete strangers: 36questionsinlove.com. If you have trouble meeting people, join a club or frequent a nursing home and befriend those without visitors. The religious tend to have better health outcomes in general, as well as better mental health, so consider attending services or just regularly meeting with others of your faith, as well as more regularly practicing it.
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Prioritizing Good Quality Sleep: Sleep is of the utmost importance in healing any chronic disorder as it is crucial for all detox, recovery, and rebuilding. Sleep is the only time the brain can release built-up toxins. In 2018, a survey of 400,000 individuals revealed that almost one-third of adults sleep less than 6 hours per night. However, experts advise getting seven or more hours of sleep every night. Check out our article on the science of sleep for more information, but for now, the most important input for healthy sleep is you.
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Lighting environment: This is the strongest determinant of your circadian rhythm, which is the master clock in charge of all your hormones, including your stress hormones and neurotransmitters, which are usually intimately involved with anxiety states. A healthy light environment means adequate exposure to direct sunlight outdoors in the early morning, mid and late afternoon, and no light after sunset. Bright light and blue light after sunset are highly disruptive to sleep and hormones - raising the stress hormones just when they should be lowest and lowering the sleep hormone melatonin just when it should be highest. The light passed through window glass during the daylight hours is also extremely inflammatory and disruptive to health because the important balancing infrared and UV wavelengths are filtered out of it.
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Limiting Caffeine & Alcohol Intake: Moderate and high alcohol intake disrupts brain neurotransmitters, causing anxiety symptoms, while reducing intake improves anxiety and depression. For those suffering from mental health issues, eliminating alcohol is the best course of action, at least until their resilience and health have been fully restored for a sustained period of time. Similarly, limiting caffeine helps manage anxiety. Gradual reduction of both is recommended to mitigate withdrawal effects.
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Stopping Tobacco Use: Smoking and anxiety often go hand in hand, with people experiencing anxiety more likely to use tobacco. Quitting smoking has been shown to significantly improve anxiety symptoms by altering brain pathways linked to anxiety and panic disorder. It’s recommended to find substitutes like toothpicks or gum and create a supportive environment to aid in quitting. However, nicotine in all forms, including gum, will continue to worsen symptoms in most people, so if it is used, it should be seen as a bridge to complete nicotine withdrawal.
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Maintaining an Anti-Inflammatory, Nutrient Dense Diet: Your mental health can be greatly influenced by factors like nutrient deficiencies, inflammatory foods like modern wheat, sugar (and in some cases dairy, eggs, and certain vegetables), high or low blood sugar, dehydration, and chemicals in factory foods. Assess your eating habits to see if anxiety worsens when skipping meals or just after certain meals. Maintaining adequate hydration, avoiding processed foods, and adopting a balanced diet with complex carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins may help alleviate symptoms. However, some patients may need to eliminate otherwise healthy foods that cause them problems for a period of time, using diets like the Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) and/or low histamine food plans.
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Mind-body medicine and neural retraining: Various powerful techniques can be learned to help resolve chronic health issues like anxiety using your own mind. These include lightningprocess.com, the Curable App, EFT tapping, and unlearnyourpain.com. Some focus primarily on pain but can be repurposed for anxiety and other chronic health issues as well.
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Practicing Mindfulness Meditation: Meditation aims to achieve present-moment awareness by acknowledging thoughts without judgment, fostering tranquility and satisfaction. This practice helps manage stress and anxiety, with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) combining meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) showing potential. A 2023 clinical trial found that an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program was as effective as the antidepressant Lexapro in reducing anxiety symptoms.
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Breathing Exercises: Anxiety often causes shallow, rapid breathing, which can trigger symptoms like a fast heart rate, dizziness, or panic attacks. Engaging in deep breathing exercises, characterized by slow, deliberate breaths, can help restore normal breathing patterns and alleviate anxiety symptoms. However, in some people, deep breathing worsens the problem, and something called Buteyko light breathing is more effective. In general, there are a number of effective breathwork techniques that can be explored, and different ones will work for different people.
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Aromatherapy: Aromatherapy, an ancient holistic healing practice, utilizes natural plant extracts and essential oils to enhance overall well-being. Just going outdoors into a natural environment is an aromatherapy experience that has been shown to stimulate the immune system due to scent compounds released into the air by plants. Purified pharmaceutical-grade essential oils can be inhaled directly, added to baths, or diffused indoors. Benefits may include relaxation, improved sleep, mood enhancement, and regulation of heart rate and blood pressure. Popular oils like bergamot, lavender, and clary sage are believed to alleviate anxiety, though the FDA doesn't oversee their quality. Consulting a healthcare professional, researching product quality, and performing patch tests before use are recommended precautions.
