John Arts - Natural health researcher John Arts is a natural health researcher and supplement formulator. If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John on 0800 423 559 or join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz.

Is there a difference in being stressed or just plain tired?
I frequently hear comments that people are tired because of the stress in their life. Being ‘stressed out' usually means they have persistent fatigue, mood swings, headaches and even memory and concentration difficulties.

I do not doubt for one minute that acute/abnormal stress can actually create health problems or make existing problems worse. My observation though is that most who suffer these symptoms are actually unwell and their ‘stress' is only making their poor health obvious.

I would guess that the vast majority of people who complain of stress-type symptoms are actually unwell at a cellular level. By that I mean that key cell defense and energy processes are not working properly. Using an analogy, it is like taking a mid size car that is seriously out of tune, filling it with low grade petrol then hooking up a heavy trailer and trying to tow it up a steep hill. When the car, fuming and gasping struggles for power we then blame the hill when the real problem is with the engine.

If you do feel stressed and tired the first thing to do is to get a full medical check to make sure there is no underlying medical condition. Once you have determined there is no medical problem you should then check the basics including diet, hydration and exercise.

To this I would take a high grade multi antioxidant, multi mineral and multivitamin. This must have all the major antioxidant groups, especially 100-200mg of proanthocyanidins and 200-400IU of natural vitamin E. It should have a full B complex, lots of vitamin D and include all these minerals as high grade bio-available chelates. I would then add lots of high grade vitamin E stabilised fish oil. If the fatigue is severe I would add a booster that includes key mitochondrial nutrients such as alpha lipoic acid and possibly Co Q10. Once you get your body working properly and you just might find the stress fades and life becomes a lot easier.

John Arts is a natural health commentator, researcher and supplement formulator. If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John on 5789051 or 0800 423559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz