Your nervous system is vital for your body—whether in fight or flight mode during an emergency, allowing your body to relax on vacation, or operating your body’s daily functions. But a dysregulated nervous system can leave you feeling stressed, anxious, and fatigued. Read on to understand how to recognize the signs of a dysregulated nervous system and how to naturally restore regulation. What Is the Nervous System and What Does It Do? The nervous system is your body’s communication network made up of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves carrying messages from the brain throughout your body. Messages sent through the nervous system regulate virtually everything we do, including movement, thoughts, feelings, and our response to stressful situations—and things we do without even thinking about it, like breathing, digesting food, healing wounds, and keeping our hearts beating. The nervous system is divided into two parts: the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral ...
If you taste fresh olive oil and experience a peppery, slight-burning sensation at the back of your throat, there’s a good chance your oil is high in polyphenols. Polyphenols are a type of antioxidant — a naturally occurring plant compound that works to keep free radicals (oxygen-robbing cells) from harming your body’s healthy cells. Eating foods and drinking liquids that are rich in polyphenols optimizes digestion, supports brain health, and plays a big part in weight management programs. A lot of popular foods contain healthful doses of polyphenols — with tea, wine, dark chocolate, and berries being some of the most well-known. The world-famous spice, cinnamon , found in teas, curries, pastries, and even toothpastes, provides benefits of several polyphenols it contains: rutin, catechin , quercetin , kaempferol , and isorhamnetin. And there are many other foods, used for th...