Rangan Chatterjee's Blog, page 52

5 Breathing Techniques to Help Reduce Stress - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Breathing is information. The more stressed you feel, the faster you breathe, and your brain will notice this and read it as a signal that things are not going well. That fast, shallow breathing which happens when you’re stressed is effectively telling your brain that you’re running from a lion. But the reverse of this rule is also true: if you breathe slowly, you’re giving your brain a signal that you’re in a place of calm. You will start to feel less stressed. Studies have even shown that the right kind of breathing can reduce our perception of pain. Both the pace at which you breathe and how deeply you breathe change your stress response. If all you do for one minute is slow your breathing down and aim for six breaths (one breath is in and out) in that minute, it will reduce the stress state and stimulate the thrive state.

A daily practice of breathing – Breathing practice is especially worth considering if you’re the kind of person who finds meditation difficult. You don’t have to stick to the same practice each time. Play around. Listen to your body. Experiment. I’m sure that, within a few days, you’ll find a technique that works for you. Aim to do at least one of these practices every day. Even one minute per day of focused, intentional breathing can make a big difference. Try one of the breathing techniques I outline below.

BREATHING MENU & VIDEOS

One minute, six breaths. Because making new habits is hard, I want to start easy. For this practice, I’d like you to set aside just one minute to consciously take six breaths. This means that each breath should take about ten seconds to complete, in and out. Use a timer or the second hand of a clock to keep track. If you’re new to this kind of practice, you may find that eight breaths in one minute is a little easier to start with. Ideally, I’d like you to do this once in the morning after you’ve got up, once after lunch and once just before you go to bed. You’ll slow your heart rate down, help activate your thrive state and replace a lot of that bad information with good. If you do this for just sixty seconds in the morning, you’ll start to become more aware of your breath for the remainder of the day.

3–4–5 Breath. I find that this exercise can be extremely effective for patients who are prone to anxiety or stress. It could hardly be simpler. Breathe in for three seconds, hold for four seconds and breathe out for five seconds. When your outbreath is longer than your in-breath, you reduce the activation of your stress state and encourage your body to move into a thrive state. You can do a few rounds of this breath or extend it to take five minutes. Listen to your body and see what works for you.

Video coming soon.

Box breathing. This can be done at any time, but patients report to me that it’s especially useful just before bedtime. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, then hold for another four. Box breathing helps lower stress levels, calm the nervous system and take your mind away from distracting thoughts. It’s reported that Navy Seals use this method to control their stress levels.

Nadi Shodhan. Alternate-nostril breathing can give a boost of energy as well as help you fall asleep (see p. 241). Sit comfortably, with your shoulders relaxed. Place your right thumb on to your right nostril to block it and fully exhale through your left nostril. Breathe in through your left nostril for a count of four. Place the ring finger and little finger of your right hand on to your left nostril to block it. Release your right thumb and breathe out through your right nostril for a count of four. At the end of the breath, keep your fingers where they are and breathe in through the right nostril for four. Place the thumb back over the right nostril and breathe out through the left nostril. This is one cycle. Start off by doing ten rounds. You can increase this as you become more familiar with the practice.

Kapalabhati. Otherwise known as the ‘Skull Shining Breath’, this forced diaphragmatic breath is a pretty intense exercise but great for a quick pick-me-up. As you take a full deep breath in through your nose, your abdomen will expand. As you exhale, pull your belly button in forcefully and actively, as if it’s going in towards the spine. (It can be helpful to think about throwing your breath out.) After each exhale, as your abdomen expands again, you’ll automatically start to inhale. Do ten to twenty of these breaths. Afterwards, pay attention to how you feel. It is always best to learn this one from a trained yoga instructor. Please avoid doing it on an empty stomach, if you’re pregnant, have a stent or pacemaker or a history of epilepsy or a hernia.

Give some of these techniques a go and let me know how you get on. For more on breathing and how we can use it to reduce our stress pre-order my new book The Stress Solution: The 4 Steps to Reset Your Body, Mind, Relationships & Purpose, here.

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My Secret to a Stress-Less Christmas - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Christmas should be a time of celebration and relaxation. A time to break from work, reconnect with friends and family, exchange gifts and good will. Why then, does the mere mention of the C word set off stress alarms?

