Have you ever thought of stress as a toxin? Its toxic effects can damage your health as much as any chemical. It is time to stress detox?
In Part 2 of our Low Toxin Living Series, The Institute for Natural Medicine introduces how to reduce stress to rid your brain, body and your living environment from the toxic damage that stress causes. Our guest host, Christian Gonzalez, ND interviews Amy Rothenberg, ND on how to detoxify your body of stress. Before you detoxify your home and your diet, consider stress as a toxin that needs attention first.
Stress common denominator of health and wellness. Here is what you will learn about a stress detox in this webinar:
First, why should you detox from stress? As Dr. Rothenberg explains stress is a the core cause of illness. Stress shortens your lifespan at the cellular level and increases the speed of aging. Toxin exposure itself is a stressor.
What can you do? Dr. Gonzalez encourages listeners to connect with their community – whether through friends, family, colleagues and people with similar interests – social engagement is critical to reducing stress.
What can we do to reduce with stress? Dr. Rothenberg discusses the importance of family engagement and downtime with friends. Though we may seem more connected through digital technology, says Dr. Gonzalez, we are in all honesty less connected because of the superficial aspect of social media. Then there are practices like breathing, mindfulness, yoga and meditation. Learning the art of these powerful techniques and repeating them daily reduces worry and anxiety, which lowers the toxicity of stress hormones.
Now what? When you are done listening to this webinar, we encourage you to take Dr. Rothenberg’s advice:
1. Set aside time to improve your social connections.
2. Learn mindfulness practices.
3. Make a list your stressors (be honest with yourself) and make small steps to reduce what you can control.
4. Exercise and move often for mental clarity and stress reduction (a simple walk, weight bearing and short bursts of exercise will do).
5. Find a hobby, which does not include screen time, to help your mind take a break from your daily life.
6. Lastly, schedule downtime to relax, rethink, re-prioritize and reflect on your life.
WAIT! There is more. Dr. Rothenberg answer listeners questions in this follow up video:
Dr. Gonzalez/ With a personal history that touched his life in the area of Cancer, Dr. Gonzalez realized how important preventative, holistic solutions are to our wellbeing instead of trying to heal an illness after it has occurred. This led him to pursue a medical career that would focus on how to use nutrition, supplementation, movement, sleep, community, and mental and emotional healing modalities to maintain one’s overall health reset, as well as heal imbalances and illnesses.
A graduate of the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, Bridgeport, CT, Dr. Gonzalez initially focused on cancer care and research. After seeing there was an opportunity to do so much more to help both prevent cancer, as well as treat it holistically, he went on to practice as a general healthcare practitioner. In a desire to empower people to take control of their health, he chose to take everything he had learned over his studies, with his patients, and in his clinical research experience and become an educator. You can now listen to the Heal Thy Self podcast with Dr. Gonzalez every Friday where he shares wellness solutions reviews the brands that work… and the ones that don’t!
Amy Rothenberg ND, DHANP is a contributor to INM and practicing licensed naturopathic doctor in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dr. Rothenberg is the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians 2017 Physician of the Year. Dr. Rothenberg’s writing can be found on NaturalMed.org, Better Nutrition’s Naturopathic Health Hub, Medium, Thrive Global, andThe Huff Post. She is the proud mother of 3 adult children.
