How to Prevent and Recover from Burnout Naturally? Functional Medicine Tips from The Burnout Bible

How to Tackle Fatigue and Emotional Overwhelm Naturally. Natural Solutions for Burnout: Rachel Philpotts’ Mood Boosting Method for Women’s Wellness

Discover expert-backed, natural strategies to tackle fatigue and emotional overwhelm from “The Burnout Bible” by Rachel Philpotts. Learn how a functional medicine approach, nutrition, and lifestyle changes can help women prevent and recover from burnout. Boost your mood, energy, and resilience with actionable tips designed for lasting mental wellness.

Ready to reclaim your energy and beat burnout for good? Keep reading to uncover Rachel Philpotts’ proven Mood Boosting Method and start your journey to natural, lasting vitality today!

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Sometimes, the demands of your professional and personal life become overwhelming, leaving you feeling exhausted, moody and unable to perform at your best — in short, burned out. Nutritionist and mental health expert Rachel Philpotts provides actionable diet and lifestyle tips to help you prevent or recover from burnout. Her four-step “Mood Boosting Method” can help you naturally improve your mood and overall health. Embracing a functional medicine approach, Philpotts takes a holistic, systematic view of burnout and aims to empower readers to regain their physical and mental vitality.

Take-Aways

• Women are more vulnerable to workplace burnout than men, yet the research focuses on male experiences.
• Functional medicine offers a personalized, whole-patient approach to treating burnout.
• Support healthy mood regulation by better managing your stress.
• Declining production of reproductive hormones can leave women stressed, tired, and overwhelmed.
• A healthy diet is vital to prevent or recover from burnout.
• Consider supporting a healthy diet and lifestyle with supplements to prevent burnout.
• Eating prebiotics and probiotics fosters a healthy microbial balance, which helps improve your mental health and energy levels.
• Recover from burnout by actively relaxing, nourishing your body and brain, engaging physically and socially, and reframing self-limiting beliefs.

Summary

Women are more vulnerable to workplace burnout than men, yet the research focuses on male experiences.

While not widely recognized as a medical condition by health care professionals, burnout has become a common feature of modern life. The World Health Organization describes burnout as a problem stemming from people’s inability to manage “chronic workplace stress” properly. According to social psychologist and burnout researcher Christina Maslach, individuals suffering from this occupational syndrome experience emotional exhaustion, “depersonalization” or workplace cynicism, and lowered achievement.

While women are more vulnerable to burnout than men, historically, researchers have focused on studying burnout in men, leading to a lack of information about women’s experiences.

“Burnout is not a uniquely female experience; however, women are more likely than men to experience emotional exhaustion in business and are at increased risk of burnout.”

Rachel Philpotts wanted to close this information gap by interviewing a group of powerful career-oriented women about burnout. Many described experiencing a decline in motivation, feelings of depression, and a lack of interest in their jobs.When asked for the drivers of these feelings, some women mentioned aggressive colleagues or repeated failure to get the credit they deserved after a job well done.Environmental factors, such as toxic work cultures, can also increase a person’s vulnerability to burnout.

According to social psychologist Herbert Freudenberger, who shared his research into burnout in the 1970s, burnout may also present as physical symptoms, such as the inability to recover quickly from illness, regular headaches, gastrointestinal distress, or shortness of breath.

More recent insights from a 2018 SALVEO study showed that burnt-out women tend to report lower skill utilization and decision-making power at work. They struggle more to balance caring for children with managing their workload.

Functional medicine offers a personalized, whole-patient approach to treating burnout.

Health care practitioners have traditionally treated burnout exclusively using medication, talk therapy, or instructing patients to take a break and focus on self-care. Functional medicine offers a complementary way to tackle burnout. This holistic approach, rooted in science, centers on two principles: First, your body is an interconnected system, and when all your systems are working optimally, you aren’t likely to experience disease symptoms. And second, each person’s body is unique; thus, burnout experiences and causes will differ for everyone.

“Many are misdiagnosed with general anxiety or major depressive disorder.”