I think that in this age of mass consumerism and perfectionism, we put too much pressure on ourselves to get everything ‘right’. We want to buy everyone the perfect gifts, wrap them beautifully, clean and decorate the home, prepare a bounty of food, attend carol services, nativities, drinks parties. Yet we forget that, for most of December, normal life and all its responsibilities continue. There’s still the school run, work and the household to take care of. Inevitably, preparing for Christmas becomes less of a pleasure, more of a chore.

So, short of hiring a magic elf, how can we make this year different? Well there’s a tried-and-tested solution that has worked wonders in my family.

The magic of scheduling

When you’re feeling overwhelmed with jobs to do, people to see, social events to attend, make yourself a schedule. That might sound like adding one more task to your already busy day but trust me, it will create time for you.

Think about it – if you’ve ever prepared Christmas lunch, you probably followed a schedule devised by a famous cook. Be it Gordon, Nigella, Jamie or Delia, they had you watching the clock, step by step – and sitting down to a warm, turkey dinner, right on time. So why not use that principle on other days, too?

It’s a practice my wife Vidh adopted when she was first at home with our young son. To counter rising anxiety that there weren’t enough hours in the day, she made a detailed daily schedule that accounted for every minute. ‘Wake up: 6.30, Get ready: 6.45–7.05, Breakfast: 7.05–7.25,’ all the way through until bedtime.

The result? Vidh felt more in control of her life. Each day finished with a satisfyingly ticked to-do list and she was able to enjoy time to herself, guilt free. Many top CEOs use scheduling for this reason. It helps them be more productive, while ensuring they have time to pursue hobbies as well as spend with their families.

Scheduling works because it helps you identify mindless tasks and procrastination. At times – like Christmas – when our to-do list can seem insurmountable, it helps us to prioritise and live more efficiently. It shifts us from a stress state into a thrive one.

How to schedule your day

Think about tomorrow and write down all the places you have to be or jobs you have to do at a specific time (that doctor’s appointment at 10:30am, the 4pm conference call). Then note down all the tasks you’d ideally like to get done, in order (pop to the Post Office, buy your office Secret Santa gift, order the online groceries).

Next, write down a ‘me time’ activity you’d love to spend time doing but don’t anticipate having enough hours left. It could be a yoga class, a phone catch up with an old friend, a soak in the bath.

Now diarise your entire day, from the moment you wake, including meals, travelling time, everything. Put those fixed appointments in first, then your ‘me time’ (yes, this really does come before the other tasks). Finally, schedule the remaining jobs around these, in order of priority. Those you can’t fit in, don’t forget – you can’t achieve the impossible.

If you finish tasks early, don’t automatically grab your smart phone. Have a mini-moment of calm. Take a walk, do a few minutes’ deep breathing or just linger over a cuppa and, why not, a mince pie!

People I recommend this practice to nearly always tell me it enabled them to get more things done than they’d imagined. It may seem prescriptive, but I assure you it will unexpectedly give you much more flexibility to enjoy the festive period, and feel less stressed as the holidays approach.

 

For more on reducing stress and feeling more productive, year round, pre-order my new book The Stress Solution: The 4 Steps to Reset Your Body, Mind, Relationships & Purpose, here.

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Stress – The Health Epidemic of the 21st Century with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

This week, I’m in the hot seat being interviewed by friend, fellow GP and lifestyle medicine advocate, Dr Ayan Panja.  We talk about the whirlwind of the last year and how those experiences have shaped me. After the huge success of my first book, The 4 Pillar Plan, it became clear to me that the area that people struggle with the most, myself included, is relaxing. In fact, The World Health Organisation have named stress as the health epidemic of the 21stCentury. Indeed, one study found that 80-90% of what GPs see is in some way related to stress.

Ayan and I discuss why stress has become such an issue and why it can be so damaging to our health. But what can we do about it? I talk about the areas covered in my new book, The Stress Solution, which is full of simple, practical tools that you can apply in your lives. I also share my top tips for reducing stress, from having a golden hour every morning without your phone to prioritising your relationships. I hope you find this conversation useful! You can pre-order the book on Amazon now.

