How stress affects your health

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Are you cramming for a test or trying to get more things done than what you have time for? Stress is a part of life and all of us go through it.

Stress is a feeling that we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed. Stress is more than a simple emotion. It is a hardwired, physical response that travels throughout your entire body. 

Why do we have a stress response?

In the short term, stress can be advantageous. It primes our bodies for focus and energy when we need it the most. It helps us to escape from danger or catch our next meal.

If stress is natural, why is it bad for us?

When the stress response is activated too often or for too long, the primitive fight or flight stress response changes your brain. It also damages many of the other organs and cells throughout your body.

It's like kicking your body into overdrive for much longer than what it can handle.

We need periods of high activity and deep rest. We run into problems when we stress too much and even if we rest too much.

How does stress affect your health?

Your adrenal gland releases certain stress hormones. These include cortisol (the primary stress hormone), epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and norepinephrine. 

Cortisol is a stress hormone that your body uses to communicate a state of stress throughout the body when you are mentally or physically stressed.

Adrenaline relates to inward feelings and functions. This hormone increases energy so that you can get through the stressful task at hand. It functions in the brain and body as a hormone and a neurotransmitter.

The effects of stress on your heart, blood vessels, arteries and blood pressure

As these hormones travel through your bloodstream, they easily reach your blood vessels and heart. 

Adrenaline causes your heart to beat faster and raises your blood pressure. This is a normal response, but causes hypertension over time if left unchecked.

Cortisol can also cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels, to not function normally over time. This negatively affects blood circulation (and is one of the reasons why relaxation improves blood circulation).

This is an early step in triggering the process of atherosclerosis (building up of fats) or cholesterol plaque buildup in your arteries.  

Stress increases the risk for heart attack and stroke

Together, these changes increase your chances of a heart attack or stroke.

When your brain senses stress, it activates your autonomic nervous system (fight or flight response).

The health effects of stress on digestion

Through the network of nerve connections, our brain communicates stress to your enteric, or intestinal, nervous system.

Besides causing butterflies in your stomach, this brain-gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut.

This will lead to irritable bowel syndrome and increase your gut sensitivity to acid of it goes on for too long. You will then be more likely to feel heartburn. 

Via the gut's nervous system, stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria, which may affect your digestive and overall health.

Stress causes change in the gut bacteria that you need to stay healthy.

Does stress cause weight gain?

Chronic (long term) stress affects your waistline.

Excess stress leads to weight gain. Cortisol can increase your appetite.

It tells your body to replenish your energy stores with energy dense foods like carbs. It does this to hoard extra energy in preparation for the stressful event. This causes you to crave comfort foods.

High levels of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories as visceral or deep belly fat.

How does stress affect the immune system?

Stress leads to an increase in immune system chemicals called cytokines. This raises overall inflammation.

Inflammation increases your risk of developing chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, mental degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, insulin resistance and diabetes.

Stress hormones affect immune cells in a variety of ways. Immune cells help prepare to fight invaders and heal after injury.

Stress prioritizes energy over immunity in order to cope with a specific situation.

Chronic stress dampens the function of immune cells. This makes you more susceptible to infections and slows the rate at which you can heal.

Does stress shorten your lifespan?

Too much stress shortens your lifespan.

Do you want to live a long life? You will need to curb chronic stress to do so.

That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that measure a cell's age.

Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied every time that a cell divides without damaging the cell's genetic code, and they shorten with each cell division.

This is why cells can't divide and live forever. They die off as telomeres shorten. Long term stress speeds up this process.

When telomeres become too short, a cell can no longer divide and it dies.

As if that wasn't enough, chronic stress has even more ways that it can sabotage your health. This includes acne, hair loss, sexual dysfunction, headaches, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and irritability.

Your life will always be filled with stressful situations.

What matters to your brain and entire body is how you respond to that stress. 

If you can view these situations as challenges that you can control and master, rather than threats that are insurmountable, you will perform better in the short run and stay healthy in the long run.  

