Defeat Stress, Cortisol and Ab Flab with Exercise, Mediation and Sanyx

Fat around the middle, ‘affectionately’ known as Ab Flab, is an American problem. Just take a walk around your local mall and you’ll see what I mean. Men, women, children… belly fat is ubiquitous.

In many cases, Ab Flab is the direct result of excess, chronic stress which creates high cortisol levels that scientists claim actually kill neurons in the brain and interfere with neurotransmitter hormones like dopamine and serotonin… tings that make us feel good.

Essentially, we’re stressed, we eat to ‘escape’ the pain (not because we’re hungry) and voila… Ab Flab.

Plus, when were stresses we have the tendency to eat whatever is quick and at hand – meaning fast foods and junk foods, which only make the problem worse. Even the most conscientious eater tends to abandon his or her healthy routine for a fast food fix.

Then there’s alcohol, of course. We’re stressed, the feel good hormones aren’t doing the job, so we take a drink or two or more. That’s more useless calories followed by more junk/comfort foods.

The answer isn’t one thing, it’s many. Exercise, of course, to burn calories and reduce tension. Even a 30 minute walk reduces hypertension significantly.

Exercise and meditation of any kind can help release endorphins (they help you feel better) and serotonin (which improves your mood so you’re less likely to binge eat.

It’s easy to understand how excess cortisol caused by stress can be a primary trigger for a cascade of eating behaviors that lead to Ab Flab. Help control cortisol and you could start seeing a slimmer waistline!

Again, exercise and meditation are great first steps. Stress mitigating supplements like Sanyx can be great tools for ameliorating the effects of stress via its cortisol-antagonizing action, and reducing your desire for comfort foods and, in turn, shrinking Ab Flab.

Stress, Cortisol, Obesity, Squirrels & Bigger Babies

OK, it's squirrels, not people, but the research has implications for humans.

Canadian researchers examined the way stress affects red squirrels and concludes that mother squirrels exposed to high levels of stress had bigger babies… even though the others didn’t eat any more calories.

In a related study, squirrels were fed cortisol-laced food and the results were the same.

In both cases, if there were elevated levels of cortisol in the mother’s body, the baby grew bigger and faster.

So here’s the question – could this fact explain the meteoric rise in obesity around the world? It’s theory that’s gaining in popularity – even if the jump from squirrels to humans is… well… quite a leap.

Still, this is just another link, perhaps coincidental, in understanding the relationship between cortisol and stress… stress and your health.

It couldn’t hurt expectant mothers to relax a bit more, could it? And maybe, just maybe, their children would be less likely to become obese?

It’s worth a try.