Click here for more information on our sponsor –  athleticgreens.com/livemore

Episode Highlights:

Hear about how The 4 Pillar Plan has reached further than Rangan ever imagined.
Why did Rangan write his next book, The Stress Solution?
What ailments does Rangan see in his clinic that led to his focus on stress?
Is stress good for us?
Why is stress such a big problem in today’s society?
How has technology affected stress in recent years?
What are Micro & Macro stress doses?
Hear how Rangan’s ‘Golden Hour’ can help you set up your day with less stress.
How can we create rules around technology so that it doesn’t take away our down-time?
Why is meaning and purpose important to focus on?
How can scheduling can help you reserve time for yourself?
What daily routine change has Rangan made recently that helps him reduce his stress levels throughout the day?
Hear how Rangan believes we need to work on our relationships starting with those closest to us.
What does Rangan hope he will be doing this time next year?

'We need to give our mental health the same care we give our physical health.'
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Connect with Dr Chatterjee:

See Dr Chatterjee LIVE in January 2019

Instagram   Facebook   Twitter   You Tube

Connect with Dr Ayan Panja:

Twitter      Instagram

Dr Chatterjee’s books:

Find Dr Chatterjee’s 4 Pillar of Health in The 4 Pillar Plan
Now available in the US & Canada with the title How to Make Disease Disappear
Pre-order Dr Chatterjee’s NEW book The Stress Solution.

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Easy ways to reconnect with your partner this Christmas - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Intimacy is the glue that holds relationships together and makes everything in life seem easier. Yet we’re often too busy for it, especially at this time of year. The pressures of present buying, party planning and micro-organizing can conspire against us; division of labour becomes a source of conflict. What should be a fun, loving time for you as a couple becomes strained and you feel distant.

But if you can make time to focus on each other and reconnect it will pay dividends in all areas of your life, not least your relationship. You’ll feel closer, more cherished and more resilient to whatever stressors the festive season might fling at you.

Here are a few of my favourite, most effective ways to rediscover intimacy in a partnership – or with any close friend or family member you value. I’d love to hear how they work for you.

Practise the 15-second 3D Greeting – Familiarity, in a love relationship, all too often breeds complacency. You’ve been working from home on your computer all day, your partner walks in and you barely lift your head from the screen. Or you arrive home from a long day Christmas shopping and your spouse fails to acknowledge you, let alone leap up to help with the bags. It’s heartbreaking how the daily grind makes us treat each other.

So at this busy time, don’t be like passing ships. Adopt my 3D greeting – a heartfelt way to show you value each other.

Instead of a nod or grunt when you see each other, I want you to make deep, meaningful eye contact, embrace warmly and exchange a few loving words. Practise the 3D greeting (eyes, touch and voice) every time you haven’t seen your partner for more than a few hours. Within a few days, it will seem natural and you will start feeling less stressed, more supported. We’re all busy, but I’ve never met anyone so busy they can’t spare the love of their life 15 seconds.

Make mini dates – Schedule regular time to connect and converse, without the distraction of technology. Date nights may be a bit of a cliché but they’re a fantastic way to prioritise intimacy. It could be a commitment to spending 30 minutes with each other every evening without your smartphones in sight, or simply a daily walk, holding hands. Always look for opportunities in your daily life to be present with each other. Jobs like wrapping presents or decorating the tree don’t have to be chores – put on some festive music, light some candles and enjoy doing them together.

Share a massage – Human touch can slow down our heart rate, lower blood pressure, reduce levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and boost immunity. It triggers the release of serotonin, commonly known as the ‘feel-good chemical’ and feeds emotional connections.

And it works both ways – those who give affectionate, gentle touch such as stroking are rewarded with increased levels of endogenous opioids, compounds made by the body that act on opiate receptors and are associated with improved mood, decreased pain and lower anxiety.

Take it in turns to give each other a shoulder, back or full-body massage. If this feels intimidating, you could start off by holding hands or stroking some cream onto their feet or arms. Resolve to bring more touch into daily life, with a hug, supportive squeeze or pat on the back.

'Intimacy is the glue that holds relationships together and makes everything in life seem easier.'
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Gaze into each other’s eyes – Intimacy doesn’t necessarily mean sex. Rather it’s about trust, feeling like two members of a team and being responsive to each other’s needs. It’s being present with each other, caring deeply and sharing personal thoughts, desires and wishes. Just holding hands or taking a nap with your partner can be incredibly intimate. Something as simple as sustained eye contact can be transformative. Try this exercise and see how much closer you feel.

