Herbal Stress Relief - Does It Really Work?

Some natural health practitioners promote herbal stress relief as an effective method of relieving chronic anxiety and stress. In fact, there are many commonly used herbs clinically proven to help with stress relief. It is not surprising that each day more people around the world are choosing to relieve stress with herbal remedies, along with lifestyle changes. Herbal stress relief has been touted as a safe and natural alternative to pharmaceutical therapy, but can herbs really relieve your stress?

How Does Stress Affect Our Body?

Stress is considered by many medical researchers and epidemiologists as a modern day epidemic. The prevalence of stress is so that it exists in our work life, social life, family life and for some people it is an inescapable burden that inevitably leads to other health problems. It should be understood that slow levels of stress is a natural part of life. Everyone feels stress from time to time, and low levels of stress each day can be very constructive to daily life and keep you on your toes. It is when you feel stressed regularly, for long periods of time, that it can have a very detrimental effect on your health. Many people feel the effects of continuous physical or mental stress constantly and for long periods of time. It is impossible to calculate every negative affect stress has on our mental and physical wellbeing but stress can lead to physical and emotional fatigue, panic attacks, mental breakdown, depression, anxiety, anger, insomnia, despair, hopelessness, suicide, general unhappiness and countless other emotional problems. Physically, stress among many symptoms, can cause high blood pressure, high blood glucose levels and lower the immune response making one more susceptible to catching infectious disease. Stress along with poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyle are the three biggest preventable factors involved with chronic disease and premature death.

Why Choose Herbal Stress Relief?

Stress is often directly related to lifestyle, and thus the best way to relieve a lifestyle induced issue is to improve one’s lifestyle or integrate techniques or remedies to balance out the negative stressful affect of your lifestyle. Herbal Stress relief is a safe and natural way of dealing with stress and people have been using herbs for relaxation, tension, and to relieve symptoms of stress for hundreds of years. Unlike some pharmaceutical drugs prescribed for stress, that chemically elevate moods often causing various side effects and addiction, herbal stress relief is designed to balance out and control the internal stress causing environment. There are many herbs that have been used for centuries that clinically proven to relieve symptoms of stress without being addictive or have any side effects.

What Herbs Are Proven To Work The Best?

There are many herbs that have been used for hundreds of years to treat stress and stress related symptoms. Just to name a few, some of the most commonly used herbal formulas used in safe and effective herbal stress relief are as follows:

  • Kava (Piper Methysticum) - has been used by the traditional people from islander nations such as Figi and Venuatu for hundreds of years. This herb in clinical trials has been proven to relieve anxiety, relieve symptoms of chronic stress and combat insomnia. This herb has powerful relaxing qualities and is very usual in herbal stress relief.
  • Magnolia (Magnolia Officinalis) is a traditional chinese medicine herb that has been used for over 2 thousand years. A powerful herb with many health improving qualities it is best known for its ability to aid weight loss, its powerful anti- allergic actions and its extremely potent stress lowering abilities. In fact, Magnolia has been thought to be one of the most powerful stress relieving herbs as it has the ability to suppress the stress hormone cortisol. Many formulas are being created with Magnolia extract often combining it with other stress relieving herbs such as Phellodendron amurense. Herbal stress formulas containing both these herbs often can be as powerful in relieving stress and anxiety as common pharmaceutical drugs like valium.
  • Valerian (Valerian Officinalis) is mentioned in ancient Ayervedic literature and is one of the oldest and most commonly used herbs for stress and insomnia in the world. Valerian is generally regarded as safe and has been proven in studies to be an affective in relieving anxiety and stress and also has shown to be very effective in combating insomnia and pre menstrual tension or cramping.
  • St Johns Wort (Hypericum Perforatum) is an extremely popular herb used primarily for depression, stress and anxiety. This herb is known controversially to negatively interact with many pharmaceutical medications and is not recommended for people taking Warfarin. Digoxin and is generally not recommended for people taking most any pharmaceutical drugs. Apart from this controversy, St Johns wort is a powerful anti-depressant and is a herb that every herbal medicine practitioner uses to treat depression and very often stress.