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Look after yourself

 

If you feel a sniffle or an itch in your throat coming along, your immune system might be down and in need of a boost. Here are great ways to give your immune system the boost that it needs.

How to boost your immune system

1. Determine the cause of your immune crash

2. Reduce stress

3. Get more rest

4. Eat healthy

5. Try a natural immune booster

Give your body its strength back.

1) Determine what is hampering your immune system

If you’re feeling a little vulnerable at the moment, it could be because of something that you are going through.

Are you facing a stressful situation at work? Try doing things that will relax and de-stress you.

Have you had one or two too many late nights? Have a few early nights to even out the balance.

There could also be a few things that you do every day that negatively affects your immune system. If you get sick regularly, it could be because of substances like cigarette smoke, alcohol or medication.

You might have been eating too much junk food or consuming too much sugar lately.

Have you been depriving yourself from natural sunlight? Are you deficient in a specific nutrient?

Lack of exercise also causes your immune system to crash.

Clean up unhealthy things.

2) Reduce stress

Too much stress will negatively affect your entire body, from muscle tissue to your immune system.

There are two main types of stress: mental stress and physical stress.

Mental stress

Mental stress releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is good in small quantities because it primes your body for increased energy output.

Our cortisol levels are supposed to be the highest in the morning when we wake up and slowly taper off throughout the day until we go to bed in the evening.

Low cortisol levels lead to a decrease in energy levels. Too much cortisol from too much stress, though, can also wreak havoc on your body.

When you are stressed, your body cannot recover as efficiently because it is preparing for ‘fight or flight’.

If you are stressed out almost all of the time, your body uses less energy to heal itself. If mental stress is getting you down, use coping mechanisms like thinking about the stressful situation in a positive way.

Positivity reduces the amount of stress you will feel when doing a specific task. This will lower cortisol levels over time.

Make sure that you spend time doing something that you really enjoy like reading a book or catching up on a good TV series.

Relaxing and enjoyable activities reduce cortisol levels, speed up healing and boost your overall health.

Make time to relax.

Physical stress

Physical stress can also damage your immune system.

Exercise is really good for your health; but too much exercise, referred to as overtraining, can wear the body out at a faster rate than what it can recover from.

Increased frequency of colds and flu is actually one of the first signs that athletes are pushing their bodies too far.

This can lead to adrenal fatigue, muscle and energy loss, sleep problems (some people will crave sleep all the time, while others won’t be able to sleep at all) and decreased immune function.

If too much exercise is hampering your immune system, take a few days off and let your body recover.

I give myself a healthy rest week every two months or so to let my body recover fully.

When you get back to your normal exercise routine, you’ll see how much rest you actually needed because your physical performance will increase.

Lack of exercise can also lead to physical stress, because our bodies were made to move around regularly. Prolonged sitting times are linked to an increase in all diseases.

Staying in one position for too long will limit blood circulation.

If you sit too much at work, try taking a stroll every few minutes. The improved blood circulation and quick mental break will reduce mental stress while giving your overall moral a boost.

Taking brisk walks during your office job can actually increase your work output.

Take breaks.

3) Get more rest

Our bodies naturally go through cycles of activity and recovery.

If the balance swings too much in one direction, our health suffers.

Too much activity is as dangerous as too little. If you spend more time racing to complete the next task than you do relaxing and enjoying something, your body compensates by decreasing health.

Get some extra sleep for a few days to let your body catch up with your busy schedule. Make some time to power down and enjoy the moment that you are in right now.

If you can enjoy at least one thing every day, your day not been wasted.

When was the last time that you did something that you really enjoyed? Think about a hobby or time spent with your friends and family.

When was the last time that you got a full night's sleep?

These things are not optional. Your life depends on them. Happiness and health and heavily intertwined.

Make time for happiness.

4) Eat healthy

Over 70% of your immune system is in your gut. 

