The Best Supplements for Stress

In 1936, a scientist by the name of Hans Selye coined a term that would come to be the basis of the definition of stress. Selye called it General Adaptation Syndrome – the body’s non-specific response to a demand for change. This definition described three stages of stress: the body’s initial reaction of brief alarm, the prolonged period of resistance to change, and, finally, exhaustion and death.

Stress requires multiple body systems to adapt including biochemical, psychological, physiological and gene expression changes in the organism triggered by stimuli that the brain interprets as harmful or dangerous. When the body is attempting to reach a state of equilibrium, or balance, it is known as homeostasis, and looks at the values of blood pH, blood oxygen, and body temperature. This is how the body determines if it is tired, hungry, too hot or too cold. However, stress falls under another type of balance called allostasis, which attempts to reach the same balance and equilibrium but looks at the additional values of hormones from the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal gland; catechol- amines and cytokines. Which can be affected daily, seasonally and through internal or external factors.

The modern world is fast paced, constantly changing, and filled with a plethora of external stimuli at any given time. And the implications of stress on humans is why it is critical now, more than ever, for a clearer understanding of stress and ways to reduce it.