Unfortunately, anxiety affects so many of us today. Kids and adolescents face a lot of anxiety and social anxieties in school. Adults face a lot of anxiety with running kids around, work, and life stressors. The pace of the world moves fast and sometimes our bodies can’t adapt as well as we’d like.
Because the stress of life isn’t going anywhere, fortunately, there are ways to make your body more adaptable to the stress you face so you don’t feel those anxious feelings.
There are 3 things I have my patients do to lower their anxiety: Lower inflammation in the body, heal and seal your gut, and optimize how your brain is functioning.
The first thing I check is if the patient has something called Infant (Primitive) Reflexes. These are reflexes we have as an infant, they help build our brain for the first 6 months of life, and then they should mature and go away if everything is developing as it should. The problem is, so many people do NOT get rid of these reflexes. When these reflexes stick around, it keeps the brain and nerve system in a low-grade, subconscious, stress response. This is also known as a fight or flight response. This makes our physiology feel as if we are threatened even when we are not, leading to feelings of anxiousness. Checking for these Infant Reflexes is the first thing I check on ALL my patients because of the devastating effects they have on the body and brain. The good news? They are easy to get rid of and it usually takes about 2 months time. This is our main focus in the office.
Other things you can do at home is eating a low-inflammatory diet. The easiest way I can explain this is eating REAL foods. Stop with anything that is processed because they create an enormous amount of inflammation in the brain and body and have large impacts on anxiety. Another thing I recommend is a high-quality omega 3. Preferably one that has twice as much DHA as EPA. Adults should be getting at least 2,500mg of DHA/day! I recommend Nordic Naturals DHA Xtra and it runs around $30/bottle.
If you have ANY questions on how to go about addressing your anxiety, whether that is through things you can do at home or getting assessed for primitive reflexes, I’d be more than happy to discuss that with you by calling our office at 402.504.4676.
All the best
Dr. Stephen.