Once you correct the balance between activity and recovery, you need to make sure that your body has the right nutrients to replenish and heal itself.

Good protein sources will help to rebuild muscle, bone, nerve, and brain and organ tissue. A healthy combination of protein, carbohydrates and fats will give your body the building blocks that it needs to replenish its energy stores.

Make sure to include lots of fruit and vegetables in your daily diet. They are packed with micro nutrients that we need like vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, trace elements, fiber and anti-oxidants.

Try to eat at least 5 different servings of fruit or veg every day. If 5 servings is too much for you to handle right now, eat as many as you can and build up slowly towards your 5-a-day goal.

It is better to have an apple and a banana today instead of nothing because the idea of 5 whole fruit and veg intimidates you.

Maintain gut health.

5) Try an immune booster

Green tea

A hot cup of green tea with a squeeze of lemon juice can do wonders for your immune system.

The antioxidants in green tea will regenerate your body on a cellular level while the amino acid, L-theanine, will protect the mind by helping it to relax.

If stress is disturbing your immune system, L-theanine will ease its effects.

Green tea is anti-bacterial – and so is lemon juice. This can help fight against the germs that are building up in your throat.

Glutamine

Glutamine is one of my favorite amino acids.

It is one of my top ways to speed up recovery when I actually get sick. 

Exercise and stress decreases our natural glutamine levels. Supplementing with it helps the body to speed up recovery.

Glutamine can also increase sleep quality because it increases the levels of the neurotransmitter GABBA (gamma-aminobutyric acid).

GABBA is needed to relax and have a good night’s sleep. You can find this supplement at health or supplement stores.

A good multi vitamin

A good multi-vitamin can help you to make sure that you are getting the micro nutrients that your body needs.

Although supplements should never replace a healthy diet, a multi-vitamin can help you to make sure that your body gets all the right vitamins.

Choose natural remedies when you can.

By cutting out unhealthy habits, reducing physical and mental stress, prioritizing rest and eating a healthy diet; you will give your immune system the raw materials that it needs to recover.

Remember to also replenish fluids by drinking enough water and make time to enjoy your everyday life. Stay Strong!

Exercise for autophagy

Exercise induces autophagy

We know that exercise has health benefits for almost every part of your body. It most definitely increases life span. Is autophagy one of the ways in which exercise does this?

Exercise causes autophagy

Studies have found that exercise increases autophagy activity in many parts of the body including the brain, muscles, heart, liver and fat tissue. Your immune cells also go through autophagy when you exercise. Autophagy from exercise occurs through the same pathways as calorie restriction or fasting.

Exercise renews important body parts.

Definition of autophagy

It literally means eat yourself. Autophagy is a biological process that has many favorable health benefits. It is the process by which the body breaks down old, damaged cells and cleans up cellular waste in order to recycle the nutrients. This removes damaged cells and makes way for newer cells.

Autophagy has been touted as a remarkable way to prevent degenerative diseases like cancer and mental illnesses because it removes the damaged cells that causes these diseases. Removal of these cells makes way to new cells to form.

It can even remove symptoms of aging like wrinkles and skin tags.

Exercise stimulates autophagy immensely

Multiple studies show that exercise causes a 'potent' stimulation of autophagy in muscle, heart, liver, pancreas, fat, brain and immune cells.

The above source says that energetic stress is what causes such high autophagy activity.

When your body needs energy, it will break down old and damaged cells to get it. Fat isn't the only unwanted body tissue that exercise (and energy deprivation) clears away.

The text explains that autophagy provides an emergency, alternative energy source in muscle tissue. There are other ways that exercise induces autophagy. Protein and mitochondria damage stimulates autophagy to clean up the damage and create new cells.

Increased mitochondrial respiration (using oxygen to create energy), higher reactive oxygen species (from exercise) and an increased immune response to pain or muscle damage also increase autophagy.

Exercise helps the body to clean up.