Sit opposite each other, close enough so your knees are touching.
Close your eyes for 30 seconds and concentrate on the sensation of your knees touching.
Now look directly into each other’s eyes and maintain eye contact for a full five minutes. If you find yourself looking away, gently reinitiate eye contact.
Share your experience. How did it feel? What went through your mind? What did you pick up about each other? How do you both feel now?

Find more tips on nurturing relationships and intimacy in my new book, The Stress Solution: The 4 Steps to Reset Your Body, Mind, Relationships & Purpose. It’s published by Penguin on 27 December and you can pre-order your copy here.

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Alphabet chart - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Eating a diverse diet rich in fibre is one of the single best things we can do to live a more stress-free life. A diverse diet means a diverse and resilient microbiome. If we increase the variety of vegetables, low-glycaemic fruits (such as blueberries and cherries) and fibre-rich foods such as beans and legumes in our diet, we’re increasing the amount of fibre we’re eating. This will encourage the growth of different and happy gut bugs, sending signals to your brain that everything is good.

Put up a chart in your kitchen and see if you can eat the alphabet every month. I think a realistic goal is to aim for twenty-six different plant foods a month.

Please use this downloadable chart as a guide only – feel free to tweak! The goal is to have at least twenty-six different plant foods every single month. Why not involve your friends and family in this as well?

If you are not used to eating this amount of fibre each day, I would suggest that you build up slowly to allow your gut – and your gut bugs – to adapt!

Download and print the alphabet chart and place on your fridge.

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Healing IBS and Gut Health with Jeanette Hyde - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Are you struggling with IBS or some aspect of your gut health? Right now, IBS affects almost 20% of the UK population at some point in their lives and it can be a major cause of distress and disability for the people who suffer from it. This week, I talk to nutritional therapist and author, Jeanette Hyde, about some of the common problems that she sees in her practice. She shares simple tips for treating these, improving symptoms of IBS and manipulating our microbiome – from time restricted eating to the foods that can help (and hinder) our gut health. Jeanette explains why she steers clear of the FODMAP diet for her clients and how personalisation is key when it comes to finding a diet and lifestyle that works for us. Jeanette and I also discuss alcohol consumption, something that is often overlooked or underestimated when we take a look at our lifestyles.

But gut health isn’t all about what we eat. We discuss how stress and other factors can also play a huge role. This conversation is full of great tips and I hope you find that it helps you!

Click here for more information on our sponsor athleticgreens.com/livemore

Episode Highlights:

What are some of the common problems that Jeannette sees in her clinic?
Jeannette talks about Satchin Panda’s work on time restricted feeding. Link to Satchin’s paper on how time restricted feeding can prevent some chronic disease
How does Jeannette see that alcohol affects gut problems?
Why does Jeannette focus on behavioural change rather than education when first meeting her clients?
Why is it so important for Jeannette to find achievable solutions for her clients?
Listen to the Feel Better, Live More podcast with Satchin – Part 1 and Part 2
Jeannette talks about fasting to improve symptoms of IBS, inflammatory bowel disorder, ulcerative colitis and diverticulitis.
Why is diversity in diet an important part of Jeannette’s nutritional advice?
Rangan & Jeannette discuss the FODMAP (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols) diet, designed to help alleviate the symptoms of IBS.
More info on a low FODMAP diet – IBS and Gut Health with Dr Megan Rossi
Hear Jeannette & Rangan discuss other lifestyle changes that could also help gut problems.
What are Jeannette’s top tips for a health gut?

'The more diversity of fruit and vegetables you have promotes diversity of bacteria in the gut’
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Find out more about Jeanette

Website    Facebook    Instagram    Twitter

The Gut Makeover Retreat

Jeanette’s Recipes

Jeanette’s books

The Gut Makeover: 4 Weeks to Nourish Your Gut, Revolutionise Your Health and Lose Weight
US & Canadian version – The Gut Makeover: 4 Weeks to Nourish Your Gut, Revolutionize Your Health, and Lose Weight
The Gut Makeover Recipe Book

Further learning:

Welldoing.org – How to Boost Your Gut Health After Antibiotics
Daily Mail – Nutritional therapist Jeannette Hyde shares her 10 tips to beat bloating
The Telegraph – Does this woman hold the key to your weight loss?
Read Jeannette’s blog

Dr Chatterjee’s resources:

Feel Better, Live More podcast with Satchin Panda on Time Restricted Feeding – Part 1 and Part 2
Feel Better, Live More Podcast IBS, Stress and Gut Health with Professor John Cryan
Feel Better, Live More Podcast IBS and Gut Health with Dr Megan Rossi
Find Dr Chatterjee’s 4 Pillar of Health in The 4 Pillar Plan
Now available in the US & Canada with the title How to Make Disease Disappear
Pre-order Dr Chatterjee’s NEW book The Stress Solution.

