Start eating prebiotics to reduce stress levels
When we are under pressure, stressed or anxious our bodies react, for some people this means they develop tension in the neck & shoulders, for others they get butterflies in their stomach or their digestive system becomes more sensitive.
Stress messes with your they bacteria in your gut and creates a viscous circle that makes stress and anxiety attacks even worse. While we are all familiar with probiotics or good bacteria which you can buy in tablet form in health food shops or are added to yogurts. What you may be less familiar with are prebiotics which are the “food” for the good bacteria in your gut. Prebiotics can undo the impact stress has on the gut. They are found in plant fibers like
- raw chicory root
- raw Jerusalem artichoke
- raw garlic
- raw leeks
- raw asparagus
- raw and cooked onions
Researches from the University of Colorado discovered eating prebiotics has a protective effect and can help to safeguard good bacteria in your gut during times of stress. They also discovered eating prebiotics can even help reestablish good sleeping patterns.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28119579
Related Posts

Is it time to talk about sleep?
While it may not seem the most obvious time of year to start talking about sleep, we can often forget when the sun is out our natural instinct is to go out and play sport or socialise. In addition summer is often a time when things naturally slow down in the business world so we can be tempted to pack in as many things as possible before it gets busy at work. This means at this time of year we can often find out ourselves feeling depleted and short on sleep due to hot summer nights which are not condusive to a good nights sleep. I know I have blogged in the past about sleep, here are my tips for a good nights sleep . I have talked in the past about how we feel good if we get a good nights sleep but the medical profession is still unclear about why we need sleep. What is clear is that sleep is a huge clear out of thoughts and feelings that accumulated during the day - and this is critical to our health. The medical profession has many theories about why we dream or need to dream - what is agreed on is that parts of our brains are very active when we dream and that dreaming improves our ability to solve problems and be creative. The key question about sleep is often how much sleep do I need. I don't focus on a figure but go by how my body feels. That means sometimes it needs more sleep and sometimes less sleep. What I focus on is the quality of sleep which I judge by how refreshed I feel in the morning.

Can Yoga help if you have fibromyalgia?
We all struggle to get our heads around things from time to time. For me I find it hard to imagine living with Fibromyalgia, the constant pain, which moves around the body and the tiredness. In addition to the physical symptoms there is the additional mental strain of living with a chronic condition that is has no visible signs and can change from day to day. A pilot study recruited 22 women who had been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia to participate in a 75 minute yoga class twice weekly for eight weeks. Questionnaires were used to track pain, anxiety and depression they were completed pre, mid and post intervention. In addition salivary cortisol samples were taken three times a day pre and post intervention. The results indicate that a "yoga intervention" may
- Reduce pain
- Reduce catastrophising
- Increase acceptance
- Increase mindfulness
- Alter total cortisol levels