Exercise causes cellular damage to proteins and organelles (parts of cells) via heat, mechanical stress and changes in the pH level. Autophagy activates during exercise to clear these damages away and prevent them from accumulating.

How much autophagy do you get from exercise?

This depends on the intensity of the exercise (source). The greater the cellular stress and protein damage caused by exercise, the greater the amount of autophagy that exercises stimulate.

If you want to maximize the autophagy-boosting benefits of exercise; increase the intensity, duration or frequency so that greater cellular damage leads to a greater autophagy response.

Remember to get enough rest from exercise and avoid over training, which may cause the body to break down more than what it can rebuild.

Exercise triggers autophagy.

Is autophagy from exercise the same as autophagy from calorie restriction or fasting?

The two are extremely similar. Both of them use identical pathways in many instances.

Exercise activates AMPK just like calorie restriction does. The degree to which AMPK is activated depends on the intensity of exercise.

AMPK is the pathway that turns on autophagy (recycling of damaged parts of cells).

The moral of the story is this: You get very similar benefits of autophagy from exercise compared to the autophagy benefits that you get from calorie restriction or fasting.

Exercise clears damaged cells.

Does exercise duration increase autophagy?

Yes it does. Autophagy activity increases in proportion to exercise duration. The linked study notes that the autophagy activity is most likely one of the major contributing factors to the overall benefits of exercise. The health benefits of exercise increase along with prolonged exercise duration and frequency. Autophagy increases in the same way.

What type of exercise promotes the most autophagy?

All forms of exercise increase autophagy. The degree to which autophagy is activated depends on the intensity.

Muscle growth cannot happen without autophagy.

Resistance training induces autophagy. 

Autophagy increases cardiovascular function as a result of endurance exercise.

Intensity matters.

Is exercise better than fasting or calorie restriction for autophagy?

This study says that exercise is the greatest stress that the body faces. It is the stressful state (hormesis) that activates autophagy. The last link explains that stress, of almost any kind, becomes beneficial because of the autophagy response.

I would therefore conclude that exercise is the best way to induce autophagy - IF you do it in such a way that it causes enough stress to induce a lot of autophagy.

Intensity matters. A walk to the bathroom won't induce nearly as much autophagy as a 24 hour fast.

Exercise remains supreme.

Does this mean that you should forego fasting or calorie restriction you're doing it for the autophagy benefits? You should read the linked research and decide for yourself.

Is one option truly superior or more complete than the other? We just don't know enough about autophagy to know for sure yet.

Personally, I do both (along with other positive things like cold training and heat therapy).

It is always better to do more, instead of less, when it comes to your health. Stay Strong!

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11 Physical health benefits of mental relaxation

Mental relaxation is healthy.

Mental relaxation like yoga, aroma therapy and meditation is extremely good for your mental health.

It also has impressive benefits for your physical health. Today we examine how mental relaxation can improve your physical body.

Relax. It's good for you.

Physical health benefits of mental relaxation

There are many benefits of relaxation. They include:

1. Lowered blood pressure
2. Improved digestion
3. Maintenance of blood sugar
4. Improved blood flow to muscles and other tissues
5. Reduced muscle tension
6. Reduced chronic or prolonged pain
7. Better sleep quality
8. Higher energy levels and less fatigue
9. Less stress hormone activity
10. Lower heart rate
11. Slower breathing rate

Relaxation benefits almost everything.

1. Relaxation lowers blood pressure

Relaxing activities like yoga, tai chi, music, sitting in the sun, meditation, and relaxing social activities can dilate your blood vessels lower your blood pressure almost instantly.

Blood vessels dilate (expand) which helps blood to flow through them easier when you relax. This improves your body's ability to nourish itself all over.

The more often you relax, the easier it will be for your body to enter into a healthy state of relaxation. This is why doing relaxing activities or learning how to relax frequently can lower your overall blood pressure over time.

Blood pressure drops when you relax.

