By Sean Fontana
There’s no doubt about it that 2020 has been rough on everyone in every business sector in some way shape or form... besides toilet roll! Joking aside, lockdown has taken its toll on all of us mentally, physically and emotionally. This built-up stress then leads us to become more emotional and somewhat on a negative downward spiral.
There’s a lot of research out there showing that if you stay in a high level of psychological stress for too long it can create negative long term physiological symptoms in the body. It creates a lot of undue inflammation in the body as your stress hormone, cortisol, When we are in a high stress state for too long, we can become burnt-out, fatigued, exhausted, ill and/or injured.
These inflammatory markers build when we’re stressed psychologically and on top of this, we then also train and create more inflammation by breaking down muscle tissue from the physical aspect. We now have a lot going on. I feel this is where I’ve been going wrong in my training and life at the moment. Worrying about my finances, paying my mortgage, car and food etc. Plus, then going out and training hard to qualify for the Commonwealth Games marathon in 2022. All this stress both physiological and psychological have create a high influx of inflammation on the body, which has made 2020 one of my worst years of being prone to injuries. I feel I might not be coping with the external stressors as good as I thought. Maybe just maybe the whole psychosocial aspect has been getting a bit too much for my body.
However, I’ve done a lot of research on things that you can add to your daily routine that can help lower your body’s inflammatory response and decrease that added stress to keep you injury free and have your immune system healthy, they are -
1 - Turmeric - full of great properties that decrease bodies inflammation but also aid in enhanced immune system function.
2 - Omega 3s - Similar great effects like turmeric, however, for someone like me who has asthma, it can lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases and improve cardiovascular health.
3 - Drinking plenty of water - flushing out toxins and keeping body well hydrated will help decrease additional stress on muscles, heart and brain. When you become more dehydrated your blood becomes a little thicker making it harder for your heart to pump around the body, your brain will seem a little foggy and maybe have a sore head also. Before picking up some ibuprofen or paracetamol maybe reach for a bottle of water first and then maybe coffee... because who doesn’t love coffee!
So, I’ve added Xendurance Joint-4 with the turmeric and the Omega+D3 to help increase body’s immune system and decrease inflammatory response due to physical or psychological external stressors.
The body has definitely responded well to the products as I’m now slowly climbing back up to running 100+ miles per week as well as doing a few hours cross training on the bike to take the load off of my joints.
I would totally recommend giving these two products a try to help boost immunity, especially during this current period, and also reducing inflammation to decrease likelihood of injuries or illnesses happening.