Understanding the Ramifications of Stress and How It Affects Your Overall Health.

In today's episode I discussed the ramifications of stress.  Studies have shown that 40% of deaths and 70% of diseases in the United States are related, in whole or in part , to stress (A.Mokdad et.Al., "Actural Causes of Death in the United States, 2000, "Journal of the American Medical Association 2004)."  Dr. Huber mentioned in the previous episode a list of illness related to chronic stress includes heart disease, diabetes, cancer, headaches, ulcers, lower back pain, depression and the common cold.  The increases in rates of suicide, homicide, hate crimes, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence across the United States are additional symptoms of a nation under stress (source: "Health the Basics", by Rebecca Donatelle).

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Soaring in Health and Wellness is brought to you by Mountaineer Chiropractic, your soft tissue specialist, located at 2108 Camden Avenue, Suite D, Parkersburg, West Virginia. For more information, go online to MountaineerCairo.com. If you'd like to be a sponsor or help support Soaring in Health and Wellness Podcasts, please go online to Eaglespace Ministries.org and select Patron page in the top menu bar. Hello, and thank you for listening to Soaring in Health and Wellness with Dr. Steve Wells. Dr. Wells is a chiropractic physician with a passion to help individuals reach new levels in health and wellness. He has been involved in the health and wellness field for over 30 years. Dr. Wells received his Bachelor of Science degree from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with an emphasis in health and exercise science. He received his second Bachelor of Science degree in general sciences along with his Doctor of Chiropractic degree with honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Soaring in Health and Wellness is a tool to help educate individuals reach new levels in health and wellness and a passion to live with a sense of purpose and vitality. Dr. Wells and his guests, ranging from doctors from all areas of healthcare, educators, nurses, personal trainers, counselors, and pastors, will discuss and inform you on how to improve all dimensions of wellness from a biblical worldview perspective with one goal in mind: seeing you soar towards optimal health and wellness. If you're ready, let's get started with today's program with your host, Dr. Steve Wells.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Welcome to another edition of Sorting in Health and Wellness. Before we get started on today's program, I want to kind of go over our sources, the sources that I use for our podcast, and I want to give credit where credit is due. The sources that I use a lot of is Health the Basics by Rebecca Dontelli, Connect Core Concepts and Health by Ensel Roth and Ensel, and Total Fitness and Wellness by Powers Dodd and Jackson. In our previous episode, we were speaking with Dr. Hubert from War Roberts University on the topic of stress. There is so much information out there on stress. You can Google it, you can find several books on stress and its effects on our physical health, psychological health, intellectual health, stress management. But bottom line is stress affects all of our lives, whether it be good stress, which Dr. Fritz Hubert described as eustress, or distress, which is bad stress. And again, the statistics show that 40% of deaths in the United States are related wholly or in part to stress. Stress affects our lives in three different areas, which include physical, intellectual, and psychological. Donatelli notes that stress is often described as a disease of prolonged arousal that leads to a cascade of negative health effects. The longer you are chronically stressed, the more likely you will be having negative health effects. She continues to note that nearly all body systems become potential targets and the long-term effects may be devastating. She continues to explain that you may not even notice how stressed you are until your body starts sending you signals. And these signals that the body sends could be very, very many, such as tension headaches, migraine headaches, dizziness, oily skin, skin blemishes, rashes, blushing, dry mouth, jaw pain, grinding teeth, backache, neck stiffness, muscle cramps, fatigue, tightness in your chest, hyperventilation, heart pounding, heart palpitations, stomach ache, acid stomach, burping, nausea, indigestion, stomach butterflies, diarrhea, gassiness, constipation, increased urge to urinate, cold hands, sweaty hands and feet, and hand tremors. Those are just a few of the symptoms that our body gives us when we're under stress. The higher the levels of stress you experience, the greater the likelihood of damage to your physical health. And this is by Pethoit's Stress and Health Major Findings and Policy Implication from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

unknown 3:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