2. Relaxation improves digestion

Stress causes digestive issues like stomach discomfort, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, frequent toilet visits, ulcers, and an unhealthy change in appetite. It can worsen irritable bowel syndrome as well.

These issues may be acute (once off) in times of short-term stress, or chronic (doesn't go away) as a result of prolonged stress.

Mental relaxation helps to counteract the negative effects of stress on the digestive system.

This is why dome people need to go to the toilet or let out gas during relaxing activities like exercise - their digestive systems begin to return to a state normalcy as a result of the mental relaxation.

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3. Relaxation helps to lower blood sugar levels

Stress triggers a chain of biological responses in your body. This is okay if it is balanced out with periods of rest and relaxation. When you stress too much, certain processes are left to run rampant while other processes never get the biological attention that they deserve.

Your body is not going to focus on healing itself, for example, if it thinks that it needs to gear up for impending danger.

Blood pressure and heart rate increase. Your breathing rate increases and you are more likely to breathe through your mouth. Muscles tense up in preparation for a burst of physical activity.

Digestion is put on hold until the body detects a time of rest and recovery.

Blood sugar levels can get real high during the stressful state because your body reacts to the stressful situation by pouring energy into the blood stream. When this energy isn't used, it is out of place and then damages your health.

Relaxation signals to the body that it can shut off these processes and go into a state of rest and recovery. Blood sugar is taken out of the blood stream and shuttled back into storage to be used at a later stage.

Relax more to heal more.

4. Relaxation improves blood flow to muscles and other tissues

When relaxation dilates blood vessels; blood circulation improves and blood flow increases. This helps with two very important things. 

Firstly, important nutrients like oxygen, energy and proteins can reach muscles and other tissues. This gives them the building blocks that they need to rebuild and function properly.

Secondly, by-products and toxins like carbon dioxide and old cells can exit muscles and tissues to be recycled or disposed of.

This is why stress reduces muscle growth and recovery.

You need rest to succeed.

5. Relaxation reduces muscle tension

Stress indicates a danger that we need to escape from or a prey that we need to catch. Our minds and bodies work together in order to ensure our maximum chances of survival in these situations.

Stress tenses muscle fibers in preparation for a burst of physical activity. When we stay in the stressful state for longer periods of time, tension gradually increases. Tension gets greater over time because every fresh moment of stress adds to existing tension.

Periods of relaxation signal to our brains (and therefore our bodies) that the dangerous situation has passed and that we can go back to normal.

When the signal to relax does not come after an extended period of time (or if it comes too infrequently to balance out stressful situations), tension build-up leads to things like muscle knots, aches and pains, restricted blood flow and bad postural development.

This is why exercise is so good for things like mental stress. It is clear to the mind and body that the period of danger has passed at the end of the workout. People who stress and don't exercise live in a constant biological state of danger anticipation.

The bodies of people who exercise live as though the dangerous situation is gone. Every stressful situation then starts with a relaxed and healed body instead of adding to existing tension.

Relaxation also tells the body that the dangerous situation is gone and that they can therefore start internal healing processes.

Relaxation is essential to health.

6. Relaxation for pain

Studies show that relaxation reduces both chronic (persistent) and acute (once-off) pain.

Web MD explains that chronic stress is one of the factors that contribute to pain, and that relaxation exercises can help with natural pain relief as part of your pain management plan.

The pain response is very similar to the stress response. Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and muscle tension all increase. Both pain and stress hit your nervous system hard. It is hard for the body to relax or to heal in this kind of state.

Web MD mentions studies that reveal that just thinking about a stressful event (or talking about it) causes a dramatic increase in back tension for patients with back pain.

Stress can increase the harshness of pain, while relaxation dulls its effects.

An elevated sense of well-being from relaxation helps people to cope with pain as well. It helps to mitigate the frustration that chronic pain tends to cause - the frustration that makes the pain worse to begin with.

Use relaxation for pain relief.

7. Relaxation increases sleep quality

Sleep is absolutely essential for your health.

Most techniques that help you to sleep are techniques that help you to relax.

