Hi, today we're gonna talk about stress. Steve's covered the fight or flight response really well in several of his audios. So I just kind of want to build on that from the nutritional therapy point of view. So he talked about the stress response and kind of that imagining the tiger, and that's what I kind of, I like to think of quite often is that responsive feel needed to run from the tiger. So your body is going to help your oxygenation of your blood, it's going to expand your blood vessels to allow more blood to get your muscles so you can run harder and faster, it's going to dilate your pupils, so you can see more and really respond to that tiger. But at the same time, it then also shuts down things that it doesn't really need, right then, things it doesn't need to survive a tiger, things like reproduction. The reproductive system that gets put on the backburner a little bit, it reduces our digestive juices, so that food and the proteins that we talked about in the topics last week, won't get digested properly, because we don't need to be doing that we need to run from this tiger, they're very immediate threat. It also can suppress our immune system. So then pathogens can more easily establish themselves in the in the digestive tract. And it can also reduce our appetite as well. So these things are really important when we're running from this tiger, and that we need to survive right there on then that's the important thing. But the problem is that these days, stress isn't a tiger anymore. Stress is the deadline at work, stress is the 10 little stresses of just trying to get the kids out of the house in the morning. Stress can be a disruptive microbiome creating inflammation, and that is a stressor. So stress is many, many things now. And unfortunately, our bodies are still responding as if there was a tiger. And that response, in short bursts would be fine. But these constant effects have raised adrenaline and raised cortisol is really inflammatory. So that will feed into these inflammatory processes we were talking about last week. And the constant reduction of our digestive juices will feed into our digestive issues that we're talking about last week, and suppressing the immune system, you can see how that will then feed into the immune dysregulation. So it's all quite a compounding effect on top of all these other things that we've been talking about.So while stress is indirectly contributing to all these mechanisms we've been talking about, it also has a direct link to our dopamine pathway when our dopamine is converted to noradrenaline, and adrenaline. So it's almost like turning on a tap. If we're having a lot of stressful inputs. Having a really busy day, there's a massive meeting at work or child's birthday party, and we're really turning on that tap for the adrenaline and kind of pulling it all through, you could see it kind of pulls through that dopamine a bit faster. And sometimes you might notice that the following day, you're kind of feeling a little bit drained, you've pulled a lot of your resources through. So if we're struggling to make dopamine, perhaps we're not eating those precursors, we're having inflammation and it's not forging these pathways, becuse it's maybe more of a struggle to replace that dopamine at the speed our bodies might want to do so.So we can't think about stress without thinking about stimulants. Stimulants such as caffeine and drinks, but also stimulant medications such as maybe methylphenidate. And caffeine can work in two ways. It can work by increasing the pool of dopamine similarly to the methylphenidate, but it also stimulates the spots of adrenaline. So it's kind of a double whammy down that pathway of that dopamine-adrenaline pathway. Which is probably what we're looking for at the time when we're choosing to have these products, we're looking for that pick me up in the middle of the afternoon or that just greater functioning brain functioning may be preparing for some meeting or getting some deadline done. So methylphenidate works in a similar way. We've talked about it in one of the earlier audios of it blocking the dopamine reuptake. I like to think about it like a river, and Dopamine is a pool in the middle of this river. And so the out of this pool are two ways out of the pool, it's like a fork in the river. So you've got one way that you can go to recycling and some of the dopamine will kind of drift off to be recycled and reused. And the other way out of the pool is towards this noradrenaline and adrenaline that we've been talking about. So the Methylphenidate is looking to kind of dam this one of these outputs of the river is putting a little down there. So less is getting through for recycling to build up this pool and increase this pool of dopamine, which is what we're looking for when we're struggling with with symptoms of ADHD. But at a certain point that pools probably going to get too large and overflow little bit and you're going to be sending more down that adrenaline noradrenaline path, which is why you can see some of the adverse effects from the methylphenidate such as insomnia and sleep problems and loss of appetite. You can see it's linked to that increased adrenaline in the system. So both the caffeine and the methylphenidate are actually increasing our fight or flight. So all the implications that we've already been talking about with increased stress, they're having very similar mechanism on the body, which is then likely compounding all these underlying mechanisms involved in ADHD that we've been talking about over all these episodes.So what can we do to support ourselves? Well, we've already talked a lot about nutrition and ways to support these pathways. So this is even more important if we're stressed, and we're really calling on them. So we need to really focus on our nutrients such as our proteins and our vitamin C's to really support these pathways. We also can have an awareness of maybe the caffeine intake that we're having, particularly reducing it, if you feel that it's affecting you in a more negative way. One or two cups of tea or coffee a day has been shown that it can be quite positive for some people, there's a lovely polyphenols in it. So it's very much a personal balance. But I do think energy drinks are... they're just nasty. They're full of horrible chemicals. And they really shouldn't be drunk by anybody. As for stimulant medications that says methylphenidate, again, it's a very personal choice whether to use it or not. And also very personal how it affects you. So I think again, it's that awareness, similar to the caffeine to really make sure you get your dosing right for how you're feeling to get that that dopamine pool just right, very Goldilocks, not too far that we're kind of spilling over to the adrenaline and some of the side effects, but then enough so you can function and do what you need to do. Steve talked about some great CBT techniques to deal with the fight or flight, particularly if it's anxiety related. But I also think you can look at the stressors in your life, and maybe identify optional stresses, there are things that we all have to do, but there are definitely things that we take on more or we want to help, and I think some of these things you can really look from they are more optional. If it would benefit you to say no more than no can be a very powerful word. We've touched upon breathing to do with our digestion, but again, breathing and meditation, spending a few minutes a couple of times a day or however long you can find for yourself can be incredibly powerful. And lastly, Exercise. Exercise has been shown to be so so important when it comes to relieving symptoms of stress. It has huge effects all over the body. So whether it's children playing in the park, doing an exercise class, doing some Pilates, it's amazing that how much that can help then have a positive effect on our digestion our inflammation our oxidative stress levels and our microbiome. All these mechanisms that we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks.