Herbs & Resilience to Stress

At Mana we believe in the power of plants and their ability to support us in being well and becoming more resilient to stress.  Read on to learn how herbs like turmeric and passionflower work alongside CBD in supporting your body’s responses.

Stress is very much a constant part of our modern lives. While experiencing some stress is normal and can even be beneficial, long-term stress is known to cause a wide range of negative effects.

There are many ways to cope with chronic stress, like getting regular exercise, following a healthy diet, avoiding potential triggers like caffeine, and using time-tested medicinal herbs such as CBD-rich hemp and turmeric.

Take a look into the way stress works and how you can support your body’s innate ability to handle and become more resilient to stress with the help of herbal ingredients.

Acute Stress vs. Chronic Stress

Despite its bad reputation, stress is a normal physiological response that plays a necessary role.

For example, stress can motivate you to work on something, such as preparing for a job interview or finishing an important assignment, as well as quite literally save your life when you’re in a dangerous situation.

Researchers are also finding more evidence that some stress can be good for you. For example, one recent study reported that acute stress, which occurs during a stressful event and goes away shortly after, improved brain function in mice.

It’s only when stress becomes an ongoing occurrence that it turns into a problem.

Chronic stress drives inflammation, taxing your immune system, mental health, sleep, digestion, and other processes, leading to health problems, increasing your risk of serious disease, and quite literally draining the enjoyment out of your life.

The bottom line is that both too little and too much stress can be bad. Consequently, the best approach is not to eliminate stress entirely but to support your body’s resilience to it.

Herbs & Stress

Nature provides numerous herbs that can support a healthy stress response and help us maintain a sense of balance and vitality throughout our daily lives.

Humanity has used such herbal and plant medicines, which include the likes of cannabis, turmeric, ashwagandha, and ginseng, for millennia. The best part is, these herbs are not only useful when you’re going through a particularly stressful time but they are beneficial in maintaining your balance long-term.

By supporting your body’s innate ability to handle stress, they can also make it easier to deal with the many small stressors that can occur throughout our daily lives — things as simple as being stuck in traffic on your way to work.

That’s why herbs are best used regularly alongside other positive lifestyle choices, such as getting regular exercise and eating a healthy diet.

Here’s a closer look at how three herbal ingredients used in our products — CBD, turmeric, and passionflower — can help you manage stress and maintain overall well-being.

CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-intoxicating cannabinoid found in hemp. CBD works with your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS), which plays an important role in regulating virtually all essential processes, including stress.

This system’s main job is to make sure your body maintains homeostasis: a healthy state of balance where things are just right. CBD supports the functioning of the ECS by enhancing the effects of anandamide, one of the main endocannabinoids produced by our bodies.

In doing so, it can help the ECS keep stress at a healthy, manageable level and bring things back into equilibrium when something external upsets the balance.

Turmeric

Turmeric is one of the oldest medicinal plants, with thousands of years of history. It was first used in India, where turmeric remains a vital component of traditional Ayurvedic medicine, and later spread to other places, including Hawaii.

The main active ingredient in turmeric — curcumin — has been extensively studied by researchers. Aside from its anti-inflammatory effects, curcumin appears to have many potential health benefits, including those related to stress.

Studies suggest that curcumin can help the body manage stress and help with two closely-linked mental health issues: anxiety and depression.

Much like CBD, turmeric can support the body’s natural ability to adapt to and deal with all sorts of stressors.

Passionflower

Passionflower has a long tradition of being used to calm anxiety, cope with mental stress, and support healthy sleep. This makes it another excellent herbal ingredient for helping the body cope with and manage stress.

For example, one recent study reported that passionflower extract improved stress resistance and overall quality of life in people suffering from nervous restlessness, which is closely related to stress.

A Holistic Solution to Stress

The idea of eliminating stress completely is both unrealistic and detrimental.

We believe that the best solution to chronic stress is to support your body’s natural coping mechanisms by eating healthy, clean foods, getting regular exercise, spending time in nature, and following other positive habits like incorporating time-tested herbs into your daily routine.

Botanical ingredients such as CBD, turmeric, and passionflower can build the body’s resilience to stress, make it easier to bounce back to normal after a stressful event, and maintain an overall sense of well-being, especially when paired with positive lifestyle choices.