Our bodies go through periods of high energetic activity and restfulness. Hormones tell us when to be active and when to relax. We are supposed to relax before bed time in order to get the best amount of high quality sleep.

It is almost impossible to get good natural sleep without being in a state of relaxation. Regular relaxation activities will help you to fall into a state of relaxation that is conducive to good sleep much quicker.

Imagine being able to sleep as soon as you want to.

Relaxation will also improve the quality of your sleep. This means that every hour of sleep is much more valuable in terms of its restorative effect on physical and mental health.

The more relaxed you are when you fall asleep, the better you will feel when you wake up.

Relax to sleep better.

8. Relaxation for higher energy levels

Relaxation can improve your energy levels.

The fact that relaxation improves blood pressure, digestion, blood sugar, blood circulation, muscle tension, pain, sleep, stress and breathing means that your body can heal itself.

You will be healthier and your body can finally heal from issues that it has been putting off because it was in a constant state of stress. Freedom from stress frees up precious energy that your body can use for other functions like healing and recovery.

There's only so much healing that you can do. Once you have received the healing that your body needs, energy levels will improve as you have more physical energy at your disposal.

Relax for energy.

 9. Less stress hormone activity

The stress hormone cortisol isn't a bad hormone. It has very important functions. It helps to turn nutrients into energy and gives you the motivation to get up and do different activities.

Cortisol becomes unhealthy when we have too much of it. This happens when we stress at a higher intensity than what we should. It also becomes unhealthy when it is elevated for extended periods of time.

Cortisol should rise sharply in the morning when we wake up to give us energy for the day. It should slowly taper off to reach its lowest point when we sleep.

Stress throughout the day triggers an up-regulation of cortisol so that it doesn't slowly taper off. This is why so many people struggle to fall asleep at night.

Exercise can modulate sleep patterns through many different mechanisms. One of them is the ability to push cortisol back into healthy levels.

Relaxation is a great countermeasure against stress. It can reduce cortisol by the same degree that stress increases it.

This will help you to keep your stress hormone (cortisol) levels in balance so that it serves you but doesn't burn you.

Use relaxation to reduce stress.

10. Relaxation to lower heart rate

High blood pressure, high blood sugar, rapid breathing and a faster heart rate are all cardiovascular responses to stress that aren't bad for you if they come and go in the way that they are supposed to.

Stress triggers these conditions while relaxation does the opposite. These conditions become chronic when the presence of stress, in the absence of relaxation, causes an elevation without the opposing reduction.

This puts a lot of pressure on your cardiovascular system. Your heart shouldn't have to labor at a stressed rate all of the time. It needs periods of relaxation. The risk of various heart diseases (and other cardiovascular disease) increase without vital periods of relaxation and recovery.

Give yourself some much-needed relaxation time to balance out the physical effects of mental stress.

Give your heart a break.

11. Slower breathing rate

A high-paced, stressed-out state of mind increases your heart rate and your breathing rate.

Some physical bodily processes speed up (like heart rate and breathing) while others slow down (like digestion and healing) to help you survive in periods of stress.

Our bodies need to slow down in order for other bodily processes to become a priority. When you slow down mentally, your breathing rate and heart rate will slow down as well.

Blood pressure will drop and your body will experience a shift in energy.

Mood changes include a change in attitude, similar to enlightenment.

Digestion works better and the immune system can work in the way that it is supposed to.

Healing processes that have been put off can come back online to restore your body.

Many people use techniques to slow their breathing so that their bodies can enter into this healing, restorative state. Your breathing rate will slow down automatically when you relax.

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Aromatherapy for stress

Aromatherapy can help you to relax.

How can aromatherapy help you to relieve stress?

Aromatherapy is a holistic therapy that is used to heal the physical and emotional state with the help of extracts. Of course, it will not save you from hard diseases; but it can easily help you to relieve stress and calm down your mind.

