7 Supplements to Help Alleviate Stress – and One to Avoid

Between economic concerns and ongoing global conflict, the majority of Americans are at peak stress levels. Seventy-three percent of respondents to this year’s Stress in America survey, conducted annually by the Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA), reported feeling overwhelmed by the number of crises facing the world right now, results the APA calls “alarming.”

Living in “sustained survival mode” for the past few years has definitely had an impact on our collective health, according to the survey results. Alcohol use is up,  physical activity is down, and we’re not sleeping well.

These effects make sense, given what we know about how mental stress can affect physical health. Elevated stress hormones, especially cortisol, can increase inflammation, reduce immunity, and raise the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, chronic stress can negatively impact every aspect of your health and contribute to a wide range of problems, including:

• Headaches
• Sleep problems
• Mood disturbances, such as sadness, anger, or irritability
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Anxiety
• Depression

Stress is a problem we clearly need to address, and there are numerous strategies that have been shown to be effective for relieving it, including eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of sleep, exercising regularly, talking to friends or a mental health professional, and engaging in relaxation techniques and meditation, to name just a few.

Another, often-disputed stress-relief tool at your disposal? Dietary supplements. While none are a magic pill that will make stress disappear entirely, certain supplements claim to help lower anxiety levels, tame sleep troubles, ease depression symptoms, and more. While these claims are often overhyped, there is some evidence that dietary supplements can be part of a holistic approach to reducing stress, along with a healthy diet and other lifestyle changes.

It’s important to note that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate supplements in the same way that it does medications, so you should talk to your doctor before taking any product. Additionally, robust research on herbal supplements and stress is lacking. Some studies have had promising findings, but the sample sizes were too small to make any definitive conclusions. Other studies have looked at larger groups of people but left out populations that face a higher risk of stress symptoms like anxiety — for example, women and young adults. Ultimately, more large, long-term studies that include a variety of populations are needed before health experts can recommend herbal supplements for stress.

That said, here is the evidence currently available on seven products with the potential to help curb stress (and one you’ll probably want to pass up) as you start your journey toward a more relaxed (and healthier) you.

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