The post Healing IBS and Gut Health with Jeanette Hyde appeared first on Dr Rangan Chatterjee.

How to Stay Pain Free with The Foot Collective - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Have you ever thought about how important our feet are? And how they’re connected to so many other parts of our bodies? This week’s podcast is with Nick and Mike from ‘The Foot Collective’, a group of Canadian physical therapists on a mission to help humans reclaim strong, functional and pain-free feet through foot health education.

The feet are an often neglected part of our body. If you’re experiencing hip, knee or back pain, your feet may be the cause. Nick and Mike explain that although there are many ailments that many of us just write off as something that we just have, or that we’ve inherited, in actual fact, there may be something we can do to improve these conditions. The truth is, that while we might have a genetic susceptibility, our environment and our lifestyles also determine what happens to our bodies.

In our modern lives, we create an imbalance in our bodies by sitting too much and this can expose us to risk of injury. The Foot Collective give some brilliant tips on what we can do to avoid this. We also discuss orthotics and the damaging effects of wearing narrow shoes which squash our feet and talk about how we can help restore our feet to their natural state. After experiencing back pain for years, I found working on my feet made a huge difference. I hope you find this podcast helps you!

Click here for more information on our sponsor athleticgreens.com/livemore

Episode Highlights:

Who are The Foot Collective and where are they based?
Why does Nick think that many foot problems are ignored?
What problem did Rangan have in his past and how did addressing his feet improve this?
Can genetics play a part in foot problems?
Why does Nick clarify the difference between human ‘movement’ and ‘exercise’?
Hear how The Foot Collective look to treat basic mobility in the first instance, then advise on human movement and finally look at appropriate exercise.
What do The Foot Collective cover in their workshops?
How can we help our kids understand that sitting on a chair is not the best for our bodies in the long run?
What can we do to counteract hours of sitting?
Hear how joint replacements, at an early age, are on the increase and why does this happen?
How can we all improve our hip function easily at home?
How can footwear have an impact on your balance and hip mobility?
What are the best exercises and sports for Kids in order to have healthy mobility in the future?
What are The Foot Collective’s top tips?

'Just going barefoot alone will automatically strengthen your feet’
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Find out more about The Foot Collective:

Instagram      Facebook       Website

Shop        TFC Audio        Seminars

Further learning:

The Foot Collective videos
The Foot Collective Blog posts
Find out about Tony Riddle

Dr Chatterjee’s resources:

Human Movement and Taking Control of your Health with Gary Ward
Link to Dr Chatterjee’s Wake-up your Sleepy Glutes videos:

Flex on a step
Hip Adduction
Foot Clocks
Hip Extension


Galahad Clark and the Importance of Barefoot Shoes
Find Dr Chatterjee’s 4 Pillar of Health in The 4 Pillar Plan
Now available in the US & Canada with the title How to Make Disease Disappear
Pre-order Dr Chatterjee’s NEW book The Stress Solution.

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The Power of Community with The Happy Pear - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Once beer-swilling rugby players, my guests on this week’s episode are identical twins Stephen and David, who now make up The Happy Pear. They share their incredible journey into healthy vegan living and talk about their desire to start a health food revolution – with the goal of making healthy food and lifestyle mainstream. It all started with a small humble vegetable shop and they now own a chain of natural food shops and cafés in Ireland as well as having their own plant-based food range in the UK. But for The Happy Pear, the cafés were also about creating a community around them, something which they have achieved in a truly inspiring way.

