Discover Dr. Sam Singh's Top Stress-Relieving Secrets

Hello friends, I'm going to talk about multiple ways of controlling the stress outside the typical chill pill approach. Chill pill means taking a medicine to calm your stress down. So what is the holistic or integrative way of looking at managing stress through changes in your lifestyle and eating habits? Let's take a look. Number 1: Eating habits. Eating right starts with a simple step— stick to regular meal times. If you are not a breakfast person, make sure at least to eat by 10 AM. When it comes to stress, your glucose levels throughout the day affect your stress hormones. So try to avoid this up and down of your sugar. So you eat protein in every meal, a healthy fat, a balanced carbohydrate, and avoid simple carbohydrates like white breads, pastas, sugar. And you rather focus on complex carbohydrates like brown rice, black rice, quinoa, whole grains, or sweet potatoes. That's where these prolonged fasting diets miserably fail because they forget to address this very important point in stress management, which is maintaining stable blood sugar levels throughout the day. The fluctuation of your sugar levels can do more harm than good to you. You might need small frequent meals rather than one or two large meals to keep your glucose levels steady. When you eat, just eat. Turn off your phones and TVs, disconnect from distractions and connect with your food. There's a famous old saying, drink your food and eat your liquids. It means chew your food thoroughly, at least 30 times each bite, instead of swallowing it quickly. Don't just be an alligator and swallow food. Chew it. It breaks food better, it excretes your gut enzymes better, it gives good signaling to your microbiome in the gut and helps with big glucose spikes that happens after the meals. Increase your fiber intake, minimum 35 grams in a day, and trust me, it's not a lot. Back in the day, we used to eat more more than 100 grams of fiber a day. Number 2: Supplements. Good nutrition is your lifeline. When you're stressed, your body needs more, not less. It needs better nutrition than ever. I'm not a fan of popping supplements like candies, but there are some areas where you need supplemental support if you are not able to provide it with a well-balanced diet. So there are 6 key micronutrients which you absolutely need when you are tackling stress: vitamin D, vitamin C, magnesium, B complex vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and zinc. They play a very important role in strengthening and supporting your nervous system and increasing your resilience towards the stress. Number 3, sleep. It's no-brainer when it comes to stress management. Sleep is, of course, you know, the number one thing which comes on our mind. So sleep helps you to recover. If you are not sleeping enough, if you are sleeping less than 6 hours, by itself it raise your stress hormones. If you sleep less than 6 hours for 7 consecutive nights, studies have shown that your cortisol levels go up by 50 to 80%. I'm sorry, I know it's not good news for people who like to party on the weekends. Number 4, healthy gut. You might be thinking, why is this guy talking about the gut when we are talking about stress, which means brain and mind? You know, the antidepressants or the anxiety medicines, they raise your serotonin level in the brain, and you make 90% of your serotonin in the gut. Only 10% is made in the brain. So yes, Gut is important. We have to talk about gut health when we talk about mental health. So whatever information flows from your brain to your gut, there is 10 times information that flows from your gut to your brain. Isn't that amazing? It's called gut-brain axis. So how do you keep your gut healthy? By eating healthy and by not eating unhealthy and by keeping your microbiome happy. Simple. Now, what is a microbiome? So a microbiome is the non-human life living within and on us. Now we are talking about gut health, so we are talking about the microbiome which is living in our gut within us, which means the bacteria, parasites, fungi, viruses. Even if it sounds like yikes, but believe it or not, we cannot even survive without a healthy microbiome. So how to keep this microbiome happy? Feed them a lot of fiber. Eat different types of fruits and vegetables. Increase food diversity. Avoid unnecessary antibiotics. Absolutely avoid sugar, processed food, artificial sweeteners. Before the next point, friends, a big shout out to all the subscribers. Thank you very much. It's a new channel. Thank you for all the support. Now many of you are watching the videos but not liking or showing your love. So please like, share, comment, subscribe. It helps with the YouTube algorithm. Otherwise all this great stuff we are sharing together, it will just stay hidden. Actually, all your love helps with the YouTube algorithm. and I do need your help and support to push it out. And if you don't like my stuff, please leave your comments so I can improve on