This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in October of 2017. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/DmURVRBN29Y.
Bob: Today Brad we're going to talk about silent signs that stress is making you sick. We all have stress in our lives Brad and I think sometimes it gets to the point where it's very hard to manage. So, we're going to go over eight signs that are stressing. Sometimes you don't realize that it's stress that's causing these things. When you get older in life, you kind of know it, but I'm going to tell you a couple of stories on some of these where at the time we didn't know that it was stress that caused it.
Brad: And it unfolds.
Bob: Yeah. Then we're going to show you some things that you can, some possible solutions.
Brad: We’ll give you some options.
Bob: All right, let's talk about the first stress sign that we see. I've had a lot of employees over the years, in fact at one point I had up to 50 employees working for me and one thing I could see right away is when someone would start to gain weight, I knew something was wrong. If they weren't pregnant. So usually it's a sign of stress in their lives sure and I've seen that quite often. For those of you who are kind of familiar with the situation, stress increases cortisol which affects the metabolism of your fats and proteins and carbs.
Brad: Something in your system that your body is producing that effects your system from how you feel to the actual physiology of your body.
Bob: In some cases, stress can sometimes cause you to overeat or sometimes under eat. People have lost weight during stressful periods of time, they lose a spouse or something like that. My wife would be out partying in Las Vegas I think after she loses me.
Brad: Yeah, well everyone has a different situation there Bob.
Bob: Everyone has different ways to handle things. The thing that we are just one little suggestion we're going to make here is, try snacking on nuts. It sounds kind of crazy one, but if there's one food that I think both the plant-based people and the reducing carb people agree on is to eat almonds. This is my stack of almonds here for the day Brad.
Brad: Can I have one? They're not even honey-roasted, or there's no chocolate or anything.
Bob: So what I did on these is I buy them raw which I can't eat them, and then we microwave them. So I take about half a cup and I put them on a paper plate microwave them for two minutes, and then I let them cool down and I microwave them for another minute a half. That's my recipe.
Brad: These help your stress too?
Bob: Well it's going to help your weight gain because it keeps you full. You can snack on these throughout the day. Next one we're talking about breaking out in hives. This is one that my wife has. First time we ever saw it my daughter was on a bus trip and the bus got into an accident. We received this call and my wife immediately broke out in hives and we thought it was something she ate and we didn't realize. And my daughter ended up being fine, but she just immediately broke out with hives and obviously stress can do that. Now we see it every time she gets stressful. She breaks out in hives.
Brad: Red kind of?
Bob: Yeah, red and blotchy. One thing you can try with this is a cool cloth on it and or you can try to antihistamine. We've had to do that with hers, using an antihistamine sometimes. Alright moving on Brad, if you have like a fuzzy brain. Stress is going to cause you not to think as clearly as you should. Again, it's that cortisol. It's just like boy, that's not good stuff is it. It makes it hard to concentrate. It makes it so you have memory problems, anxiety, depression even. So, what we're going to recommend with this now is four seven eight breathing.
Brad: I’ve heard you say this before, Bob. I think this one is very similar to other similar breathing techniques, but it might be called something different.
Bob: We're not going to get into it a great detail. There's videos on this, but it's really a good technique. I do it in my car quite often like in the morning if I'm feeling anxious, because a lot of times when you're anxious your breathing gets real shallow and you're not breathing. I use it at night sometimes to try to help get to sleep. So, what you're doing is four, seven, eight; you're breathing in for four, you're breathing in through the nose. You want to be obviously in a relaxed position a lot of times laying down would be good. So in through the nose for four seconds, and then you're going to hold your breath for seven seconds.
Brad: As long as you don't get dizzy.
Bob: That’s right. Usually what they recommend is that you have your tongue right behind the roof of your mouth.
Brad: Right where the teeth touch the gum.
Bob: So you're breathing in for four, holding it for seven, and then you're breathing out for eight. Kind of blowing out a candle, keeping again the tongue right in the position.
Brad: So Bob, correct me if I'm wrong but this is all diaphragmatic breathing so you want the stomach to go out right and not let the chest expand and keep the abdominals tight. So we let the stomach come out and let everything relax, and you're going to get much better exchange.
Bob: You can do four or five cycles of this, Brad. What you'll find is it's going to slow your breathing down and it's good for even if you're playing golf and you're stressed out because you're hitting every bad shot. Calm things down. Breathing is really, really important. Alright, how about headache, Brad. A lot of times people will say they get tense and they get in that one position that, especially if they're working on the computer, they tense up and they get a headache. Stress can definitely be causing that. So one we're going to show you a lot of headaches that are coming from stress are what we call neck headaches. They come from the upper cervical spine and so one thing you want to try are some chin tucks.
Bob: We've showed this probably seven billion times on the channel already but these chin tucks help relax the back of the neck in the spot where it usually does result from headaches. The headaches we're talking about are the ones that come up from the back of the head, they might go around into the eye. Sometimes they're on one side only. Then the other thing you can try, Brad with that is you can go ahead and just do some massaging.
Bob: You can go ahead and put your fingers together and then pull them apart as you're going along the skull line there. Then you can also do little circles and work your way down the spine there.
Brad: This is a good way to learn your anatomy as well.
Bob: What's good about this one to do, it's easy to do, but it's also good to do before you start feeling the pain. Try to get to the pain before it starts. So, if you're starting to feel a little bit of stress or tight do that one right away. Okay, next one, you'd think this might be for the little kid, I remember my daughter, I won't say which one, but she would have missed every day of school if we would've allowed it because she had a stomach ache every day. Or a sour tummy as they call it. I had to give a speech and it was to all people that were a lot smarter than me, which is always very difficult to do. It was for a class, a master's class and I was sick. I mean, I thought I’d come down with something. So it ended up I gave this speech anyway or the presentation and it all went away. It was all just stress. It was all stress-related, so when you're stressed you produce more digestive acid, you get heartburn, you have slower emptying of the stomach. One thing you want to maybe try with that is, you could take an over-the-counter antacid if you're getting some of that. Or apparently you can drink ginger tea. All right next one, Brad, you and I both must have this, your hair falls out.
Brad: I thought there was another reason for that like maybe just getting old. I think it’s just got to be genetics for us, Bob.
Bob: My mom had this one. After a personal event in our life. she started losing some hair. Take solace in knowing that it does tend to come back after the stress levels go down. Brad and I are big believers in aerobic activity because you get that natural endorphins and aerobic activity really can decrease your stress levels. You know, fast walking, running, biking, swimming.
Brad: You need to get your heart rate up typically for at least 20 minutes is what they recommend. As you do more it gets to be relaxing, and with a lot of people that is their time, they want to expand that and it puts their mind and body back in a positive stance.
Bob: So if you're not in that greatest shape and you want to start off slow this is an elliptical machine.
Brad: These are good, particularly maybe if you have some knee issues and you're thinking I need something that's not going to stress my knees. You get your ankle movement, knees, hips are moving a little bit here. There's a resistance adjustment you can do on this.
Bob: We like this machine they're very durable. We use them in all our clinics and sometimes we take a 2x4 and put it under the front to tip it up because it's kind of a weird angle the way it’s at right now. It was designed to stand on.
Brad: For the benefit of the manufacturers, this was designed stand on. Actually this is going to give you a workout as well, and it works your balance knees and hips but it’s much more difficult.
Bob: I actually like the other way better. For most people sitting is safer. Next one Brad, is a cold that won't quit.
Brad: It drag on and on.
Bob: And you're also more likely to get a cold when you're under stress. The researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, they infected volunteers with the cold virus. The ones that had the indicators of having more stress in their life were two times more likely to get a cold. So, you can be exposed to people with a cold and not get it if you are kind of keeping your immune system up. The big one for me is to get more sleep. If you get more sleep, you're going to be able to handle a lot more stress in your life. I know it's hard because you’ve got so much to do.
Brad: And then your minds thinking a hundred miles an hour.
Bob: That’s when you do the breathing, the four seven eight. And the final one Brad, is if you've maybe been revisiting and getting acne again in your life. That's that cortisol again increasing more oils. You can use topical creams. But my overall approach to stress Brad, is one you’ve got to learn to say no. I mean you’ve got to start cutting things out of your life, and the second thing is you got to take action on things. You're going to feel better if you're not being a passive participant. If there's something like, let's say, you're in debt or something like that and take some action a step every day towards getting out of debt, and you're going to feel better.
Brad: Get rid of that stress.
Bob: Words of wisdom according to Bob.
Brad: So say no more Bob.
Bob: Alright. Thanks for watching.
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