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Taking A Hot or Cold Bath: A bath can help alleviate anxiety by promoting relaxation through the soothing effect of water. Cold plunging has a powerful stimulatory effect, which paradoxically seems to put an immediate damper on anxiety symptoms while promoting a healthy, balanced mood. Hot water has a soothing effect. Interestingly enough, water of any temperature has been shown to rebalance the nervous system leading to changes in blood flow and blood pressure. Cold and heat both encourage muscle relaxation, which can reduce tension and physical symptoms of anxiety. The immersion in cold or hot water can also stimulate the release of endorphins, the body's natural mood elevators, promoting a sense of well-being. Additionally, the quiet and solitary nature of bath time can provide a peaceful environment conducive to calming the mind and reducing stress. Overall, a cold, hot, or even lukewarm bath offers a simple yet effective way to ease anxiety symptoms, and persistent use can help retrain the brain and body to eliminate anxiety in the long run, as well.
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Listening To Calming Sounds: Music can be beneficial for anxiety because it has the power to shift focus away from worries and induce a state of relaxation. Slow-tempo music with gentle melodies can help slow down the heart rate and breathing, promoting a sense of calm. Nature sounds, such as flowing water or bird songs, can transport listeners to a peaceful outdoor setting, reducing stress and anxiety.
- Drinking Herbal Teas Such as Chamomile: In a 2016 clinical trial involving individuals diagnosed with GAD, chamomile emerged as a promising aid against the disorder. Although it didn't prevent reoccurrence, chamomile was found to be safe for long-term use and effectively reduced anxiety symptoms. A 2021 study proposed that chamomile's anti-anxiety effects may be attributed to apigenin, a flavonoid that interacts with GABA receptors similar to drugs like Xanax.
Powerful Herbal Support for Anxiety: Mulungu Bark
Mulungu has been used by traditional herbalists in Brazil and Peru to treat anxiety and stress since pre-Columbian times. In fact, they even found it to be an effective treatment for their warriors to overcome fear and anxiety in battle. It is most commonly taken as a tea made from dried bark. Mulungu's strong sedative effect is also helpful for insomnia, hysteria, panic, and shock (interestingly, it also helps relieve depression, which frequently goes hand in hand with anxiety, even though that seems counterintuitive since depression seems to be an already subdued state - the key may be that the depression seen in anxiety may be more akin to a burnout that requires toning down the hyperactive immune system so the brain can heal and get back on an even keel).
In 2006, Researchers studied the effects of certain chemicals found in the flowers of Mulungu on anxiety in mice. They used two tests to measure anxiety-like behavior: one where mice move between light and dark areas and another where they explore a maze with open and closed arms.
They found that two of the chemicals found in mulungu, erythravine and (+)-11alpha-hydroxy-erythravine, reduced anxiety-like behavior in the mice, making them spend more time in the light or open areas. When they tested the whole extract from the plant, they didn't see the same anxiety-reducing effects in the maze test. This suggests that the two chemicals they identified are primarily responsible for the anxiety-reducing effects of the plant extract and that they need to be present in large enough quantities (easier with an extract that removes inactive ingredients like fiber) to have their effect.
In short, the often debilitating effects of anxiety can be effectively combated using a combination of natural herbal supplements like Mulungu bark and the anxiety-relieving strategies discussed above while at the same time addressing the root cause issues at play (check out mygotodoc.com/hakim).
mygotostack TRANQUILITY [mulungu max]
mygotostack TRANQUILITY [mulungu max] is made from a highly purified and concentrated extract of mulungu bark. This supplement is among the first of its kind in the U.S. Our 20:1 extract condenses 20 parts of raw mulungu bark into 1 part powder concentrate for maximum potency. We pack 700 milligrams of the concentrated powder into veggie capsules for easy and convenient uptake and dosing. However, we recommend emptying the capsules into 4-8 ounces of hot water to brew a tea with an aniseed-like flavor for even more potent effects.
You don’t have to allow anxiety to control your life. The treatments and strategies discussed in this article can help you overcome your anxiety so you can begin to live a happier, healthier, and more fulfilling life today.