We talk about how fundamental community is to our happiness and health. Their story is captivating and their energy is almost tangible. It’s impossible not to feel uplifted, positive and happy in their company – I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

Click here for more information on our sponsor athleticgreens.com/livemore

Episode Highlights:

How did Stephen & David start The Happy Pear?
What did Stephen & David’s friends and family think of their lifestyle changes aged 21?
Rangan, David & Stephen talk about loneliness and increase in rates of loneliness recently.
Why do The Happy Pear value their community above all else?
How do David, Stephen and Rangan feel about drinking coffee?
When did The Happy Pear embrace technology and how do they use this for their business?
What is The Happy Pear’s morning ritual and how have they shared this worldwide?
Why is this morning ritual so important to David & Stephen and how has it become a crucial part of their day?
What other beneficial lifestyle choices have The Happy Pear discovered along their journey?
Hear how The Happy Pear created their Happy Heart online course.
Why are movement and exercise choices just as important as food choices?
Rangan, David & Stephen talk about why its important to know where your food comes from.
The Happy Pear produced a vegan cookbook, Recipes for Happiness, do they think we should all be eating in this way?
Hear how eating the rainbow, increasing your fibre intake and reducing the amount of processed food you eat can have huge benefits to your health.
What are The Happy Pear’s top tips for health and happiness?

'The most important thing is love and that starts with yourself'
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Find out more about The Happy Pear:

Website     Instagram     Facebook     Twitter

You Tube           Online Happy Heart course

The Happy Pear products available in the UK

The Happy Pears books:

The Happy Pear: Healthy, Easy, Delicious Food to Change Your Life
The World of the Happy Pear
The Happy Pear: Recipes for Happiness

Further learning:

The Irish Times – The Happy Pear: ‘When we started, people looked at us with pity’
The Rich Roll podcast with The Happy Pear
Charles Handy – Understanding Organizations
Dr Dean Ornish – Dr. Dean Ornish’s Programme for Reversing Heart Disease
The Rich Roll podcast – Zac Bush on GMOs, Glyphosate & Gut Health

Dr Chatterjee’s resources:

Dr Chatterjee’s rainbow chart
Find Dr Chatterjee’s 4 Pillar of Health in The 4 Pillar Plan
Now available in the US & Canada with the title How to Make Disease Disappear
Pre-order Dr Chatterjee’s NEW book The Stress Solution.

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How To Eat To Boost Your Mood - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

You probably realise that your food choices affect your digestion, weight, immunity – all aspects of your short and long-term physical health. But what if I told you the food you eat has a direct impact on your mind, as well as your body? That, to quote prestigious medical journal The Lancet, ‘nutrition may be as important to mental health as it is to cardiology, endocrinology and gastroenterology’?

It’s a new and exciting field of health and it’s all to do with something called your gut ‘microbiome’. This describes the trillions of microbes that live in your gut and the genetic material inside them. These bugs interact with the body, with the food you eat and with each other. They send messages to the brain via what’s known as the gut–brain axis. And the messages that come from your microbiome can strongly influence your mental wellbeing. If it’s healthy and happy? You are, too.

We know that a healthy microbiome is one that has both a large number and diversity of gut bugs. Studies on animals, for example, find that an absence of gut bugs increases our reactivity to stress. This has led to some scientists calling them ‘our brain’s peacekeepers’. Happy gut bugs work together to educate our immune systems and reduce a process called inflammation, which is at the heart of many serious complaints like insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and, yes, depression.

How do we help them to flourish? It’s pretty simple, really – we eat the foods our bugs like to feed on, and avoid those that wipe them out. The more abundant and diverse your gut bacteria, the healthier you’ll be and the more psychologically resilient.

Here’s a quick guide to feeding your microbiome:

Quit highly processed food. Think ready meals, takeaways, crisps, biscuits, sweets, some cereals, refined breads, anything with a long list of ingredients. They can have a terrible effect on the microbiome. Some additives, emulsifiers (chemicals added to highly processed foods to keep the texture consistent), pesticides and artificial sweeteners can decimate gut bugs as well. The same goes for too much alcohol and sugary drinks.

Try new foods, cook new recipes, find new tastes and textures. Stop eating the same old foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Next time you go out for a meal, try and order something you have never tried before.

‘Eat the alphabet’ over the course of a month. Gut bugs feed on plant fibre, so by increasing the amount and variety of vegetables, fruit and fibre-rich foods such as beans and legumes you eat, you’ll be keeping them well nourished. In my new book, The Stress Solution, I’ve created a handy chart for you to photocopy and stick on your fridge, to help the whole family do this. If you eat an apple or some artichoke, aubergine or asparagus, tick A. Have bananas, blueberries or beans and tick B – you get the idea.

