This month is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it’s never been more important to discuss.
Finances. Safety. Health. People are worrying about these life factors more than ever, which creates a chain of unease, anger, irritability, and loss of concentration and focus. Therefore, the need for the ability to relax and release mental tension has never been greater – world events and turmoil influence a cascade of negative, fearful thoughts.
According to the United States’ National Institutes of Health (NIH), anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions, impacting people worldwide. Unabated anxiety can impair mental wellness, and also if left unaddressed, will worsen.
Stress, too, is common. One article reports that stress levels in the US are at an all-time high – with nearly 40% of Americans experiencing peak stress. In 2022, an Ipsos survey found that approximately 3 in 5 adults globally admit that stress has affected their daily lives in the past year. Also in 2022, the APA reported that 27% of US respondents said that their high stress prevented their ability to function daily. These numbers are now likely higher.
Clarifying Stress and Anxiety
Many people use the terms stress and anxiety interchangeably, and although very closely related, the APA explains that there are clear differences.
Feelings of stress and anxiety are emotional responses – stress is created by exogenous (outside) incidences while anxiety is triggered by worry, by thoughts that are persistent and become louder, more prominent, exacerbating the feeling of anxiety. Anxiety is often hallmarked by maladaptive thought patterns.
Anxiety activates the stress response, an instantaneous complex cascade, resulting in the flood of epinephrine and cortisol in the body. Known as the “fight or flight” response, the body reacts in this manner to events that are non-threatening, such as work and family pressures, or events such as a near collision.
Both stress and anxiety, often experienced together, instigate the same physiological symptoms of insomnia, difficulty focusing and concentrating, brain fog, fatigue, muscle tension, digestive disturbances and anger/irritability.
5 Ways to Improve Mental Wellness
The good news is that we can reduce the strife-inducing anxiety and control how we respond to stress, improving our mental wellness. Here are five tools to help increase mental wellness by controlling stress response and enhancing calmness.
- Mindfulness: This is a practice of fully engaging in the current moment, noticing one’s surroundings, feelings and thoughts. Practicing Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) may provide long-term mental and emotional health benefits. Experts say it can reduce stress, improve well-being, and even slow brain aging and assist in pain management and easing chronic conditions. A review of 30 studies found that MBSR reduced experiences of anxiety and stress in healthcare professionals, who frequently report burnout and excessive chronic stress.
- Meditation: Different from mindfulness, meditation is a more involved practice of singularly focusing on an object or thought to attain clarity of the mind and an emotionally stable and calm state. According to one source, “meditation is one of many roads to mindful living.” Transcendental Meditation™ was found in a meta-analysis of 16 studies of a diverse demographic found significant reduction in anxiety levels beginning as early as two weeks.
- Yoga: A combination of coordinated movement, breathing and meditative elements, yoga encourages the growth of neurons in the brain, which results in improved cognitive performance. One source explains that yoga has been found to simultaneously reduce stress hormones and increase endorphins and GABA, resulting in reduced anxiety and brighter mood.
- Walking/Exercise: It is common to hear people assert that they feel better mentally after they exercise. Like yoga, prolonged physical activity reduces cortisol and other stress-related hormones, as well as stimulates the release of endorphins. Exercise also circulates more oxygenated blood to the brain. One review concluded that physical activity may be effective to treat anxiety disorders.
- Taking Ashwagandha: Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) can also help improve mental wellness through releasing tension and reducing stress reaction.
Ashwagandha was tested on 60 college students experiencing stress who consumed 700 mg ashwagandha daily for 30 days. This resulted in increased perception of well-being through improved energy, mental clarity, and sleep quality. One review concluded that ashwagandha supplementation provided “noteworthy anti-stress and anti-anxiety activity” in participants. In another review of 12 studies found that ashwagandha supplementation significantly reduced anxiety and stress level compared to placebo in a total pool of 1,002 participants.
Prolanza™ is a root-only ashwagandha with several unique features that set it apart from other ashwagandha ingredients on the market. Prolanza™ contains a high concentration (4-5%) of 10 USP withanolides and 10 additionally identified withanolides, all of which work together synergistically to produce the clinically demonstrated health benefits of ashwagandha. This broad spectrum of bioactives is a key component of Prolanza™’s market distinction.
One human clinical study investigated the effects of a sustained-release Ashwagandha (300 mg Prolanza®) once daily for 90 days. The researchers found that the ashwagandha supplement significantly improved attention, memory and sleep quality, a reduction in stress levels and better psychological well-being.
Another characteristic of Prolanza further sets it apart from the competition – its sustained presence in the body, allowing it to work longer and at a convenient small, once-daily dose. In a pharmacokinetic study Prolanza™️ exhibited a prolonged availability in blood serum for up to 12 hours, with a 3-times longer elimination half-life, a 5-fold higher relative absorption, and an 11-fold superior relative bioavailability.
Other techniques to explore include self-care routines, such as creating a spa-like setting in your bath area, engaging in hobbies that bring you joy and fulfill wonder and creativity, performing acts of kindness such as volunteering and enjoying friends and family (social connections). These are all recognized pillars of promoting mental wellness. Supplements such as magnesium, GABA and the amino acid l-theanine are all shown in multiple studies to have a calming effect.
Conclusion
In today’s challenging times, stress cannot be prevented and many may feel as though it is compounding, piling on. Anxious feelings are also at an all-time high, provoked by the worry enabled by stress.
Lifestyle adjustments that are proven to encourage the body to reduce the effects of stress and anxiousness can improve mental well-being for the long-term. And the great news is – it gets easier and it gets even better!
