How Do You Decrease Stress?

[Dr. Joel Nathan]

I heard a lecture by Jeffery Life, MD, an age management doc, on meditation. He uses it as a stress reducer. Increased stress leads to increased cortisol levels which are catabolic. As a New Yorker, I don't know if many of us have low cortisol levels.

Perhaps this is why yoga (meditation is also part of it) has become so widely practiced. There's a studio on every 3rd block it seems. People are finding this very helpful in decreasing stress.

Acupuncture and massage are also great stress reducers.

What ways do you decrease stress?

Joel

[BigJD69]

The gym is my stress reliever. If things get real bad a Klonopin or Valerian Root!!!!

[msfit]

The gym 4sure!

[DaveV]

the gym and my right hand

[chucksm00th]

Gym, sex, and you can try Phenibutt. It helps w/ anxiety and stress

[Ninja Loco]

Aside from the gym, I meditate, clean my swords or instruments, or watch UFC.


I dive into cleaning my weapons and instruments. I will break each guitar down to the smallest component and just clean, polish, and then clean and polish some more. Same with my swords........ just polishing the blades and taking a Q-tip to the tighter places can take enormous effort of concentration, and you slowly but surely start sinking in to another place.

Other times I simply go out back and let things be..... just face the demons and not back down. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But either way, I fought back.


Watching UFC dvds really relaxes me. You would think it would pump me up, but watching them over and over and over makes you try and look closer than you did the last time....looking for things you might have overlooked.... It really takes you away to someplace very centered.

[Dr. Joel Nathan]

It's great to find a way to relax.

The UFC causing relaxation is something I see in people who have a calming effect when their adrenalin increases. A friend of mine who is a martial arts student has the same adrenalin calming effect.

Speaking generally: This "opposite" effect if also common in people with attention deficit disorder. The Ritalin that they are prescribed actually slows them down because if fakes out the brain that it is thinking rapidly already.

Joel

Aside from the gym, I meditate, clean my swords or instruments, or watch UFC.


I dive into cleaning my weapons and instruments. I will break each guitar down to the smallest component and just clean, polish, and then clean and polish some more. Same with my swords........ just polishing the blades and taking a Q-tip to the tighter places can take enormous effort of concentration, and you slowly but surely start sinking in to another place.

Other times I simply go out back and let things be..... just face the demons and not back down. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But either way, I fought back.


Watching UFC dvds really relaxes me. You would think it would pump me up, but watching them over and over and over makes you try and look closer than you did the last time....looking for things you might have overlooked.... It really takes you away to someplace very centered.

[maxititer]

I will rely on drugs to reduce serious stress. My favorites are ayurvedic Stresscom (winter sherry extract) and Geriforte.

Sharpening and cleaning knives also good way to stay away from stress for me, do not have swords at that moment, will probably try if sword will work any better.

here is one interesting abstract on that topic FYI


Improving mental regeneration after physical exercise


The electronic version of this abstract is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.jissn.com/content/5/S1/P3
Published: 17 September 2008 © 2008 Jäger et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Background

Nutritional interventions to improve physical regeneration after exercise are usual practice among recreational and professional athletes. Frequent strategies include rehydration, in addition to supplementation with macronutrients to replenish depleted glycogen stores, or to support muscle growth and/or maintenance. Physically challenging exercise results in a significant activation of brain activity and no nutritional strategies have yet been developed to improve mental regeneration after exercise. L-Theanine, an amino acid found in green tea leaves, might be able to improve mental regeneration since it has been linked to reducing mental stress and having relaxing effects. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study was performed to evaluate the effects of 50 or 200 mg L-theanine supplementation on mental regeneration and hormonal response to physical exercise.
Methods

The individual working capacity of 14 healthy male subjects (age 24.5 +/- 2.4 years, height 181.2 +/- 4.9 cm, weight 78.8 +/- 9.7 kg) was evaluated in a pretest using a bicycle ergometer test. Starting at 50 Watt, the workload increased every 3 minutes until exhaustion. The maximal individual workload (mean 357 +/- 47 Watt) that could be maintained for 3 minutes in the pretest was used as the upper limited during a 16-minute exercise. One hour after a standardized breakfast (395 kcal, 50 g carbohydrates, 18.4 g fat, 7.6 protein) exercise started at 20% of the maximal individual workload. The intensity was gradually increased every 3 minutes, with the fifth interval (maximum workload) lasting 4 minutes. Thirty minutes after the start of exercise the subjects received a 330 ml beverage containing 50 or 200 mg of L-theanine or placebo. The subjects recovered passively lying in a shaded room and topographical frequency spectrum electroencephalography (EEG) mapping, heart rate, blood pressure, leukocytes, blood glucose and stress hormone levels were measured one minute after workout and 30, 45, 60 and 120 minutes after the consumption of the beverage. The three tests were separated by one week each.
Results

Analysis of alpha-, beta- and delta frequencies showed dominating high frequencies bands and high activity immediately after exercise. A shift to lower frequencies and a decrease in power were observed during the recovery phase. L-Theanine supplementation did not change the natural down regulation pattern; however, it resulted in an earlier onset of mental regeneration in comparison to placebo. Fifty mg L-theanine resulted in a significant reduction of alpha 2 power already 30 minutes after the consumption of the beverage (-50%, -19% with placebo), and continued to show improvements over placebo at later measurements (45 min: -49%, -39% with placebo). Supplementation with 200 mg L-theanine demonstrated no additional benefit. Exercise resulted in increased levels of leukocytes, blood glucose, catecholamines, serotonin and dopamine directly after workout, and increased concentrations of cortisol and prolactin at 44 and 59 minutes after exercise. All blood parameters returned to normal values after 2 hours of recovery. Maximal mean heart rate (186 +/- 9 bpm) and blood pressure quickly returned to resting values after exercise. MANOVA (level of significance p < 0.05) showed significant changes with time of any blood parameter, however, showed no differences between the different treatment groups.
Conclusion

It is concluded that post-workout supplementation of 50 mg L-theanine accelerates mental regeneration after physical exercise. The effect is not based on hormonal changes and higher amounts of L-theanine do not result in additional benefits.

[Dr. Joel Nathan]

The mental focus has become a major part of working out. The rejuvenation aspects is important so that the next time I'm in the gym I'll be up for it.

As an addiction doc, I wonder if your advice might come in handy after a hangover, an all nighter at work or for the person in recovery who's mind is out of focus for several months when just off their drug(s) of choice.

Regards,
Joel


I will rely on drugs to reduce serious stress. My favorites are ayurvedic Stresscom (winter sherry extract) and Geriforte.

Sharpening and cleaning knives also good way to stay away from stress for me, do not have swords at that moment, will probably try if sword will work any better.

here is one interesting abstract on that topic FYI