S.E.L.F. Care Program

Stress Influences Your Disease

• Stress is a driver of all diseases.
• Harvard reports that 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related problems.
• Chronic stress makes our “information substances” in the body go haywire. Chronic stress affects our immune, nervous, and endocrine systems causing mental and physical illness.

How Stress Affects Your Health

1. STRESS AND AGING.  Stress prematurely ages you.
2. STRESS TAKES A TOLL ON THE WAY YOU LOOK.
3. STRESS MAKES YOU FAT. 
4. YOU ARE TOO STRESSED FOR SEX.
5. STRESS IS THE SILENT KILLER. Heart disease is the number one killer of women.  
6. YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM GETS EXHAUSTED.  Diseases affected by our immune system are directly affected by stress: stress lowers the functioning of your immune system. Stress directly affects such diseases as cancer, obesity, insomnia, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and most diseases and conditions.
7. STRESS AFFECTS YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. Individuals with depression have a 69% higher death rate from heart disease. Depression is the leading cause of illness and disability in the world by 2020. (World Health Organization)
8. STRESS IMPAIRS YOUR MEMORY. Memory loss limits the quality of your life.
9. STRESS AND YOUR COMMUTE

• 1 in 12 heart attacks is traffic-related.
• Premature aging: accelerates aging 10 years
• A commuter experiences more stress than a fighter pilot in battle or riot police in training exercises.

YOUR BODY IS YOUR BEST PHARMACY

100,000 chemical reactions are processing in your body each second. You can create an immediate change in yourself. Every thought, every emotion, and action has an almost immediate effect.

Dr. Hall’s S.E.L.F. Care Program® can reduce your stress and boost your immune system.

There are 4 roots to a life of health, happiness, resilience, and balance and they are very important in Dr. Hall’s S.E.L.F. Care program . They are also four effective treatments that significantly improve all diseases and conditions. Most medical research centers, such as Harvard, Duke, Stanford and most others, use these 4 roots in their treatment programs for cardiovascular disease, cancer, stress, depression, insomnia, obesity and most other disorders and conditions. There is excellent research supporting how and why these treatments are so effective.

S.E.L.F. Care in 5 Minutes

S=Serenity

Why Serenity? Serenity is the opposite of stress. When you create serenity, relaxation not only reduces the stress hormones you produce, but serenity also boosts your immune system. ‘Serenity’ is the first acronym of S.E.L.F. in the SELF Care program.

How To Practice Serenity

1. A Mini. Create and memorize a 3-5 word short, positive phrase. Repeat this simple phrase over and over as you slowly breathe in and out. This evokes the relaxation response immediately. Harvard Mind-Body Institute shows this practice lowers your blood pressure, heart rate, gives you an immune boost, and relaxes you.
2. Meditation-Prayer. Research from Harvard and hundreds of other studies show meditation reduces blood pressure, decreases your heart rate, and increases your immune system. Studies show this practice reduces depression and anxiety. Meditation eases pain and reduces the brain’s response to pain. Harvard Studies show meditation actually increases the size of the brain.
3. Affirmations. Each of us has over 60,000 thoughts per day. How many are you aware of? Research tells us that individuals who memorize positive affirmations have lower cortisol, stress hormone levels than those who do not repeat affirmations in stressful times. “I am calm.” “I am peaceful.” “I surrender.”
4. Music. Listening to music releases serotonin into your body. Serotonin is a calming chemical in the body. If you start singing, you get an immune boost of 240 %.  
5. Gratitude.  It is impossible to experience gratitude and stress simultaneously. Gratitude body scan from head to toe.
6. Guided Imagery. Olympic athletes and professional sports figures have done this for many years.  For example, memorize a calming, peaceful place in your past where you have experienced total peace and calm. Your peaceful place may be a mountain, the beach, a farm, or in your garden. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and be at that place in your mind.  
7. Sound machine. Some individuals experience calm by listening to sounds of nature such as the ocean, the wind, rain, or a mountain brook. You can download nature sounds or purchase a sound machine.
8. Journaling. In a J.A.M.A. study on arthritis, 47% said their symptoms were reduced by journaling. Journaling also reduces cardiac disease and can lead to recovery say cardiac studies at University of California.
9. Color. Add color to your life: A dash of color can improve your mood, productivity, and creativity. If you can’t use paint in your office, use fabric, clothes, a purse, or a shawl. Your favorite bright color will energize you, or your favorite calming color will calm you down, and you will feel safe, secure, and nurtured.
10. Ecotherapy. Walking in nature has tremendous health benefits. Getting into nature reduces your blood pressure, lowers your heart rate, reduces depression and anxiety, and gives you an immune boost. This practice is also called Japanese Forest Bathing (or tree bathing).

