How Stress Creates a Double-Whammy Threat to Your Health

Modern life is full of stressors – some, chronic.  Sheldon Cohen, a professor at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh, has studied stress and its correlation to health for over 30 years.  A research team led by Cohen found that chronic psychological stress was in fact associated with the body losing its ability to regulate an inflammatory response, which can promote the development and progression of certain diseases.¹

In your gut are thousands of good bacteria like lactobacillus that literally act as agents for your health – they digest food, create needed enzymes and support your immune system. When chronically stressed, your body’s pH may become more acidic, providing an environment where bad bacteria can flourish, compromising immunity and having an affect on disease.

According to research, chronic stress can alter the populations of good bacteria in your gut. The good news is that recent findings show supplementing with probiotics encourages the population of the stomach lining with good bacteria.

These good bacteria can correct vitamin and mineral deficiencies, fight fungal infections like candida and boost immunity.

The Body Ecology Diet (BED) provides many ways to incorporate stress-fighting healthy bacteria into your daily life with probiotic-rich fermented foods. The use of fermented foods is unique to the BED and sets it apart from other systems of healing.

Two of the best examples of fermented foods are cultured vegetables and young coconut kefir.

Both provide an inexpensive way to consume beneficial probiotics — and they are easy to make at home. Following the simple recipes on our website and using Body Ecology Culture Starter or Body Ecology Kefir Starter allows you to add the best probiotics into your diet.

Meanwhile, our Essential Duo can also be added when making cultured veggies or when fermenting coconut water or milk. It allows you to add two more essential microflora, acidophilus and Bifidus Longum. So any of the three – Essential Duo, Kefir Starter, and Culture – are excellent for adding probiotics (and you are urged to read about each to try whichever you prefer!)

Stress is rampant in today’s society – and while decreasing it would be ideal, it’s almost a given that some level of stress is here to stay. And while that stress may destroy the beneficial bacteria in your gut, a probiotic-rich fermented foods diet will constantly ensure that you have an abundant amount of friendly flora being constantly replenished each day. The Body Ecology Diet can be your greatest ally in rebuilding these “good guys” in your gut – and maintaining your health.

1.Carnegie Melon University.  Stress on Disease.  CMU.edu.