Dr. Eva Selhub MD, author of Your Health Destiny and Your Brain on Nature, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.
How to Heal Anxiety with Nature and the Body, not just with the Mind
- Why the “the body whispers before it screams”
- What stress has to do with anxiety
- Mind/body interventions and why they help
- Why nature is so important for reducing anxiety and even improving cognition
- What love has to do with any of this
- The role of our genes in anxiety and depression
- Why sleep is so important?
Here are some gems from our interview:
Listen to your body’s whispers before they become screams
We are always looking for a state of balance or relief
We develop coping skills to manage bad feelings
Adaptive coping: we’re hungry so we eat
Maladaptive coping: we’re anxious so we eat
Oxytocin, the trust molecule, is necessary for survival of the species
Here is my oxytocin blog I mentioned: Oxytocin and social anxiety, pyroluria and depression?
We know that low serotonin can cause anxiety, worry and depression and research shows there are interactions between oxytocin and serotonin levels.
I loved the discussion about getting out in nature. This 2011 study titled: Effect of forest environments on human natural killer (NK) activity found that visiting forest parks found:
enhanced human natural killer (NK) activity, increased anti-cancer proteins, such as perforin, granzymes A and B, and granulysin in NK cells, and reduced the level of stress hormones in both male and female subjects
this effect lasted for more than 30 days after the trips, suggesting that visiting a forest park once a month is beneficial
Here is another paper we mentioned: Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, internet use, and oil prices.
This advice was smart: if you’re working and can’t out in nature, get a plant for your office or use a tool like Calm.com, a very cool online tool I recently discovered. It’s not nature but may help until you can get into nature. You can pick what nature scene you like and then pick the meditation duration. I love it!
Here are the books we mentioned:
Your Brain on Nature: The Science of Nature’s Influence on Your Health, Happiness and Vitality (with Alan Logan)
Get sample preview chapters from Your Health Destiny
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