E= Exercise

Why Exercise?  Exercise and simply walking decreases your risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, insomnia, Alzheimer’s, obesity, depression, stress disorders and all diseases and conditions. Exercise is the second acronym of S.E.L.F. in the SELF Care program.

Exercise Tips

1. Yoga in Your Chair. Go online to YouTube or to Gaia.com and learn some yoga postures that you can do at work in your chair. Yoga relaxes and strengthens you.  
2. Hand Weight. Keep a hand weight in your bottom drawer at work or under your desk.  Sometime during the day, lift your weight. You will increase your bone density.
3. Oxygen exercise. Take 2 minutes and do deep breaths it refreshes and clears the mind. (INHALE THROUGH YOUR NOSE, 1-2-3-4, EXHALE THROUGH YOUR MOUTH, 1-2-3-4) Imagine your lungs are balloons, and you are inflating and deflating your lungs. 
4. New Piece of Furniture in the Television Room. Burn 200-300 calories by getting on that treadmill or tread climber in the corner of your T.V. room. Watch the news or DVR your favorite show.  
5. 10 Minute Bursts. Walk up and down the halls of your office. You can go up and down your work stairs or walk around your building for 10 minutes. You will get an immune boost, produce serotonin, and a boost of endorphins.
6. Family Exercise. After dinner, take a family walk, put up a badminton net and a basketball hoop, and play together. Get your family moving.

L= Love

Why Love? Research shows enumerable health benefits when you connect with others. “Isolation kills, and community heals.” Dean Ornish, M.D. Love is the third acronym of S.E.L.F. in the SELF Care program.

How To Practice Love (Intimacy)

1. Schedule. In your appointment book make a point to email or call a friend on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Drop your friends and family an email. You may write just a few lines or a short check in but make that connection.
2. Share a meal. Make an appointment to have a meal with someone at least once or twice a week. It’s essential to make that physical connection. When you are in the physical presence of another person you produce the healing hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin relaxes, heals, and calms your mind, body, and soul.
3. Get in a group.  Start a study group at work or meet for lunch or play cards. Set a time to have coworkers meet in the coffee room for a laugh, a hug or just to smile. Remember, a smile helps you produce endorphins that create health.
4. Get a Pet. A pet in your home decreases heart disease, hypertension, depression, and stress while also giving you an immune boost

F= Food

Why Food? Food is Medicine.    Food changes your mood. We are getting new research on the effect of food on your mood. Food affects your immune system, stress response, and your healing process. Food is the fourth and final acronym of S.E.L.F. in the SELF Care program.

How To Eat Food Mindfully

1. Eat Breakfast.  Eating breakfast can increase your metabolism by 25% and helps with your mood swings all day.
   
2. Eat More Omega 3s. Omega 3’s help with depression. Research shows us omega 3’s help with depression, cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and chronic pain. Researchers are showing it increases memory. Plan to eat fish 3 times a week.  For instance research shows that people who eat fish regularly have less chronic disease and live longer than those who do not.
3. Drink Green Tea. Green tea has a powerful antioxidant (polyphenol) that is more prevalent in green tea. How would you like a food that lowers your blood pressure, helps prevent cancer and osteoporosis, reduces your risk for stroke, and promotes heart health? And what if it was antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anticavity, anti-allergy, and prevents cataracts. Tea is all this and more.  
4. Increase Your Vitamin B6 Intake. B6’s increase the serotonin in your body. Serotonin calms and heals the body. Make sure you take a banana to work or get tuna, turkey, salmon, rice, sweet potatoes or sunflower seeds in your daily meals.
5. Eat Blueberries. “called brain berries or youth food” This is brain food. Blueberries help neuron reproduction and neural communication.  Blueberries are great for mental health and anti-aging. Studies show blueberries prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, senility and degenerative diseases. A study of the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found people who ate 1 cup of blueberries daily increased the antioxidant level in their blood, an increase now showing prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, senility and degenerative diseases. A Tufts University study shows blueberries slow and even reverses many degenerative diseases associated with an aging brain.
6. Eat Broccoli.  John Hopkins discovered a compound found in broccoli that not only prevents the development of tumors by 60% in the studied group it also reduced the size of tumors that did develop by 75%. Broccoli is among the most potent weapons in our dietary arsenal against cancer. Broccoli boosts the immune system, supports cardiovascular health, builds bones, and fights birth defects.
7. Eat Tomatoes. The American College of Cardiology reports Lycopene, the red pigment in tomatoes, can reduce heart disease risk in middle-aged women by 1/3. Studies underway now reveal that lycopene may reduce the risk of breast and cervical cancer.