Head to the Med. In 2017, a gold-standard, randomized controlled test known as the SMILEs trial put patients with moderate or severe depression who were already undergoing treatment, on a whole food Mediterranean diet. It was full of a wide variety of diverse and minimally processed foods varied that were rich in immune-supportive, anti-inflammatory oily fish, olive oil, colourful fruit and vegetables and wholegrains. Twelve weeks later, these patients had a much greater reduction in depressive symptoms than the control group who did not change their diet but were instead given social support.

Include fermented foods and drinks such as kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, natural yoghurt, kefir and kombucha. These are naturally probiotic foods that introduce beneficial bacteria into your body.

Eat all your day’s food within a 12-hour window (so if you finish dinner at 7pm, don’t have your breakfast until 7am). Gut microbes thrive when they get a break from food – a new set of bugs comes in and cleans up the gut wall. Limit snacks between meals and don’t worry about skipping a meal now and again.

For more advice on healthy, balanced eating to ease stress, preorder my new book, The Stress Solution: The 4 Steps to Reset Your Body, Mind, Relationships & Purpose (published on 27 December).

Let me know how you get on with these tips using the hashtag #TheStressSolution I would love to hear from you!

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6 Ways to Sleep Away Stress - Dr Rangan Chatterjee

When you think about dealing with stress, sleep may not be the first thing that springs to mind. Finding a new job, sorting out your finances maybe. But getting to bed earlier? Who on earth has time for that?

I hear you, but bear with me. Although many of the reasons humans sleep remain mysterious, we know that sleep is critical for clearing out the accumulation of waste that occurs during the day. Think of it like a bin man coming round every night to remove your wheelie bin full of physical and emotional rubbish.

When you haven’t slept, your emotional brain goes into overdrive. The amygdala – the alarm system responsible for triggering emotions such as fear, sadness, anger or rage – becomes significantly more sensitive. Meanwhile the prefrontal cortex – your rational brain’s CEO, responsible for making all the sensible decisions – becomes diminished. It explains why you struggle to concentrate when you’re tired, and why you feel so emotional and reactive.

Treat yourself to sleep and, I promise, you’ll soon begin to feel less stressed. Although it may be challenging to stick to this six-step routine every single day, the more components you can manage, the more you’ll be living in harmony with your body clock and the fewer stress signals you’ll be sending to your body.

1. Wake up at roughly the same time every day, even at weekends. If you had a late night, I’d urge you still to wake up at the same time but allow yourself a short nap later on if you still feel sleepy.

2. Expose yourself to bright, natural light every morning. Open the curtains wide, breakfast in the garden (or by a window), walk all or part of your commute. This will help you sleep at night by helping you set your circadian rhythm.

3. Exercise – and eat – early. If you do vigorous exercise within three hours of going to bed, it can push your body clock back and make it harder for you to fall asleep. Eating late is also a stressor on the body, so try to have your evening meal before 7pm.

4. Avoid caffeine and alcohol. If you struggle to sleep, limit caffeine to mornings only. Even if you think that evening espresso doesn’t affect you, research suggests you won’t enjoy the same quality of restorative, REM sleep. Ditto alcohol – it disrupts sleep, increasing fragmentation, which means we wake up more during the night and have less chance to repair the damage of the stressors of the day. We tend to use alcohol more when we’re stressed, wrongly thinking it quiets the mind and helps us drift off – when in fact it makes matters worse.

5. Minimize exposure to blue light in the evenings. It suppresses production of melatonin, the all-important, sleep-inducing hormone our bodies release naturally after dark. Turn off e-devices, such as laptops, smartphones and tablets, around 90 minutes before going to bed. If you must look at your devices, wear blue-light-blocking glasses or have the appropriate filter on your device switched on. Better still, read a magazine or a book (studies show that brain activity during sleep is better regulated after reading a book, compared to looking at a screen).

6. Relax in the tub. When you start feeling the long fingers of melatonin crawling seductively through your system, round it all off with a hot bath if you can. When you get in, all your blood comes to the surface of your body so, when you step out, your core temperature starts to drop. This is a stimulus to sleep.

For more advice on prioritising sleep, preorder my new book, The Stress Solution: The 4 Steps to Reset Your Body, Mind, Relationships & Purpose (published on 27 December 2018).

Let me know how you get on with these tips using the hashtag #TheStressSolution I would love to hear from you!

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