As I mentioned before, studies have shown that 40% of deaths and 70% of diseases in the United States are related in whole or in part to stress. And again, this is by A. Makadad from the actual causes of death in the United States from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Again, as we mentioned before in a previous podcast, there we go, with Dr. Huber, the list of illnesses related to chronic stress include heart disease, diabetes, cancer, headaches, ulcers, low back pain, depression, and common cold. And she continues to note, as far as Donatelli notes, the increase in rates of suicide, homicide, hate crimes, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence across the United States are additional symptoms of a nation under stress. There's very few as far as things that happen as far as good parts of being under good stress, use stress, very negative as far as being under bad stress. If we look at the stress and cardiovascular disease in a whole, and this is from Jones, Steedon, Jens, a detailed assessment of the hemodynamic response of psychological stress using real-time MRI from the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Don Talia notes the most studied and documented health consequence of unresolved stress is cardiovascular disease. The research on this topic demonstrates that impact of chronic stress on heart rate, blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. This inner heart study consists of approximately 30,000 participants in 52 countries, identified stress as one of the key modifiable risk factors for heart attack. Those are things that we can control, modifiable. We talked about in our earlier podcasts way back in the beginning. The increased risk of cardiovascular disease from chronic stress has been linked to increased arterial plaque buildup due to elevated cholesterol, hardening of the arteries, alterations in heart rhythm, increased and fluctuating blood pressures, and difficulties in cardiovascular responsiveness due to all the above. And that's from Hilmert and Nextka. Spell that K V A-S-N-I-C-E-K-A. And that's from the blood pressure and emotional responses to stress, perspectives on cardiovascular reactivity from the Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2010. In the past two decades, research into the relation between stress and CBD contributors has shown a direct link between the incidence and progression of cardiovascular disease and structure, such as job strain, caregiving, bereavement, and natural disasters. If we look at stress and diabetes, dietalian notes, controlling stress levels is critical for preventing weight gain and other risk factors for type 2 diabetes, as well as for successful short and long-term diabetes management. She continues to note people under lots of stress often don't get enough sleep, don't eat well, and may drink or take other drugs to help get them through a stressful time. All of these behaviors can alter blood sugar levels and promote development of diabetes. If we look at digestive issues related to stress, when it comes to digestive disorders, the causes are often unknown when it comes to the physical conditions. However, it is believed that an underlying illness, pathogen, injury, or inflammation is already present when stress triggers nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and gut pain, or diarrhea. Although stress doesn't directly cause these symptoms, it is clearly related and may actually make your risk of having symptoms even worse. And this was from the National Digestive Disease Information Clearing House, Irritable Bowel Syndrome 2010. Donatelli gives an example that people with depression or anxiety are those who feel tense, angry, or overwhelmed are more susceptible to irritable bowel syndrome, probably because stress stimulates colon spasms via the nervous system. Before I continue, I want to kind of give you a personal story how stress can actually affect an individual who is perfectly healthy. And I had spoken to my wife, and she gave me permission to uh share this with you all. Hopefully, if someone's out there can benefit or learn from this and so forth. My wife, before I graduated, or when I graduated from chiropractic school, we basically I was in the process of starting practice. I got married a year left. Actually, I got married my second year in chiropractic school from Palmer Palmer College Chiropractic. And the second year I got married. The year after that, we had our first son, Caleb, and I graduated in 1997. And I was practicing within with the within the office locally, and I basically I was kind of let go because I wasn't kind of keeping patients long enough. But anyway, that that's another story in itself. But anyway, my wife was responsible a lot for a lot of the stresses at home. She was working full-time with an energy company. I will not name the name of the company, but you would all be familiar with them. She was responsible for our health insurance. We had three children, Caleb, Joshua, and Destiny. She was responsible for a lot of the bills at home, having a full-time job. I was basically opening up my chiropractic practice. We use funds from her savings to help buy some of the equipment for our practice. So you can see a lot of the stress that my wife is under during this time. So forth. My wife is a very strong-willed individual. She was very independent. She wasn't dependent upon anybody. If things needed to get done, she would do them. She was raised that way, as far as when she was younger, she's just very independent. My wife, the story goes pretty much as far as my wife was basically reading meters, and she stepped off a step and she injured and tore her anterior cruciate limit completely. She needed surgery, but the company that she worked for pretty much