The Stock Market, The “Bail Out”, and The crazy political situation might be causing you some stress.  

I know I am a little stressed about the economy right now. Is this tinge of stress and anxiety I am feeling a bad thing?

New Anxiety Study

According to a 2008 study, published in the Journal, “Psychological Science”*, adults who experienced a bit more anxiety while potentially losing money in a financial game were better able than the low anxiety group to avoid financial loss in a separate game months later.

So anxiety does have a function!  

It turns out there is a region in your brain called the anterior insula, which plays the role of predicting harm (causing anxiety) and also learning how to avoid it.

Psychologists at Stanford University scanned the anterior insula of healthy adults while they anticipated losing money. Those who had a higher activation of the insula when exposed to threat, were better able to avoid financial losses in a separate game months later.

So when people tell you to “just relax” in a situation where the logical reaction might be to be a bit stressed, you can know that you are actually learning at a deep level how to not make the same mistake twice.

The Flip Side of Anxiety

On the flip side, people whose insula reactions are too high can experience a myriad of stress related diseases. This suggests there is an optimal stress and anxiety response.

According to a 2007 report put out by the Mayo clinic**, chronic stress and anxiety can cause ill health effects such as digestive difficulties that range from stomach aches to diarrhea, anxiety, irritability, insomnia and depression.

How do You Balance The Good and The Bad Effects of Stress?

One important strategy for stress reduction that the report mentions is to be able to identify the cause of stress and determine whether it is external or internal.

Then concentrate on dealing with stressors that can be changed and let go of stressors where you have no control.

This is a big point and one that is missed with a lot of the stress and anxiety programs and CDs I see advertised on the internet. There are a myriad of programs that teach you how to relax in the moment. CDs with relaxing music, guided imagery, etc…

These are great and better than nothing.  However, they don’t deal with the core issues of effectively managing stress and anxiety.

The fact is (just look at the beginning of this post) that stress in and of itself is a healthy response.  It is how you deal with it that is the difference between you excelling or becoming a stress case!

Effective stress management requires that you deal with stressors head on and do not avoid these situations.  This is what causes stress to compound - leading to general anxiety disorders and bad health effects.

Hypnosis and Stress

Hypnosis has a long history as an effective stress reduction technique, but when we were looking for a therapist to create a program for us, we wanted to ensure that the sessions did not just teach you how to relax, but that they also taught effective stress management behavior at a deep level.

After a long process, we found Dr. Randy Gilchrist who is both an expert in addictions and stress management, with and without hypnosis.  What this means is that Dr. Gilchrist has years of experience helping people develop effective stress management strategies from all walks of life.

Based on the feedback we have been getting, the program is helping people go beyond just coping with stress.  It is helping people confront stressful situations and learning to actually use stress as motivation.

This change not only makes a person more effective in just about everything they do, it has huge health benefits.

A Special Offer

Anyway - because of the economy we figure this is a good time for you to experience the program. 

And for the next seven days, we are going to give you a coupon where you can get 20% off. 

Just enter the coupon code, “stress” (no quotes) after you click to cart.  Then you can choose the installment option and start for less than $19.

http://www.hypnosisnetwork.com/hypnosis/stress_anxiety.php

I hope you have enjoyed the information and please do comment.

*Association for Psychological Science (2008, April 5). A Little Anxiety Is Sometimes A Good Thing, Study Shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved

**Mayo Clinic (2007, October 8). Manage Long-Term Stress To Avoid Ill Health Effects.

SPLENDA IS SCARY STUFF

A new  study done at Duke University and published this past week in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A has some frightening news about Splenda (sucralose).

According to the study, the use of Splenda:

• Reduces the amount of good bacteria in the intestines by 50%.
• Increases the pH level in the intestines.
• Contributes to increases in body weight.
• And affects the P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in the body in such a way that crucial health-related drugs could be rejected.

The study, authored by Drs. Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, Eman M. El-Masry, Ali A. Abdel-Rahman, Roger E. McLendon and Susan S. Schiffman, was conducted using male rats over a period of twelve weeks.

You have probably heard of some downsides to artificial sweetners, especially Nutrasweet.  A lot of the complaints had some merit but were not conclusive, but this one seems especially damning and outright scary!

There’s a lot of talk about lack of oversight in banking. Looks like the FDA needs some help big time.

Source: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, Volume 71, Issue 21 January 2008 , pages 1415 - 1429.

An update:  I have received emails from people saying that this study was sponsored by the sugar lobby and that we should the results above with a “grain of salt” (sorry to mix small white stuff).  So I had to do some digging.

According to an article in the New York Times:

The study was in fact funded by the Sugar Lobby.  It turns out that there is a serious feud going on between these two lobbies.  Splenda was sued by the Sugar Lobby back in 2004 for saying,

“made like sugar, so it tastes like sugar.”

They have sinced changed the tagline.  Anyway, getting back to the main issue, one has to decide if scientists at Duke University would actually create false data for the Sugar Lobby.

Wierder things have happened, but this would be serious stuff.  One of the lead researchers of the study, Dr. Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, said Monday that the Sugar Association had “no input” into the study’s findings and conclusions.

My recommendation - stay away from sugar and sucralose, and while you are at it stay away from NutraSweet too!

Almost all of the most recent research (even excluding the research above) indicates that they cause weight gain at the very least.  Our weight loss psychologist says that it takes four days of staying away from these substances to end the cravings.

If you need help with weight loss, you can download Dr. Temes’ free ebook here:

Scientific Weight Loss Secrets Revealed

It is a great read.