Herbs and Nutrients for Stress Support
If you're like many of my clients, and myself — or honestly, if you're a human in this wild, modern world that we live in — you might have experienced stress before. Nowadays, we're unfortunately inundated with stressors, whether it be an email from your boss pressing you to meet a deadline, forgetting to eat lunch, rushing to catch the subway, living in an industrial town.
It's super important for our overall health and wellbeing that we're supporting ourselves in being more resilient to stress, as best we can.
Stress comes in many forms, most of them falling under one of these three umbrellas:
perceived stress (aka mental, emotional stress; and probably the most prevalent)
chemical stress
environmental stress
When the body experiences a stressor, it initiates the stress response as a means of survival.
This normal, biological process is designed to help us survive a threatening situation. When the stress response is initiated, bodily functions that are imminent for our survival are prioritized, whereas functions that aren't as important in that moment (say, reproduction and digestion), are pushed to the wayside.
While this function is great (we love this! we need this!), over time, when we're chronically experiencing this stress, and our body is constantly initiating the stress response — we can see repercussions in the systems that keep getting turned off.
Nutrients can become depleted. We can move towards burnout. Our digestive function can become impacted. Our reproductive hormones can become imbalanced. Our immune function can become dampened.
Our biology hasn't quite caught up to the fast-past, uber-stimulated lives that most of us lead.. so it's a really great idea, where possible, to support ourselves through stress as much as we can.
In this article, you're going to learn about some of the nutrients that are depleted by stress, and how you can intentionally replenish them through nutrition, and herbs.
Let's dig into it ⤵️
Nutrients Depleted by Stress
When we experience stress, our bodies burn through certain nutrients. In the case of chronic or frequent stress, this can lead to depletion of these important nutrients over time, if we aren't consciously replenishing them (while also working on actively reducing our stress!)
These are a few of the nutrients that are depleted during stress:
Nutrients that get depleted:
vitamin C
magnesium
B vitamins — especially B5 and B6
zinc
How to Replenish these Nutrients
Hands down the best way to get nutrients in, as you may have guessed, is through our food! Below you'll find a list of the nutrients that are depleted by stress, with a list of food sources that contain substantial amounts of these nutrients.
I'd recommend consuming this on a regular basis (regardless of whether you're feeling particularly stressed or not), and potentially increasing your intake of these foods, and nutrients, when you DO feel stressed out.
Vitamin C: citrus, berries, kiwi, broccoli, acerola cherry, bell peppers
Magnesium: good quality dark chocolate, almonds, pumpkin seeds, spinach, cacao, salmon, chicken, beef, sea vegetables
B vitamins (especially B5 and B6): SMASH fish (salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring), offal, beef, poultry, oats, banana, potatoes, chlorella, spirulina
Zinc: pumpkin seeds, oysters, organic red meat
While it's great to get these through whole foods when possible, sometimes in more chronic cases of stress (or if someone's really struggling to recover from stress), it can be supportive for the body to take therapeutic dosages of these nutrients in a supplement form, while working on reducing stressors and leaning on stress management practices.
You can find whole-food derived supplements of the abovementioned nutrients, and you can find specific formulas developed to help the body through stress (both including nutrients, and herbs).
As always, I recommend speaking with your practitioner about whether supplementation is the right move for you!
An Adrenal Cocktail for Stress Support
Another great way to help support your stress system (and your adrenals, which are the endocrine glands that create and secrete our stress hormones), is to enjoy an adrenal cocktail 🍸
Nope, not the type of cocktail you're thinking of, friend. Sorry 😅
The idea behind this delicious bevvy is that it delivers a good dose of minerals and nutrients that are key for adrenal function. It's a great tool to lean on in the morning (say around 10 am), and likewise in the afternoon (say 2 pm), when you start to feel that afternoon slump come on.
This cocktail is JAM packed with sodium, potassium, vitamin C, and other trace minerals. Sodium and potassium are key minerals (they're electrolytes actually), play a vital role in optimal adrenal function. Vitamin C is also important for healthy adrenal function, and in the production of hormones by the adrenals.
There are a ton of different options to make this concoction out of what you like, but here's my favourite way to enjoy it:
250 ml coconut water (try to buy coconut water that has "coconut water" as its sole ingredient; not with anything added to it)
100 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice (freshly squeezed is ideal — if not possible, buy something that again, is just "orange juice".. not from concentrate, please!) OR 1/4 tsp of acerola cherry powder
1/4 tsp of Himalayan salt
Mix it up, toss it on ice if you're into that, and enjoy!
Herbs for Stress Relief
Herbs are another great, low-barrier-to-entry way to access some additional good stuff to support your stress system and adrenals. They can provide the body with nutrients, as well as tone, nourish, and calm the nervous system. You can incorporate these as tea, an infusion, a tincture, etc.
Here are some herbs that are great for stress support:
chamomile (this calmative, and nervine tonic is great for some extra chill)
lemon balm (another calmative and nervine tonic is great for anxiety, stress and sleep support)
skullcap (helps to reduce anxiety, as it stimulates GABA production)
nettle (a nutritive herb that's really supportive for our adrenals and stress)
passionflower (a calmative and nervine tonic that helps calm the nervous system + combat stress)
milky oats (a neurotonic and adaptogenic herb that's great for stress and anxiety)
valerian (this herb is great for sleep; I'd recommend sipping on this one before bed, versus throughout the day)
How to make an Infusion 🫖
Add 1/4 cup loose herbs (or 2-3 tea bags) to a glass jar (a mason jar works great)
Pour 1-2 cups boiling water over herbs and immediately cover
Let cool, and then stick in the fridge overnight & enjoy the next day. Likewise, you can let this steep for ~30 minutes in a french press or teapot, and then enjoy
If you're going to enjoy this as tea, let your tea steep for 10-15 minutes (make sure your vessel of choice is covered!), and enjoy a mug, or three 😅 throughout your day!
While it's really important to look at your life as it relates to stress, to see where you can actively remove stressors, and get support with managing the stress that is inevitable — good nutrition and herbs can be really supportive for the body. Both post-stress, and to help the body be more resilient to the effects that stress has on us.
To recap what we covered in this article:
stress can deplete nutrients like vitamin C, B vitamins, zinc, magnesium, and minerals like sodium and potassium
support your body through stress by incorporating foods into your daily nutrition that contain these nutrients
if you're experincing (or have experienced) significant, or prolonged stress, speak with your practitioner about potential supplementation, or consider adding an adrenal cocktail to your routine (cheers!)
incorporate stress-supportive herbs on a daily basis
If you find yourself in a place where looking for support from a practitioner seems like the best next step for you to support your body through stress, and love on your nervous system — then I'd love to invite you to check out my program, The Gut Restore Method, to see if it might be a good fit for you.
The Gut Restore Method is a comprehensive 1:1 program, where I help folks restore their gut, recharge their energy, and nourish their nervous system via a root-cause, functional approach ✨
You can learn more about it here.