didn't feel like that was their responsibility. My wife basically disagreed. She had fought this and they reversed the decision. And therefore they found that the company was responsible for her work-related injury. But the thing is, what they basically come out after is basically they said it would probably be in the best interest if they would basically depart ways and so forth. Well, my wife, knowing that she was the full responsibility as forehead, basically as far as finances coming through her, her health, our health insurance came through that for that business. So for the next six years, they pretty much made her life a living hell. As again, I say a living hell. Every day, pretty much, she would be basically be called into an office where they would browbeat her, harass her, and so forth, day after day after day after day. This is what she went through for six years. It got to a point where my wife would have basically severe stomach cramps, stomach pain, to the point where she was doubled over because of the stress so forth that was happening upon her. And to the point where she would be going to the emergency room probably three or four times within this period, the fact is, my wife was never sick, she was always healthy, and she took care of herself. But all the stress that she took upon and that was given to her and that they were afflicting on her basically started to take a toll on her body physically. And we would basically spend money on getting tests, expensive tests, CAT scans, MRI, colonoscopies, to find out what was causing this abdominal pain or the cramping she was incurring. And every test came back negative. It was all stress related. It got to the point where her OBGYN and her family doctor had continued to recommend that she leave her place of employment because it was destroying her health. So forth. And like I said, totally healthy until the stress kind of got her where it was causing severe stomach ache, so forth, and abdominal pain. Anyway, so that's a little bit about as far as the stress that's affected my wife when we kind of lived through that. And she and she was kind of raising her family and her children, our children, would see her basically, you know, break down, things like that. But anyway, so I I just we'll just move on. But anyway, so if we kind of look at stress and impaired immunity, psychoneuroimmunology, also known as PI, is a growing area of scientific investigation that analyzes the relationship between the mind's response to stress and the immune system's ability to function effectively. Several recent reviews of research linking stress to adverse health consequences suggest that too much stress over a long period can negatively affect various aspects of the cellular immune response. And this is from D. Galen, The Adverse Effects of Psychological Stress on Immunoregulatory Balance, Immunology and Allergy Clinics of North America 2010. The question we may ask is how long do you have to be stressed to suffer from impaired immunity? If you look at the work from Miller, Rodler Cole article Chronic Interpersonal Stress Predicts Activation of Pro of Anti-Iflammatory Signaling Six Months Later, and this is in the Psychosomatic Medicine 2009. A look at the research yields evidence of impaired immunity from the initial stress to as long as six months later following acute stressors such as arguments, public speaking, and academic examinations. More prolonged stressors such as the loss of a spouse, exposure to a natural disaster, caregiving, living with a handicap, and unemployment also have been shown to impair the natural immune response among various populations over time. And this was from Pethoid's Stress and Health, Major Findings and Policy Implications, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior 2010. Donatelli notes that the evidence is compelling that stress immune system function are linked. Exposures to academic stressors and self-reported stress are associated with increased upper respiratory tract infection among students. Another topic that is affected by stress is the sexual drive or libido, libido, however you pronounce it, so like that. Several sources note that our sexual drive or libido can be influenced by several psychological and physiological factors, such as time pressures, concerns over appearance, anxiety over performance, exhaustion from work, lack of sleep, and the multitude demands of classes and social life can wreak havoc on the libidos of both men and women. For example, if you look at men, the loss of the sexual drive or inhibited sexual desire is a major source of sexual dysfunction and marriages, affecting between 15 to 16 percent of men. Although the cause are complex, I re-stress that stress, again, is clearly a factor. They continue to explain that high stress levels can lead to declines in hormone projection and low levels of testosterone. If you look at women, they note fluctuating reproductive hormones in irregular menstrual cycles can cause major emotional swings. Stress can disrupt virtually all of the reproductive hormones, causing changes in your mood, increased anxiety, and other emotional issues. The stress and hormonal roller coaster can become a vicious cycle, making women particularly vulnerable to stress-related changes in libido. When women are physically and emotionally exhausted or suffering from stress-related insomnia, stress strive is likely