Words

To set the scene let’s look at an average person’s daily routine. It starts to the soundtrack of an emergency. A tick of some daily rituals and a rush to the car to spend 30+mins where cortisol, blood glucose and blood lactate all rise in unison with the traffic. You arrive at work, which involves sitting for 8+ hours and values of all those previous stress markers keep rising. If you’re aware of your health and the importance of exercise you might drive to the gym to do an hour long intense...

At the heart of healthful instruction lies simplicity.  The common areas that most (intelligent) people are in agreement with. Nutrition - Control overall intake to maintain a healthy weight, in either direction. Eat enough essential nutrients to maintain certain health parameters. Do this by emphasising a variety of minimally processed foods while limiting highly processed food and drinks, saturated fat, alcohol, drugs and tobacco.  Simple. Physical Activity - Accumulate some...

We can't discuss stress without a brief primer on the autonomic nervous system which works in tandem with the endocrine system. We have two distinct sides of the autonomic nervous system, sympathetic (fight and flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest). The interaction between our sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system prompts a co-ordinated response to perceived threats. This response includes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate. Additionally glucose and...