Burnout can take a toll on both your physical and emotional health. Trying to keep up with work demands while trying to live your life to the fullest is a struggle even the most talented workers face. Recovering from burnout may be a long road ahead, but it is a path you should take for your long-term health and for the people you love. In this blog post, we will uncover three different strategies to help support your body’s response to chronic stress that can lead to burnout from within!
Why Burnout Happens
Burnout results from prolonged and unresolved stress which can affect anyone, whether you’re still months into your first job or you have worked in a specific industry for years. This type of stress impairs the connection within the brain, eventually causing your body’s response to be out of balance! This imbalance may reflect as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, exhaustion, and even irritability. To learn more about why burnout happens and how it can affect the connections that keep your body strong and healthy, we have the perfect blog post for you!
Regimen #1: Mindful Eating
The Goal: nurture healthy blood sugar levels throughout the day
As the saying goes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is especially true when you are suffering from burnout because eating nourishing meals during breakfast can fuel your entire day and at the same time maintain adequate levels of glucose in the blood. Eating gluten-free and protein-rich foods such as fruits, eggs, dairy products, and meat can help maintain energy levels while reducing inflammation that your body may be experiencing due to stress. Interestingly, burnout has been associated with being addicted to caffeinated drinks!1 Controlling the amount of coffee you drink and monitoring your caffeine intake throughout the day can help prevent your burnout symptoms from worsening. Knowing what you will be eating helps reduce decision-fatigue, leaving you more mental-emotional bandwidth for the decisions that matter. Starting your day with an easy, meal-prepped breakfast can help take some stress off of you and allow you to focus more on what you want to accomplish throughout the day. Click here to learn how to make the Perfect Chia Pudding or our favorite Blueberry Muffin overnight oats for a delicious and healthy treat to fuel you for the day ahead! You can even try Dr. Johnson’s favorite variation (dairy or non-dairy): swap out the blueberries for frozen mixed berries, use 1T+1t chia seeds instead of flax seeds, double the cinnamon (tasty and helps lower blood sugar!) and add ¼ t vanilla extract. So yummy! Regimen #2: Nourish Your Adrenals
Supplementing your meals with vitamins and minerals can help boost your adrenal gland, which is the source of the hormones that drive your body’s stress response.
The Goal: support your meals with supplements
Regimen #3: Prioritize Relaxation
The Goal: give yourself some time out
One of the simplest but most effective approaches in recovering from burnout is by deciding to pause and relax every once in a while. Whether long-term or short-term, your body needs rest. Practicing good sleeping habits, taking on that long overdue vacation, and even taking a 10-minute walk can help clear out your thoughts and turn off your body’s alarm signals against stress. Doing breathing exercises, such as doing longer inhales and shorter exhales for a few minutes can already help enhance your mood and reduce anxiety, and at the same time regulate your heart and respiratory rates.3 
The Naturopathic Approach
Burnout can cause debilitating symptoms and affect your overall quality of life, even after work. The key to managing burnout is holistic and integrated care that focuses on uplifting your psychological mindset while at the same time nurturing your body’s response to prolonged stress. At Natural Path to Wellness, we will help you discover the best holistic regimens for your unique case and preferences. Talk to us today!
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
A heavy workload or too much stress from work can lead to burnout, which can make you feel emotionally exhausted, fatigued, and weary. This emotional turmoil eventually affects your professional productivity and efficacy by changing your outlook towards the job you once worked hard to achieve. That being said, this is a reminder that burnout is real and can happen to anyone, even the most productive and exemplary employee or employer. Unfortunately, the diagnostic criteria that clinically distinguishes burnout from other physical and mental health disorders are yet to be established. This is not to be feared, however, because no matter what type of occupation, ethnicity, or culture you’re in, the characteristic features of burnout are universal!
Welcome to the first installment of our burnout series, where we delve into understanding what burnout is and why it happens. Together, we will explore holistic approaches to managing it, ensuring that your health is a priority and your concerns are heard. Join us on this holistic journey towards optimal health! Understanding Burnout
Burnout is a syndrome of emotional and physical symptoms that many of us may be very familiar with, especially with our fast-paced and constantly evolving lives. Burnout can affect anyone, regardless of your job or profession. It can be described as that feeling of being drained and stagnant, where every work day feels like another wave of stress and unfulfillment. This common yet silent epidemic is characterized by emotional exhaustion, detachment, and doubt about one’s abilities and capabilities.1 When burnout sets in, you may lose track of your job’s purpose or even question the values that built your company or workplace to the point that you just find yourself doing the bare minimum to accomplish each task. In the face of burnout, doing what you can to the best of your abilities, even when others consider it bare minimum, is proof of your commitment and responsibility to your job and the people that put their trust on you.