to wane. And this is from Emerson, the review of low libido or libido in women from the International Journal of STD and AIDS. Have you ever been around and you've seen people that kind of had that look of stress? You know, what so what's the look of stress? Well, I tell you what, Donna Telley, again, again, has this great article, and they're basically looking at looks of stress. And she knows if you kind of look at an individual and you see dark circles under the eyes, you see a pained expression, you see a furrowed brow, and the deep lines along a downturned mouth. She explains these relate to little sleep, too much worry, and too much to do and no end in sight scenario. She continues to note that prolonged stress poses a very real threat to our appearance that can't simply be erased with a good night's sleep. DK Haw Flabman, stress and hair loss, are they related from the Mayo Clinic? Notes that it is true that too much stress can lead to thinning hair and even baldness, which kind of reminds me, I got a little bald spot in the back of my head. And I think it's maybe a little data through the stress, a little bit of stress, so forth. I always kind of blamed on my wife, but it's really not my wife. It's just, I guess it's just part of stress and so forth. So, in men and women, the most common types of stress-induced hair loss is telogen effluvium, often seen in individuals who have suffered a death in the family, had a difficult pregnancy, or experienced severe weight loss. This condition pushes colonies of hair into a resting phase. And over time, within a few months, simply washing or combing the hair may cause it, may cause clumps of it to fall out. Another similar stress-related condition known as allopatia ariata occurs when stress triggers white blood cells to attack and destroy hair follicles, usually in patches. If stress is prolonged, varied degrees of boldness occur. The good news, and again, I recommend and I say the good news is that for both conditions, you can reverse the hair loss process with sleep, stress management, and sound nutrition. It can also affect weight gain and maintaining it. If we look at some other symptoms that could be caused by stress, we can look, let's uh pull up headaches. In my office, we treat a lot of patients with headaches. We treat a lot of patients with tension headaches, migraine headaches, occipital headaches, any type of headaches, we basically seem to get some good results in our office. And we do a lot of soft tissue as well as the chiropractic adjustments so forth seem to help with headaches. If we look at headaches in general, NSL, Roth, and Insel note that 45 million Americans suffer from chronic recurrent headaches. They continue to note that headaches come in various types, but are often grouped into following three categories. Again, tension headaches, migraine headaches, and cluster headaches. We'll review the difference of these headaches. If you look at tension headaches, that occurs approximately out of 90% of all headaches are tension headaches. Again, 90% of all headaches are tension headaches. The characterization of a tension headache is a dull, steady pain, usually affects both sides of the head. Feels like a band of pressure is tightened around the head. Pain may extend to the neck, upper shoulders. All right. You got acute tension headaches, which can last from hours to days. You got chronic tension headaches, which can occur almost daily for months or even years. And the causes of these headaches, okay, is basically caused by ineffective stress management skills, poor posture, and immobility are the leading causes of these types of headaches. Tension headaches can sometimes be avoided and relieved with treatment, consisting of mindful skills, over-the-counter painkillers, as I mentioned before, chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy such as massage, active release, grassing techniques seem to really do a great job with these headaches. Acupuncture, relaxation, hot or cold showers, and rest. All right, so that's tension headaches. If we look at migraine headaches, migraine headaches basically progress through a series of stages and lasting from several minutes to several days. Symptoms with a migraine can include throbbing pain that starts on one side of the head and may spread, heightened sensitivity to light, visual disturbances such as flashing lights or temporary blindness, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. I can proudly say that I never experienced a migraine headache. I have several patients that have experienced migraine headache, but thank God I never experienced that. Women are more than twice as likely as men to suffer from migraine headaches. Some of the potential Trigger factors that include that can cause a migraine headache could be menstruation, stress, fatigue, atmospheric changes, bright light, specific sounds or odors, and certain foods. I have a patient, won't mention any names because of HIPAA, but I have a patient that, oh my gosh, when the atmospheric pressure changes, he can tell probably what's going to happen probably a day or six hours to 12 hours before it even happens, what's going to happen that day based on the way his body responds to it. Just an example, he came in for treatment one day. I looked outside, it was perfectly clear skies, not a cloud in the skies. And he said, we are getting ready to have a severe