Anxiety: A Product of Oxidative Stress

 

Musings from 20th Street

I was recently given a Vital Reaction Affiliate Spotlight in their August 2018 newsletter. The issue focused on anxiety — the relationship between anxiety and oxidative stress; anxiety and heart disease, and the therapeutic role molecular hydrogen can play in lessening the dangers and severity of this conditions. The full article is below.

Anxiety: A Product of Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress occurs when the production of free radicals overrides the body’s natural antioxidant mitigation. This creates an imbalance in the body and allows oxidative stress to build up, which results in cell damage, inflammation, disease, and death.

Although it’s normal to experience the occasional anxieties of life, folks living with an anxiety disorder can experience extreme discomfort at just the thought of the most mundane occurrences. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America describe anxiety as “specific psychiatric disorders that involve extreme fear or worry, and includes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder and panic attacks, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, selective mutism, separation anxiety, and specific phobias.” It’s estimated that as many as 40 million Americans and 1 in 13 people worldwide suffer from anxiety, and for those sufferers, every day can be a struggle. What’s more unfortunate is that Psychology Today estimates that nearly 75% of sufferers never seek treatment.

Studies are supporting a clear connection between anxiety and oxidative stress, including cellular structure damage and altered/damaged proteins, which can lead to a more pronounced level of the disorder. While the physiological cause and effect still need to be determined, these studies are upholding the theory that reduced oxidative stress, via antioxidant use, may greatly relieve the severity of high anxiety symptoms.

Anxiety and Heart Disease

We’ve heard the stories. Someone thinks he/she is having a heart attack only to find out it’s just anxiety or NCCP (non-cardiac chest pain). But, how dangerous is “just” anxiety? Scientists at John Hopkins University are studying the correlation between anxiety and heart disease and feel strongly that there is a connection. Dr. Una McCann, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine states, “It’s my view and my personal clinical experience that anxiety disorders can play a major role in heart disease,” says Dr. McCann. “I believe that a really careful look at anxiety would reveal the ways it can severely impact heart disease, both as a contributing factor and as an obstacle in recovery.”

Similarly, an October 2017 article by Harvard Health Publishing states, “People with anxiety disorders have inappropriate ups and downs that can cause high blood pressure and heart rhythm disturbances. Platelets may become “stickier,” making the blood more likely to clot, increasing the odds for a heart attack.”

Like anxiety, heart disease has oxidative stress at its root. An Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences study backs up this statement. “Oxidative stress may play a crucial role in cardiac and vascular abnormalities in different types of cardiovascular diseases and that the antioxidant therapy may prove beneficial in combating these problems.”

We will touch on heart disease more in-depth in a future edition, however we want to stress the connection between anxiety and this deadly disease. Do you suffer from anxiety? If so, please keep reading.

Molecular Hydrogen: The Therapeutic Warrior

If you’re dealing with either anxiety or heart disease, you’ve probably tried everything, both prescribed and over-the-counter. But, if you haven’t tried hydrogen therapy, you could be missing out on some mind-blowing benefits.

Hydrogen is tiny — the smallest element in the universe, to be exact — and it can access the smallest portion of the cell to help mitigate damage caused by oxidative stress. While other antioxidants llike vitamin C and CoQ10 are necessary, only hydrogen can selectively target the two worst free radicals causing the most oxidative stress, the hydroxyl radical and peroxynitrite, helping contribute to homeostasis and overall good health.

Molecular hydrogen has been shown to help to suppress the feelings of anxiety and add a sense of calm and well-being. In a 2017 study by Oita University Faculty of Medicine in Japan, studies “indicate that natural reduced water may decrease anxiety-related behaviors and prevent heightened oxidative stress.” Reduced anxiety-related behavior is great news for anxiety suffers, but the prevention of even more oxidative stress is just as important. Thankfully, hydrogen offers both benefits.You can take a look at the complete Anxiety Study, by clicking HERE

Anxiety & Accelerated Aging

The Free Radical Theory of Aging holds that the damage free radicals do to our cells, particularly the oxidative stress that free radicals cause, is what causes our bodies to age. This damage occurs in many places within the cell: proteins, lipids, DNA, and mostly importantly when considering aging — telomeres. Telomeres work as protective agents to our DNA strands. The longer the telomere strands, the more cells are protected and encouraged to regenerate — the shorter the strands, the lesser the protection and regeneration leading to accelerated aging.

Regarding anxiety, studies are now showing a direct correlation between anxiety and shorter telomeres, or accelerated aging. This means that people suffering with anxiety could be caught in a vicious cycle of oxidative stress, increased anxiety symptoms, and ever-shortening telomeres, which repeats itself again and again causing significant damage and distress. See the study for more info, by clicking HERE

How do we suggest you manage both oxidative stress and anxiety? Vital Reaction Hydrogen Products. Click HERE to learn more about hydrogen’s therapeutic benefits to anxiety patients.