Understanding burnout is very important because it helps us recognize that our bodies also need time to pause and recharge. It is a reminder that no matter your profession, you are a human being whose body will only remain strong with proper balance and care. How Burnout Affects Your Brain
The core signs of burnout happen when our bodies respond maladaptively to stressors that have not been addressed and resolved for so long.2 When faced with stress, special structures in the brain, namely, the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, help us adequately manage it by sending regulatory and calming signals to the amygdala, which is the part of your brain that helps process and control your emotions. Unfortunately, chronic stress or burnout breaks this regulatory mechanism apart by causing damage to the prefrontal cortex. Once damaged, the ability of the prefrontal cortex to soothe and control the amygdala is disrupted, causing it to become hyperactive and hypersensitive, eventually affecting your body’s response to stressors.2 This imbalance can also affect your thinking, emotions, and memory, ultimately causing symptoms such as exhaustion, anxiety, irritability, and fatigue.2
When you are experiencing burnout, you may need to exert more effort into solving problems and working on tasks, proving how an imbalance from external sources affects both your mind and body. 
How Burnout Affects Physical Health
Burnout can affect your physical health because prolonged stress can exhaust the body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Once these essential systems become overstimulated in response to stress, their abilities to regulate vital functions become impaired, causing elevated blood pressure and heart rate, as well as impaired metabolism and immune defenses.3 Compounding these damaging effects is the possibility of picking up unhealthy habits when you’re experiencing burnout, such as poor coping mechanisms or vices, or unhealthy lifestyle routines. Over time, the combination of chronic stress and lifestyle practices can trigger the development of cardiovascular problems. In fact, heart-related problems are major causes of absenteeism in individuals experiencing burnout.3 Additionally, a weakened immune function due to burnout can increase your risks of getting infected with respiratory viruses and gastrointestinal pathogens.
The Naturopathic Approach
Managing burnout and preventing its consequences begin with recognizing that it is a reality for many people, no matter their profession, rank, or culture. At Natural Path to Wellness, your team of naturopathic medicine advisors will help you unlock the intricacies behind the burnout phenomenon and guide you in discovering holistic and natural solutions that are especially tailored to your unique case and preferences. Talk to us today!
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
 The cold breeze has finally entered the chat and while this cozy weather means lots of holidays, it can also bring respiratory viruses that will make you cough and sniffle! While over-the-counter medications are readily available to treat your symptoms, these may impose health risks when doses are not properly regulated or monitored. Don’t worry, nature is here to save the day. In this blog post, we’ll uncover the secrets of one natural wonder that has been used for centuries to manage different kinds of health problems: elderberry! What Is Elderberry?Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is a powerful plant that belongs to the Caprifoliaceae family. It has been used for centuries to nurture the immune system’s abilities to fight off infections. Compared to other herbs, elderberry is very rich in anthocyanins, which are compounds rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.1 Its nutritional and healing properties stem from its abilities to regulate inflammation, prevent abnormal cell growth that can lead to cancer or tumors, fight off oxidative stress, protect your heart health, and nurture blood sugar levels in the body. Elderberry for ColdsCough, sore throat, and a congested nose are few of the symptoms that you may experience once you have a respiratory infection, such as the common cold. Although these viruses are present all year round, most people get infected during the cold fall and winter months. Treatment for these respiratory viruses are usually supportive and bought over-the-counter (OTC), especially since most people do not visit their healthcare providers to manage these symptoms. The good news is that nature has a powerful plant that can help ease your symptoms and help your body fight off the respiratory virus. Elderberry is an herbal remedy that has been used for centuries to reduce the duration and severity of respiratory symptoms, owing to its immune-boosting and antiviral properties. Choosing the Best ElderberryChoosing the Best ElderberryAlthough elderberry is readily available in the market, ingredients and methods used to prepare elderberry may vary and choosing the right one is important to effectively target your health goals. The best way to enjoy the plant’s immunity boost is by simply preparing it at home! What You’ll Need:·
What You’ll Do:·
Original Recipe (and our current preferred source for bulk herbs): How to Make Elderberry Syrup for Immune System Support Safety and ConsiderationsElderberry can cause gastric irritation leading to nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea when ingested raw. Additionally, the leaves, root, and bark of elderberry has sambunigrin, which can be toxic because it releases cyanide if not heated or cooked.2 This is precisely why proper and safe preparations of elderberry is very important. The use of herbs such as elderberry, ginger, and cinnamon may be contraindicated in pregnant women or other special demographics. Talking to your healthcare provider or naturopathic doctor is important before using herbs for your health concerns to make sure your body is able to optimally benefit from its healing properties. The Naturopathic ApproachNaturopathic care aims to nurture your body’s abilities to protect and heal itself against infections, incorporating the healing properties of nature to restore optimal function without added health risks. At Natural Path to Wellness, your team of naturopathic medicine advisors will help you explore holistic and integrated care tailored to your specific needs and preferences. Talk to us today! This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
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THE BLOG AT NATURAL PATH TO WELLNESSAuthorSNatural Path to Wellness values community education and welcomes contributions from writers with a background in Naturopathic Medicine, natural health and wellness, herbalism, homeopathy, Nature Cure, and more. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information.
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