that. Coming on to 5th point, mindset. Very important point when you talk about stress. You need to understand this thing. It starts here in the brain. It doesn't stay here in the brain. It goes to your whole body eventually. Another interesting point, the bad stress response, which makes you different from the stress response shown by a deer in the wild. Remember the deer who was getting chased by a tiger? And the hormones went high. But the moment the chase was over, the deer was back to grazing grass like nothing happened. So that deer doesn't have any lingering stress hormones. Why? Because that stress in him was at the level of body. But with us, stress stays in the mind. Now this is bad. Another example, when you go to gym, you give yourself a good stress. You give stress to your body, and this is a good stress. It actually helps you. It doesn't damage you. So keep things below this. I know it's easier said than done, but that's why we are here. Don't worry, we got it. We'll walk through it. A lot of stuff is on the way. Stick with me. All right, moving on. Meditation helps. What kind of meditation? Any type, whatever can get you started. There are tons of apps now, you can try them out. Mindfulness, focusing on your breath. Focusing on your breath is amazing. Uh, it's a basic but very profound meditation exercise. You sit silent with your back erect, and focus on your breath with your eyes closed. Amazing practice. Start somewhere. You will learn on the way and you will discover your own path, but start somewhere. Positive self-talk helps strengthen your mind. It's very important not to give yourself negative talk, putting you down, guilt, regret, self-doubt. They will drain you and make your mind weaker. Rather than being judgmental towards your actions or outcomes, be supportive and give yourself positive talk all the time. This is non-negotiable. No negative Self-talk and then journaling. It's true we are tribal, community-based animals in our DNA, but modern societies have made us very isolated. If you have a good friend or family circle, spend time with them, that's great. But if your circle is small, journaling helps. You need to understand the core of the problem. We are social animals. We need to talk and have an exchange of conversations, and emotions need to flow out. When this doesn't happen, they get trapped inside our complex brain and take the form of stress. If you don't have good friends to talk to, start journaling. Become your own friend. Talk to yourself on paper. Write it out. Trust me on this. This will become a game changer for you if you're not doing it already. I guarantee you that. Be silly. Laughter is the best medicine. Smile, laugh, do activities which gives you pleasure. Involve in your hobbies. Go out in nature. Sing, paint, draw, whatever you like. Take a break from continuous consumption of social media, including YouTube, except my channel. Just kidding. If you're a religious person, praying helps. So a lot of stuff. At the end of the day, we are social beings, so respect that. Number 6: Relaxation. Now, if you are someone who's always on the go, you need to take a break and relax at times. No wonder why you feel better when you go on a vacation. But you need to understand what different happens during a vacation which makes you fresh. It's just taking a break. If you learn how to do that in your daily life, you don't even need a vacation to feel that way. So what can you do? So all this stuff we are talking about, changing the mindset, it can really put you in a right spot. But there are few things you can do to plug into that relaxation mode. Massage. If you don't have money and time to go to a massage parlor, give an oil massage to yourself. Hot tub bath, sauna, aromatherapy. Inhaling scents of essential oils can help. The best essential oils known for stress management are lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, and jasmine. Learn how to breathe. This is very strong plugin to activate your relaxation response and activate your parasympathetic system. Abdominal breathing, alternate nostril breathing, or keeping your exhales longer than your inhales. I spoke about all that in my other video. The link is here. Another helpful breathing practice is 4-7-8 breathing. So you inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, then you hold your breath for 7 seconds, and then you exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds. You do 4 cycles at a time for 2 or 3 times a day. Number 7, and now we have reached our final point: exercise. It's a game changer for your mood, boosting those feel-good endorphins, getting your blood flowing, and even helping you sleep better. It knocks down anxiety and depression too. At least 15 to 30 minutes a day, at least 3 times a week, can truly help you dial down those stress hormones. And that's it for now. Signing off, your host, Dr. Sam Singh. Stay healthy, stay informed, and remember, the peak of your health is your true wealth.