Peter G. Hanson M.D.

Stress is not always bad for your health.  However, the choices we make in response to our stresses can be disastrous.  For example, when times are stressful, smokers smoke more, drinkers drink more, and drug abusers want more drugs.  Even within the field of medical pratice, doctors are responding to their patient’s complaints of stress with ever more prescriptions for anxiety, depression and insomnia.   Whole industries in hotels and spas have been built on the principle of throwing money at your stresses; come for a week of detox, or a day of massages and facials, and all will be well.  Assuming you don’t run out of money.

But there are many things one can do to fight stress that are free of side-effects, and fit within most budgets: 

1. Excercise; No need to join an expensive club, just get off at the wrong bus stop, or park your car farther from your work.  Take the stairs always, and if you are in a huge office tower, at least get off at the wrong floor to get a few flights in.  If you don’t have a dog, borrow one.  Or if not, just go for a couple of brisk 20 minute walks a week.  These activities are free, and they get your brain to focus on something different, which acts as a mental “recess” away from the desk.

2. Add water, don’t stir: the Romans knew the value of the spa, as a great relief between conquering European countries.  Nothing soothes like hot water after a tough day of pillaging.  In modern homes and apartments, you can reproduce the spa for free; use your bathtub.  Most people use the tub as the bottom half of the shower, but not for soaking.  To be sure, a shower is more time-efficient for washing, but it offers no more stress-relief than hosing yourself off in a phone booth.  So plug your tub, then add deep hot water, lavender salts, candle light, soft music, and a do-not-disturb sign on the door.  And turn off your phone.  Try to carve out this as a regular ritual before bedtime, and it will be like taking a trip to an expensive spa, for free!

3. Diet: In times of stress, people often reach for “comfort” foods.  Bad name, and a bad choice.  These foods are rich in white sugar, and/or white flour, and are hugely inflammatory to every cell in your body.  At a time when your body is already under attack, you should eat the best foods; organic, which means nothing more than real food.  No artificial chemicals, hormones, pesticides, etc.  Also, eat slowly.  The only way to win at a pie-eating contest is to eat FAST.  That way you can cram more food into your stomach before it realizes you are completely full.  Thin people usually eat slowly.  Hence the relative lack of obesity in the days when people sat down to a “dinner HOUR”.  Fast food usually becomes fat.  So slow down, set the table,  make the meal look presentable, and don’t eat straight out of the pizza box.  Your food will have a chance to digest properly, and your body will thank you.  Also you can throw out those antacids and constipation medications. 

Peter G. Hanson, M.D. is the author of the international bestseller “The Joy of Stress”.

For more information about his acupuncture practice in Denver visit www.peterhansonmd.com.

Insomnia has many misconceptions.  First, not everyone needs to sleep for eight consecutive hours.  Not even if we USED to sleep that long in our younger years.  As we age, the body’s need for sleep often diminishes, sometimes to a fraction of what it was during our teen-aged years.  Winston Churchill let the free world through WWII with less than 4 hours of sleep per 24 hour day.  Even that was not consecutive; he had a rigid 45 minute “cat nap” built into every mid-afternoon’s schedule, and could catch up the rest in a couple of other mid-night bits.  No amount of drugs would have improved his waking energy, and none would have given him a longer sleep, save perhaps a general anesthetic every night!  So in terms of function, Winston was simply the master of his unique sleep needs, and was NOT suffering from insomnia.

Other people may sleep 6-8 hours at night, but do so very inefficiently; these people have lots of time asleep, but get little out of it, and are still pooped the next day. 

So the criterion for insomnia is not hours of sleep, but quality of energy during the waking hours.  

Drugs are often the first option, either taken off the shelf by the patient directly, and often prescribed by doctors as a first gambit.  While this may be fine for a brief period of time, such as for a couple of days to get over jet lag or other sleepless interval, there are considerable side effects.  President Bush 1 illustrated this in Japan in the ’90’s, when he took Ambien on Air Force One as it crossed the Pacific, then played tennis with the Emporer’s son (a skilled player, coached by American pros from Peter Burwash International), then attended a state dinner.  He threw up his meal in the Japanese Prime Minister’s lap.  So much for diplomacy, and so much for the “harmless” nature of Ambien.

So let’s take a look at some of the best ways to fall asleep BEFORE needing to reach for that prescription.

1.  Consider your bedtime “sleep hygiene“.  If your bed is cluttered with work papers, then naturally you will wake up thinking about work.  Same point as trying to sleep on your work desk: wrong task and bad timing.

Action item: keep something dull to read yourself to sleep.  Crossword or sudoku, perhaps short articles in magazines.  Do not keep thriller novels at hand, and do not watch news of horrible disasters on TV just before you turn out the lights.

2.  Consider temperature:  The body lowers its temperature by as much as 5 degrees every night (say to 93 F), as it cuts down circulation to the whole body, save the vital heart/lungs/brain connection.  If you time it right, a warm bath just before bedtime can elevate the temperature by 5 degrees (say to 104 F).  As you get ready for bed, the temperature drops, and can keep on with its downward momentum to shepherd you into a good start to your sleep.

3.  Don’t just lie there!  If you wake up, and cannot get back to sleep, GET UP and DO SOMETHING!  Perhaps finish off some work or household chores, or catch up on some intended reading etc.  But don’t do it in bed!  When you have finished, and have reached the point of fatigue, then reenter the bed and see if you can fall asleep then.  At the very least, you will have accomplished something from your next day’s list of activities, which will make the stress levels better. 

4.  Don’t eat protein just before sleeping.  Remember the nightmares that a late-night pepperoni pizza can bring!  Protein hits the indolamine “wake-up” switch in the brain.  If you must eat late at night, try carbs, such as bread or pasta (whole wheat), and have your proteins at least a few hours earlier in the day. 

5. Exercise, but not just before sleeping.  A big dog kept in a small apartment will naturally need a lot of running; if denied, the dog becomes understandably anxious, high strung, and a poor sleeper.  But you should run or work off your own steam at least a couple of hours before bedtime, otherwise the body will be on an alert footing, and sleep will be difficult.

6. Night time “cocktail”: Hot milk, or melatonin can also help with sleep.

7. Consider a time-management session, if you have trouble putting your day’s agenda to bed.  Unresolved bits of the day’s “to do” list will continue to resurface through the night, and bedevil your sleep patterns.

8.  Try acupuncture, as this can often solve even the worst cases of insomnia.

For more info, visit www.peterhansonmd.com.