Respectfully submitted by:
and
*Licensed Psychologist
*Certified  Psychoanalyst
*Stone Carrier Medicine Woman, Native American Traditional Organization

Real Self|Real Power
With Lubna Khalid

Our good friend (and La Casa client) Lubna Khalid is offering a $50 discount to all Musings readers who wish to attend her Real Self|Real Power Workshop in New York, on Saturday December 8th. You can take advantage of these special $145 tickets (usual cost: $195) by clicking HERE

You’ll be joining Lubna in a full day experiential workshop, followed by a Live DJ dancing meditation, and gain the tools to live a happier and healthier life. Inspired by her experience of holistically self-healing second stage breast cancer, Lubna guides you on a journey into your deeper REAL power.

Using Core Energetics techniques, education and meditations, you will:

  • Reconnect to your inner power
  • Uncover and release held E-motions
  • Discover self-limiting beliefs and change your Attitude about your life
  • Open up to Love yourself at a whole new level 

Hydrogen is the Ultimate Medicine

Please check out THIS VIDEO from Dr. Sircus, about the energy-enhancing, brain-fueling, body-healing benefits of hydrogen.

La Casa LOVES hydrogen. H2 has been shown to have a therapeutic effect in more than 150 diseases. It is anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-aging. It protects organs, eyes, bladder, heart, skin, and virtually everywhere else in the body. Our inhalation treatment is particularly beneficial for the brain, nasal passages, respiratory tract, mouth, gums, and esophagus.

$60 for 30 minutes

The Telomere Miracle

What if everything you think you know about getting older and staying healthy is wrong?

In The Telomere Miracle, Dr. Ed Park explores the revolutionary idea that disease and aging in humans all arises from one single source: genetic errors caused by shortening of telomeres, or the sequences of DNA at the ends of our chromosomes. ​

In these pages, Dr. Park shows you how you can intervene in the aging process through practices and techniques that boost the activity of the enzyme telomerase—the body’s internal fountain of youth on a cellular level.​ 

You can purchase the book by clicking HERE

Raw Vs. Cooked?

An Explanation…

My friend Dave King recently found a great video explaining the difference between eating raw vs. cooked food in terms of the effect on the body. Dave is the perfect person to introduce us to these ideas— at one stage in his life, he was having heart issues and struggling with his weight. He went raw and looks perfect now, feels perfect, IS perfect.

You can watch the video in full by clicking HERE

Some New Photos From La Casa Puerto Rico…

 

Our stunning La Casa de Vida, in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, continues to get better and better.

You can make a reservation via Airbnb by clicking HERE.

And check out our amazing new yurt!

We’ve been welcoming guests to enjoy the gorgeous scenery, gardens, and spa treatments, for months now, and based on our many online reviews, all have had fantastic times!

“We decided to stay at La Casa’s place because of its proximity to the El Yunque rainforest—it’s practically part of it! While it turned out we had to drive out and back in order to get to El Yunque proper, it was still an amazing stay in nature. This is not a pristine condo on the ocean, but a tidy and quirky low-tech retreat in the lush forest. No AC, wifi, or other luxuries, but you’re enveloped by the sounds and smells of nature. I had the best night’s sleep of our entire trip because the Coqui (frogs), insects and occasional rain was hypnotic. If frogs keep you up at night then this may not be the best place. If they don’t keep you up then you’re not going to believe how many creatures will lull you to sleep. This is a fantastic home to get some respite at while enjoying the beautiful sweeping vistas during the day, and the natural sounds at night. We would absolutely stay here again.”                                        -Christopher

LIFESTYLE TRUMPS GENES

“Life-style trumps genes” is one of the most important lessons on health that I want to impart. My mother and sister were both dead of cancer long before they reached the age that I am currently (72). Pictures above are of me on my 72nd birthday, a few months ago. I am healthy, have no diseases, live an active lifestyle (swim, run, do yoga), and am a more than 50-year vegetarian. Yet, according to genetic predictions, I should probably be dead. Statistical estimates are that I have a 16 times higher chance of getting cancer than someone without my genetic history. Rather than dying, I thrive in my lifestyle, my age, and my infinite curiosity. 

My mother was my first inspiration/lesson about the reversibility of cancer.

I created La Casa Spa and Wellness Centers (in NYC and PR) long before holistic medicine was widely known. My mother and I spent the 1970s seeking alternative cancer therapies because she had been diagnosed with breast cancer mestaticized to terminal bone cancer. Following sound principles of holistic health, my mother was able to reverse her cancer condition entirely, moving from her wheelchair to joyfully playing tennis again.

After my father died, my mother’s cancer came roaring back with a vengeance. I understand the resurgance of my mother’s illness to be entirely related to the loss of her one-and-only-beloved.

These experiences — of my mother getting sick, my mother fully reversing terminal cancer, and my mother’s cancer coming back after the biggest emotional loss of her life — inspired me to specialize in my psychoanalytic practice to work with cancer patients, and to fulfill the need for a holistic healing center. La Casa started as a destination holistic center in the rain forest jungle  of Puerto Rico, and then in the urban jungle of NYC. I invite my readers, and all others, to partake of the restorative and profoundly cleansing therapies that have brought La Casa world-wide recognition. A personal note: there is not a single therapy offered at both La Casas that I have not incorportated into my own lifestyle.

Legal Disclaimer
Information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. No health claims for these products or therapies have been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), nor has the FDA nor any other medical authority approved these products pr therapies to diagnose, cure, or prevent disease. Since every person is unique, we highly recommend you to consult with your licensed health care practitioner about the use of products or therapies discussed here as it relates to your particular situation.