Stress levels can vary depending on several factors—learn how to build a more resilient mind and body. 

Feelings of stress may be common, but that doesn’t make them easy to live with. Effectively managing your personal stress levels is important for your own comfort and ability to reach your goals. While stress may come and go, you always want to know how to manage it when it arrives.

In this article, we will explore how to manage stress using functional medicine practices.

Building a Resilient Mind and Body Using Functional Medicine Practices

In the modern world, stress is a natural part of life. However, that doesn’t mean that it is something you always need to struggle with. With the right strategies, you can help to reduce stress in your daily life and during particularly challenging times.

These tips and tricks can help!

Understand the Systems at Work in Your Body

All principles of functional medicine focus on the different systems at work within the body and how they interact with one another. Although we often think of stress as an emotional response, it is important to remember that it is a physical response too—and the systems in our bodies can impact how we perceive and experience stress.

More importantly, knowing how stress impacts different systems can play a key role in how it is treated.

Stress can impact your digestive system, your central nervous system, your cardiovascular system, and even your respiratory system. Knowing these systems and how they react to stress can help you better understand your needs around stress when symptoms arise.

Strive to Make a Stronger Whole

At its core, functional medicine is all about supporting individual systems to create a stronger whole. When you make a stronger whole, you empower your body to manage stress a lot more effectively. 

Making a stronger whole means building resilience in all of your systems. The different systems at work in your body have different needs, whether they come from water, diet, or exercise. 

Aiming to support your body and the systems at work behind it should be your first focus. Learn about these systems and what they need to thrive so you can give them the support they need. With time, they will become more resilient to stress.

Treat the Source of Stress

While many popular approaches to medicine center around managing systems and overall comfort, functional medicine believes in working around the source. With stress, this means understanding what is causing the stress on your mind and body—and understanding why this outcome is happening. 

Treating the source is important because it allows for long-term results and can help to alleviate symptoms all around the body. When your stress levels are high, you may experience a wide range of problems that would require several different treatments to manage. 

Identifying and addressing the source is very important with stress. It will allow you to recover and mitigate symptoms at the same time. 

Know the Physical Impacts of Stress

We often think of stress as an emotional response, but it can have very real physical responses—and for most people, it does. People experience stress in different ways, but at the end of the day, it tends to throw out our equilibrium. This can manifest in a wide range of seemingly unrelated symptoms around the body.

There are a few parts of the body that often feel stress—our stomachs, our heads, our hearts, and our lungs. 

Stomach upset is a very common side effect of stress, and high stress levels are well-known for impacting the stomach. How this reveals itself can vary. Some people end up with churning stomachs and nausea. In some cases, this may even lead to vomiting. However, other people tend to feel a more delayed reaction, sometimes revealing itself as bloating or even diarrhea. 

Headaches are another very common symptom of stress. If you’re experiencing headaches or migraines consistently, stress on the mind and body may be the cause. The severity can vary.

The human heart is a victim of stress in many cases, especially if your stress levels are contributing to high blood pressure. Most people do not feel these impacts themselves, but a doctor will see them.

Finally, there are the lungs. This one can manifest as a shortness of breath or even feeling like you can’t get enough air. Panic attacks can cause this, and it can be very unpleasant. 

Know the physical signs of stress when you experience them!

Embrace a Diet that Supports Your Body

Supporting your body’s natural systems means giving them the support they need. At the end of the day, this means making sure that you receive a good balance of vitamins, minerals, and water. 

Creating more balance in your diet can help your body and its systems to be more resilient. It means they will be less prone to the effects of stress, and you may just find that this balance helps to lower your stress levels too.

Learn About Stress Management Methods

Managing stress is a journey we all take on at some point in our lives, and it looks different for everyone you meet. Sometimes, the solution is managing mental health conditions through therapy. However, stress management can also be a much more physical process too.

Popular Stress Management Strategies Include:

• Meditation
• Therapy
• Low-impact exercises
• Cardio exercises
• Diet changes
• Avoiding certain stressors

Manage Your Stress for a Better, Healthier Life–We Can Help!

Stress can be good, and it may even help us perform–but most of us perceive it as a bad or uncomfortable experience. If you feel weighed down by the stress in your life, it may help to show your body and mind a little extra care by focusing on supporting your mind while fortifying your body. 

To learn more about how Denver functional medicine can help you manage your stress, schedule an appointment with us today!