Each essential oil has its own medicinal properties. Today we will look at the ones that can help you to get rid of depression, anxiety and stress.

What are the best ways to use aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy works with the help of skin absorption and your sense of smell. Thus, there are several ways that you can use essential oils daily.

You can use an essential oil diffuser at home. The scent of the essential oils will help you to relax.

You can use a face mask with essential oils. Compresses are great for not only having a psychological effect but also to improve the state of your skin.

You can also use essential oils with the help of inhalers and aromatic salts.

What Essential Oils Help To Relieve Stress?

The world we live in can be extremely stressful. Each day we are pressured with a flow of information at work, then at home while watching TV, listening to the radio or reading the daily news.

As such a lot of people suffer from depression, anxiety and stress. To avoid this, you need to take time for your mental and physical health.

Applying essential oils can be an awesome, healthy coping technique. You can use it anywhere. If you want to relieve stress, here is the list of the best essential oils for stress-relief:

1. Bergamot Essential Oil
2. Lavender Essential Oil
3. Lemongrass Essential Oil
4. Lemon Essential Oil
5. Orange Essential Oil

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5 Ways to Reduce Eye Strain - And the Method that Actually Worked for Me

For the past few weeks, I have been struggling with eye strain. This led me to do a lot of research about what causes eye strain and how to solve it. I found 5 prominent ideas and tried them all - until I found the one that worked for me. I don't think that the one that worked for me will work for everybody, because the causes of your specific eye strain will be different to mine. If you can find out the reason why your eyes feel strained, you can take steps to deal with the problem at the cause and help your eyes to work at their best.

Here are the 5 best methods that I tried, the reasons why each one would work and the causes that they address, and the one that actually helped me (spoiler alert, the one that solved my issue is the last one: Method number 5).

How to help your eyes recover from eye strain

1) Use tea bags to help relax and restore your eyes

This method is quite simple. Simply brew two tea bags in hot water. Then put them on a plate so that they cool down. You want them to be warm enough to warm the eyes without burning them. You need to make sure that they are cool enough because your eyelids are very sensitive. Burning them will add pain to your eye area and make your problems even worse. Once they are at the right temperature, place them on your closed eyes while you lie down. Let them sit there for a few minutes until they cool down. After a while, they will become cold. The initial warmth will increase blood flow to your eyes, while the later cooling effect will ease inflammation. After a few minutes, place them back in the hot water to heat them up again and repeat the process. Do this for a few times until you feel like your eyes are completely relaxed.

I must admit that my eyes felt totally relaxed after doing this. I listened to music to keep myself busy during those few minute intervals and I placed a towel under my pillow so that the tea did not leak onto my bed.

How the teabag method will help with eye strain

This method will help with eye strain in a variety of ways. The heat and cold will bring fresh blood flow to your eyes while helping them to get rid of old blood that carries waste products. Your eyes have muscles that are used to focus and move the eyeball in different directions. The opposing temperatures help to heal these muscles. There are also nutrients in tea like vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that will nourish the eyes. This will help to reduce any swelling and inflammation, ease pain and discomfort, hydrate the eyes, and totally relax them.

If you have eye strain because your eyes do a lot of work like focusing or if your eyes have a lot of built up tension, this method will help them to relax and recover.

2) Focus on different distances

A lot of eye strain occurs because we tend to spend too much time focusing on a single length of distance. I have noticed that people who have a computer-related job often struggle to see long distance. I have also noticed that people who focus on more long-distance views (like drivers and people who work in the construction industry) tend to struggle to read papers or screens that are very close to their eyes.

Our eyes were made to focus on varying distances. By focusing too much on any particular distance, we lose our ability to focus well on other lengths. This happens due to homeostasis. In this case, homeostasis refers to your body's tendency to adapt to what it does regularly and reduce its ability to do what it doesn't need to do very often.

If you focus too much on one particular distance, your eyes will adapt by reducing their ability to focus on other lengths of distance. This will cause them to strain whenever you look at distances that are not the same as the distance you spend most of your time looking at. Your eyes, just like the rest of your body, need regular exercise to stay in good shape.