storm. Again, as I pointed out to him as he walked in, there's no clouds in the sky. It is clear, sunny. And oh my gosh, you would not believe it. In the afternoon, we had the severe thunderstorm. And I'm thinking, you know what? If I want to know what the weather's gonna be like, I should probably call him and let him know. Or he can call me and let me know what the pressure, what I need to wear, and so forth. But it's just amazing the way his body responds to that. The frequency of attacks for migraines could range from a few in a lifetime to several per week. Treatment can help reduce the frequency, the severity, and duration of the migraines. If we look at cluster headaches, these are extremely severe headaches that cause intense pain in and around one eye. They occur in clusters of one to three headaches each day over a period of weeks to months, alternating with periods of remission in which there's no headaches occur. More than twice as many men than women suffer from cluster headaches, whereas we have mentioned before when migraine headaches, women are more than twice as likely as men, whereas cluster headaches twice as many as men, then women suffer from these headaches. There is no known cause or cure for the cluster headaches, but a number of treatments are available. And it is important to note that during these cluster periods, it is necessary to refrain from smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol because these activities can trigger these attacks. So again, it is important to note during these cluster periods, it is necessary to refrain from smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol because if these activities can trigger attacks. If we look at some of the intellectual effects of stress, and these basically, again, this is caused, again, this is from the American College Health Association, the American College Health Association, National College Health Assessment 2, Reference Group Executive Summary Fall 2010. On today's program, this morning, I was preparing for our podcast, and I was looking at bringing on a recent college student who just graduated with her degree and is attending and working on her master's degree. And we were all set up this morning. I came into the office early, and she was going to be on the program early, and we were going to do this by phone, which is a lot of the podcasts that I do is by phone. And I come in and I'm basically kind of putting everything together, making sure my refrigerator is turned off, my phones are turned off. So everything is in complete silence. I go in to plug my phone into an adapter that goes into my soundboard to do my podcast. And I find out that my phone does not have the hole that is required for this adapter as my other phone. Since our last podcast, we had purchased new phones. And so this new phone did not have the appropriate hole for the adapter. So therefore, I cannot have her as a guest, but we will have her on our next episode. She will be coming into the office to do our podcast. So I thank her for that. And in the meantime, we'll be ordering a new adapter so that we can continue with our guests from long distance. So that was another stressful situation this morning. But hey, you know what? We adjust and we adapt. So we don't have a guest, so I'm kind of like your host and also your guest. So hopefully you're still listening to the program and learning some really good information as far as stress. But again, back to the intellectual effects of stress, okay. The American College Health Association or the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment basically put out a recent national survey of college students and found that 50% of the respondents said that they had felt overwhelmed by all that they had to do within the past two weeks. Forty six point nine percent reported being exhausted, and 18.7% felt overwhelmed by anxiety in the same time period. 39% of students felt that they had been under more than average stress in the past 12 months, whereas almost 9% reported being under tremendous stress during the same time period. These same students rated stress as their number one impediment impediment or impediment to academic performance, followed by lack of sleep and anxiety. Powers, Dodd, and Jackson noted in one survey 33% of students experienced stress to the point that their academic performance was negatively affected. Donatelli also notes that stress can play a huge role in whether students stay in school, get good grades, and succeed on their career path. Additionally, she notes it can also wreak havoc on students' ability to concentrate, remember information for exams, and understand and retain complex information. In humans, acute stress has been shown to impair short-term memory, particularly verbal memory. And this is by Schwab Wolfen Oitze from memory formation under stress, quantity and quality from the Neuroscience and Biobehavior Reviews. Studies had linked prolonged exposure to cortisol, a stress hormone, to actual shrinking of the hippocampus, which is the brain's major memory center. And rats that were chronically stressed, the decision-making regions of the brain actually shriveled, whereas brain sectors responsible for habitual behaviors that didn't rely on memory increased. And this is by Diaz Friera that chronic stress causes frontostriadal reorganizational effects, affects decision-making from the