Boost Immunity, Reduce Stress
Americans feel under siege. Stress has been deemed a national epidemic, especially hitting hard for so-called GenZers born between 1995 and 2010.
Stress takes a toll on our body, mind, and psyche. It can negatively impact neural pathways to the brain and skew judgment. The immune system is compromised, and essential organs like the brain, heart, liver, kidneys are overburdened. Recognizing stress and adequately addressing it is vital to maintaining optimal health.
When the noise of stress doesn’t shut off in your mind, you lose sleep, turn to food for comfort, gain weight, stress out more, and so it goes around and around.
Stress is our body’s reaction to mobilize and fight-or-flee a potential danger, and it can be easily triggered. Experts classify stress as:
- Environmental. Physical stressors include weather, traffic, noise, pollution, or disturbing images.
- Social. Triggered by demands on our time, attention and skills, psychological stressors include job interviews, public speaking, financial worries, loss of relationships, and conflict with others.
- Physiological. Physical stressors include changes in different stages of life, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, sleeplessness, illness, and injuries. These stressors can cause tension, muscle tightness, upset stomach, and low mood.
- Cognitive-emotional. Simply, does your brain accurately assess threats and determine whether to react or relax.
What issues drive stress?
- Over half of Americans across all ages worry about financial matters.
- Jobs and career concerns affect 35 percent of responders.
- Putting others’ needs first is causing burnout for 65 percent of women and 49 percent of men.
- Despite the widespread use of social media, social isolation and the lack of daily human interaction with others causes high levels of loneliness for individuals.
- People with longstanding physical or mental health conditions have higher sensitivity and react with panic more quickly to everyday stressors.
During the winter, stress is widespread. Holiday season pressures from work and family, less exercise, and general anxiety are compounded by cold weather and traffic woes. So what can you do?
Help is at hand with QOL’s AHCC®, a potent and versatile medicinal mushroom extract that can help support the body’s immune response.*  AHCC® is one of the most researched specialty immune supplements and is produced from the hybridization of mycelia of several sub-species of mushrooms used in traditional Japanese medicine.
Cultivated and cultured using a patented process, the result is a unique constituent called “acylated alpha-glucans.” This low molecular weight compound is easily digested and absorbed in the body for optimal effect. Its powerful immune-stimulating action is not found in ordinary mushrooms or other mushroom products.
AHCC® is beneficial as an immunomodulator to help regulate and strengthen the immune system; as an antioxidant to alleviate the response to emotional stress; and to promote a healthy inflammation response.*
To support healthy immune response and function, AHCC® stimulates the production of cytokines, an immune signaling molecule. It further serves as a gatekeeper to optimize white blood cell activity and fight infection at the cellular level.* It’s been shown to help protect healthy individuals during cold and flu season and in high-risk locations.*
Further, this supplement supports cardiovascular health and improves immune response to stress, diabetes, and liver ailments.* AHCC® also appears helpful for increasing levels of leptin, a hormone which helps metabolize fat and regulate appetite.*
Winter stress need not be debilitating. Anxiety, fatigue, and overeating can be overcome with the help of AHCC®.*