The 20/20/20 method and how it works

Every 20 minutes, look up from your computer screen and focus on something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This will help to maintain your eye's ability to focus on more than one particular distance. If you can, take a regular walk away from your desk and try to focus on longer distances so that your eyes stay fit and strong. This will also give them a break from too much of the same line of focus.

This method is great for people who spend too much time in focusing on one type of distance and need to vary their lines of sight.

3) Give your eyes time to rest and recover

Your eyes might simply be overworked. Given the demanding nature of our daily jobs and the fact that we spend most of our waking life doing work-related activities, eye strain from too much stimulus is an extremely likely possibility.

Taking time off from work might not be plausible every time that you experience eye strain, but there are certainly things that you can do to give your eyes a break. If you focus on a computer screen for the majority of your working life, give your eyes a break by reducing your screen time when you are not at work. Try finding other relaxing activities that you can do like interacting with friends and family, spending more time doing sports, exercise and hobbies, or enjoying life beyond your house.

This will help with your eye strain if it is caused by being overloaded with too much stimulation of the same, repetitive nature.

4) Blinking

This method is just as important as the others. All About Vision explains that we naturally blink between 10 and 15 times a minute. When we focus on the computer, our phones or a TV screen; we can blink less than half of that amount. We also tend to blink less completely. This reduces the eye's ability to lubricate itself. Reduced blinking rates can lead to dry eyes and manifest in the form of eye degeneration and eye strain.

I struggled to remember to blink more whenever I was using a screen. Some sites recommend placing a bright sticky note on the side of your screen to remind yourself to blink. This wouldn't work for me because the sticky note will be too distracting. As a health and fitness writer, I need to constantly focus on my existing train of thought and write it down before it stops making sense. The slightest distraction could throw me off.

I was able to remind myself to blink more by making it into a little game. Depending on what I was doing, I had to blink in smaller intervals of whatever the task was. For example, when I edit my sites I need to blink with every click that I make on the mouse. When I am using my phone, I blink whenever I tap the screen. When I am writing content, I need to blink whenever I hit the space bar. 

This, along with drinking more water, will help to alleviate dry eyes that can hurt the normal functioning of your eyes.

5) Get the right lighting

It was through trial and error that I finally came to the cause (and solution) for why my eyes were strained. I typically work in a dark room. In this room, I spend a lot of time in front to the computer. My eyes adjusted to the overall dark lighting by increasing my sensitivity to light. This helped me to see throughout the entire room. My increased light sensitivity, met with the fact that I spend the majority of my time staring into the direct light of my computer screen, overloaded my eyes with a contradiction of low light and direct light. I spent a day brightening the room where I work. I also reduced the brightness of my screen to its lowest level. That same day, I did not experience any eye strain. I have not struggled with eye strain since.

We know how damaging it is to look into the sun. We can tell because it painful when we try and it takes a few seconds for our vision to return to normal afterwards. Although less severe, we also know not to look directly at welding sticks when they are being used because they can damage your eyes. Looking into a flash light will also cause discomfort for your eyes. Screens that emit light are the least severe of these comparisons, but affect the eyes in a similar way. By the way, have you ever noticed that it is easier to look into a flash light when you do it in the bright of the day? It is easier because the contraction between light and dark is not so heavy on your eyes. Your eyes will re-adjust its 'lighting settings' according to the overall lighting of your surroundings. This is why it takes your eyes a few seconds to re-adjust if you switch on a bright light in the middle of the night. 

Staring at a bright light in a dark room can hurt your eyes because they have adjusted to their overall surroundings, but need to function at a different light frequency. If lighting is the reason why your eyes are strained, try adjusting the lighting of your environment and the brightness settings of your screens until it is easier for your eyes.

I hope that this article will help you on your mission to conquer eye strain in the same way that it helped me. Stay Strong!

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