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According to a new national survey, roughly 75% of Americans suffer from stress-related maladies, including fatigue, headache, upset stomach, muscle tension, teeth grinding, and change in weight, appetite and sex drive. While most people are familiar with these symptoms, chronic stress can lead to a host of physical problems, including heart disease, depression, and a weakened immune system.

Stress causes and contributes to disease in two ways. One is behavioral. People under stress are more likely to sleep and eat poorly, exercise less, and adopt destructive habits. The other is physical. Stress triggers the endocrine systems to release hormones that influence the regulation of immune and inflammatory processes. Disrupting these systems can result in depression, infection, autoimmune response, cancer, and coronary artery disease. In fact, studies have shown that high levels of stress more than double your risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke!

By incorporating simple relaxation practices like yoga, deep breathing, and meditation to your daily routine, you can dramatically improve your health. Click here to find information on simple relaxation techniques that can add years to your life.

Many techniques can be used to relieve stress, which in turn reduce inflammation and balance and strengthen your immune system. The following activities activate a flood of anti-inflammatory chemicals (cytokines) in the body. Just 15 minutes a day can dramatically improve your health.

• Yoga and meditation

• Deep breathing

• Finding your rhythm

• Massage and bodywork

• Reading a relaxing book

• Journaling

Yoga and meditation

Yoga and meditation have been shown to significantly lower stress levels. Not only does it strengthen the body and calm the mind, but yoga has also been shown to improve sleep and ease mental and muscular tension. Increased blood and oxygen circulation activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers blood pressure, improves metabolism, digestion, immune response, and thyroid function.

Deep Breathing

Deep breathing infuses the blood with extra oxygen and also stimulates the body to release tranquilizing endorphins. It is one of the simplest yet most effective stress management techniques. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and it becomes even more effective with practice. By learning how to breathe deeply and fully oxygenate your brain, body, and spirit you can profoundly transform your health.

Try this breathing technique for instant stress relief:

Inhale through your nose for four counts. Feel the air expand into your lungs and fill your belly. Hold your breath for eight counts, feeling the energy of the hold slow the pulse and reset the body’s internal rhythm. Exhale through the mouth for seven seconds, releasing all the air from the lungs. Repeat three times.  Do this exercise whenever you feel stressed. A full belly breath moves 8 to 10 times as much air as a chest breath!

Finding Your Rhythm

Establishing daily rhythms of sleeping, eating, exercising, working and resting can significantly reduce stress. Our biological rhythms—the ebb and flow of hormones and anti-aging chemicals—depend on synchronous and rhythmic living. Keeping a regular schedule allows your body to produce the balance of hormones that normalizes your weight and keeps you healthy.

Massage and Bodywork

Massage and other bodywork therapies like Swedish massage, Tui Na, and Yamuna body-rolling improve mental and physical stress levels in the body. They improve blood, oxygen, and lymph circulation, increase the availability of nutrients to your cells, promote the elimination of toxic waste and fluid buildup, and balance the nervous system. Studies have shown that bodywork therapies actually reduce the level of stress hormones (including cortisol and norepinephrine) in the body.