science. If we look at psychological effects of stress, stress may be one of the single greatest contributors to mental disability and emotional dysfunction on industrialized nations. Studies have shown that rates of mental disorders, particularly depression and anxiety, are associated with various environmental stressors, including divorce, marital conflict, job loss, economic hardship, troubled relationships with family and co-workers, and other stressful events. And this is again from Thhoyt's Stress and Health, Major Findings and Policy Implications from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Stressful life events and inadequate sources of social support can contribute to soaring rates of mental disorders among people aged 15 to 24 compared to other age groups. Research suggests as individuals move from adolescent into adulthood, they face increased stresses of all kinds, from school to employment to relations that they may challenge their mental health. Again, this is from Thytz. The high incidence of suicide among college students is assumed to indicate high personal and societal stress in the lives of young people. Again, from Thhoytes, Stress and Health, major findings and policy implications from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Donatelli explains that stress and depression have complicated interconnections based on emotional, physiological, and biomechanical process. Prolonged stress can trigger depression in susceptible people, and prior periods of depression can leave individuals more susceptible to stress. So you can again you can see the different types of effect as far as the physiological stress, the psychological stress, the intellectual effects of stress, and so forth. I just want again, just want to say thank you for making this podcast a success. Again, the amount of downloads we've had in the past 30 days and regarding stress and being on Pandora has just blown my mind. Again, my podcast is only as good as my guest, and I'm sorry that I don't have a guest today, but I thought this was information that we should kind of clear the air, kind of get out there for you on our next podcast. And this will probably be a multi-part series. Okay, so we will continue our podcast on stress. Uh the things that we'll look at on our next episode pretty much are basically what causes stress. All right. We'll look at some of the psychosocial stressors. We'll be talking with our guest, Dominique, again, which is a recent college graduate. She's working on her MBA, I believe on her MBA. She is just a high goal-driven individual. We'll kind of be looking at some other things as far as some other causes. We'll be looking at internal stressors. We'll be looking at some basically helpful things that you can do if you have test anxiety, what you can do before taking an exam or during a test, some things that we'll be talking about. We'll look at some of how our personality behavior patterns can basically affect the way we handle stress. We'll continue to talk as far as a concept as far as psychological hardiness that seems to be pretty popular. We'll look at basically what we can do as far as, you know, with happiness. There's an article I'd like to kind of talk to you about as far as the magic stress elixir. And I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to kind of jump and I'm going to kind of always want to kind of end on a good note. And a lot of stuff that we've been talking about is probably like, okay, now I'm thoroughly depressed. Now do I have stress, but I'm thoroughly depressed. Okay, so I do not want you to be depressed and thinking that there's no hope for you who who are having a lot of stress. In fact, I do want to close with a positive note. And this basically is coming from, I tell you what, I'm looking at this name, and this is a name that I'm not even going to try to even say because I'll just totally destroy it. But I want to give them credit, and this is from M period. And I'm going to spell this name for you. So whoever can actually say this name Grutos to you. And that's totally awesome. You spell this name C-S-I-K-S-Z-E-N-T-M-I-H-A-L-Y-I. The article is the psychology of optimal experience, the positive psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania. Frequently asked questions. Also responsible for this article is Sugman, Authentic Happiness Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. And A. Donner, be happy without being perfect, how to break free from the perfection deception. And again, the name of this article is Happiness, the Magic Stress Elixir. It goes like this. In the past few decades, a field, a field of research called positive psychology, has emerged to study how people can become happier. Some positive psychologists have found that people who are generally more optimistic or happier have fewer mental and physical health problems and less stress. If happiness is optimism, are keys to stress reduction, how can you find them? Again, if happiness and optimism are keys to stress reduction, how can you find them? And there are a couple points that I want to point out. Number one is set realistic goals. Psychologist Alice Donner says that striving for a 100% dose of contentment and perfection is unrealistic. She suggests that manage your expectation is key. Decide what is realistic for you and work to get to that place. Number two, remember that money does not buy happiness. It may help, but it does not buy happiness. In fact, too much focus on the acquisition of things rather than on relationships and connections may be a major cause of discontent. Also, people who have to pay for a lot of material things tend to work longer hours, vacation less, and in general not take time for themselves. And I am so blessed of having a wife who is not materialistic. I know people out there do have wives that are materialistic or spouses that are materialistic. I am so blessed to have one that is not materialistic. So thank you, Lord, for the wife that you provided for me. Number three, lose yourself in the moment. Finding your flow, not the way you do your hair, but finding your flow, which is a state of effortless concentration and enjoyment, should be a daily goal. The reason I do the podcast that I do, I run a pr a practice. It's pretty much me. And you know, when I do this podcast, it's I thoroughly enjoy it. This podcast that I do, in fact, every one that I do, is not only for you, my listeners, but it's mainly for me. You know, what can I do to help increase my health, you know, in all aspects of it. So when I'm sharing these thoughts and these ideas, it's for me as well as for you. And hopefully, you know, you're able to improve your your health for some of the a lot of the podcasts that you are hearing so forth. So I thoroughly enjoy the podcast. So and thank you for allowing me to do that. So you lose yourself in the moment. Again, finding your flow, a state of effortless concentration and enjoyment should be a daily goal. What is it that energizes you, makes time fly by, and causes you to concentrate fully on the present? The more often you find and follow that, the happier you will be. Count your blessings. Lord, I thank you for the job that you've given me. I thank you for this podcast that you allow me to do. I thank you for the equipment that you've given me to be able to produce this podcast. I thank you for my family. I thank you for my wife. Thank you for my children, thank you for my friends and family on social media. I thank you for my patience. Lord, thank you for the blessings that you've given me. So although we all can find time to complain, and believe me, there's times that I do not like hanging out with people who complain all the time. In today's society, there's a lot of people complain, and I just thank you, Lord, for where this country is heading, where this country is going. Thank you for our president of the United States, Donald Trump. Thank you for him, Lord. So count our blessings. Although we all can find time to complain, focusing on our many positive attributes and being thankful for all the good things in our lives should become a daily ritual. Thank you, Lord, for my health. Next, try new things and re-inventigate. Again, I basically am a chiropractor that you know that loves treating patients. I wanted to try a new thing. I got into podcasting. This is what I do. It's a new thing, it reinventigates me. It it I continue to learn from it. So again, try new recipes, find new ways of exercising, plan a fun outing, find a new place on campus to study, learn a new skill, volunteer time. I believe this is key. This is a key thing that we need to remember. And the key that we need to remember is forgive and forget. I repeat that again. Forgive and forget. Rather than ruminating over some slight or indiscretion, try to understand what may have caused someone to act in a hurtful manner and then move on. Forgive and forget. Okay? And the final is remember to prioritize you. Prioritize you. Your own happiness is as important as that of others in your life. Too many times we are worried about pleasing others, making sure everybody else is happy, making sure our children are happy, making sure our spouses are happy. Okay? We have to remember to prioritize ourselves. You. Your own happiness is as important as that of others in your life. Limit the time you spend with people who bring you down. You need to surround your people with dissimilar beliefs, optimism. You know, hey, I tell you what, it is optimism. I am an optimistic person. I like to hang around with optimistic people. Instead, find time for breaks, fun interludes, and time alone. And again, I just want to thank you again for allowing me to share this information with you. Until next time, keep advancing.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Thank you for listening to Soaring in Health and Wellness with Dr. Steve Wells and his guests. We would like to thank our sponsor, Mountaineer Chiropractic. For more information, go online to MountaineerCairo.com. If you'd like to be a sponsor or help support Soaring in Health and Wellness Podcasts, please go to the web at Equalsway Ministries.org and select the patron page in the top menu bar. If you or your business or church would like Dr. Steve Wells to speak at your church special event or conference, please go online to Eaglesways Ministries.org and select contact on the menu bar. Or send an email to Eaglesway Ministries at gmail.com or call 304-485-6589. Until next time, think of a say of chapter 40, verses 29 through 31. They give strength to the weary and increases in the power of the weak. Even use grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. Those who hope and board will renew their strength. They will sword wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.