It’s Mental Health Awareness Month: Let’s talk about how to use lifestyle medicine and diet changes to help ease anxiety!

It seems like almost every person in my life feels the impact of anxiety, myself included.  I remember my Dad trying to reassure me when I was a kid by telling me “Honey, just relax, don’t worry about it”.  Easier said than done!   I believe that my life has lead me towards the opportunities that would allow me to work on myself and it has not let me down in the arena of anxiety.  In many ways, I feel like I was born with a tendency to feel anxious and over the course of the last 40+ years I have learned how to manage it.

As with most things in life, anxiety has its perks as well as its challenges.  It served me well sometimes and yet, the toll anxiety has taken on my sense of peace and well-being cannot be denied.  When I was younger, there weren’t a lot of conversation around what to do about mental health concerns like anxiety.  If it got bad enough, there was a solution at the doctor’s office that came in a pill but otherwise, I was on my own.   I learned over the last 4 decades that there was a ton that I could do to manage my anxious feelings that don’t have anything to do with a doctor’s visit. 

Here are my top 5 anti-anxiety interventions:

1. Exercise is a big way to reduce anxiety for me.  While the type of exercise I do has changed over the years, the need for me to move my body in order to stay on top of my nerves has been consistent.  I played sports when I was young and into college and I was used to a certain intensity of exercise that didn’t feel great once I started having kids and not sleeping for more than 2-3 hours at a stretch.  So I listened to my body to see what felt good and adjusted my exercise level accordingly but otherwise, I have learned exercise is one of my key non-negotiables to help manage my anxiety.

2. Sleep is a close second to exercise to help decrease anxiety.  Everything about my ability to be a decent human being hinges on the amount of sleep I am getting.  Interestingly, I have been using an Oura ring over the last few months and I can see how my resting heart rate changes based on the quantity and quality of sleep I get the night before.  There is a direct relationship between my heart rate and my anxiety that the Oura ring has solidified in my mind.  So, I trade my dexterity with the popular culture on TV for my 7.5 hours of sleep and when I don’t get enough sleep, I see a noticeable increase in my anxiety levels.

3. Magnesium is my go-to mineral to ease anxiety and balance my stress response.  Not only does magnesium help me sleep well at night, but the next day I find a big difference in my ability to manage my anxiety level if I haven’t taken it.  I know this need for magnesium is related to how I am wired genetically and that this is likely a part of a long-term solution for me.

4. Mindfulness has been a game changer for me.  When I was in school for my masters, I decided I needed to meditate if I was going to ask others to practice mindfulness as part of my nutrition practice.  I was having trouble sleeping at that time, I was wired and tired.  I was pleasantly surprised when the regular meditation quickly helped with my sleep and my sense of peace and calm, which helped reduce my anxiety.  All of this in just 10 minutes a day!

5. Managing my blood sugar by adjusting my diet helps me avoid the low blood sugar symptoms that would spark anxiety in two ways.  The most direct was low blood sugar would make me anxious so that I would feel dizzy and shaky and that made me very worried.  Indirectly, having to keep snacks on hand to avoid low blood sugar also made me anxious.  After many years of working on my diet and improving my blood sugar management, I am now free from the worry about having to eat every 3 hours for fear of my blood sugar crashing.  

Managing anxiety with lifestyle changes such as the ones I list is not as easy as taking a pill; however, I believe that ultimately I am healthier in all aspects of my life as a result of the changes that managing my anxiety through small lifestyle changes has helped me create.