People working in functional medicine concentrate on treating the whole individual — not just the disease. They try to understand the root causes of a patient’s symptoms. To do so, functional medicine practitioners consider three factors: First, “antecedents,” for example, birth trauma, exposure to antibiotics in early childhood, or genetic predisposition to burnout. Second, burnout “triggers,” such as being bullied or losing a loved one. And third, “mediators” that influence your vulnerability to burnout and how you experience it. Mediators may include spiritual factors, such as your belief system; environmental factors, such as diet or relationships; and biochemical factors, such as inflammation . Discovering your unique antecedents, triggers, and mediators — or ATMs — is the starting place for figuring out the best way to prevent or address your burnout.

Support healthy mood regulation by better managing your stress.

When you eat a healthy diet rich in amino acids and nutrients, your brain produces chemical messengers — neurotransmitters — that support stress resilience and mood regulation. For example, your body needs a sufficient amount of the amino acid tryptophan to produce the feel-good chemical serotonin. Minerals and vitamins, such as magnesium, iron, zinc and B6, help transform tryptophan into serotonin, promoting a more balanced mood.When you lack these key nutrients, your brain produces elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can result in depression, chronic stress, and burnout.

“Cortisol is toxic to the brain and can cause atrophy (or wasting away) of brain tissue. Stress can literally kill neurons (brain cells).”

One of the best ways to balance cortisol levels is to manage stress better. Chronic stress may shrink the part of your brain tasked with helping you focus and achieve high performance and increase the parts of your brain associated with producing feelings of fear and anxiety. When you’re constantly stressed out, your sympathetic nervous system keeps you in non-stop “survival mode.” A perpetual “fight or flight” response can prompt the development of chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, or mood disorders. One way to calm your nervous system is through active relaxation or mindfulness. These practices help you notice when you’re stuck in a “stress loop,” and return to a calm state and focus on the present.

Declining production of reproductive hormones can leave women stressed, tired, and overwhelmed.

Like your neurotransmitters, your hormones act as chemical messengers but convey their signals via your bloodstream and the fluid surrounding your cells — not your central nervous system. Your body produces hormones in your endocrine glands, such as your thyroid, ovaries, adrenal glands, pancreas, and pituitary gland. For many stressed-out career women, elevated cortisol levels block the production of their reproductive hormones. From an evolutionary vantage point, this is beneficial: If predators were lurking outside a woman’s cave, she’d have a better chance of survival if she didn’t get pregnant. However, for modern women facing workplace challenges, a dip in reproductive hormone levels can increase vulnerability to burnout.

“Your hormones can play havoc with your mood. And working and playing hard can take its toll on how well your hormones function.”

Your reproductive hormones support good health in many ways: Estrogen boosts nervous system health; progesterone helps balance your mood, supports brain function and enables a good night’s sleep; and testosterone allows women to handle stress better. According to emerging research, women are particularly vulnerable to burnout during menopause as fluctuating hormone levels can throw cortisol levels out of balance. If you’re nearing menopause, you might want to consider hormone replacement therapy (HRT) along with a healthy lifestyle and diet. Also, try to avoid hormone-disrupting chemicals known as “xenoestrogens,” which can be found, for example, in cleaning products, plastics, and pesticides.

A healthy diet is vital to prevent or recover from burnout.

Supporting healthy brain chemistry requires eating a healthy diet that provides you with protein, for example, from free-range chicken, wild fish, beans and nuts; healthy fats, for example, from olives, olive oil, avocados and seeds; leafy greens, such as broccoli or kale; and brightly colored vegetables and fruits. Consider switching to a Mediterranean diet, which research shows reduces your likelihood of depression. A Mediterranean diet has the following characteristics:

• It’s plant-based, which means you eat a lot of beans, vegetables, whole grains, and seeds.
• It consists primarily of local, seasonal, and minimally processed foods.
• You eat moderate portions of locally sourced fish, low-to-moderate amounts of dairy (mainly yogurt and cheese), and occasional, small portions of eggs and red meat.
• This diet also relies heavily on consuming healthy fats from olive oil, seasoning food with spices (as opposed to salt), and drinking moderate quantities of red wine with meals.

“The digestive tract is the interface between us and the outside world.”

Eating a healthy diet can help you prevent chronic inflammation, which is detrimental to your health. Inflammation is a natural part of your immune system response, allowing your body to eliminate toxins and fight invading microbes. When you suffer from chronic inflammation, however, your immune system identifies healthy tissue as a threat and responds by damaging it. When you’re experiencing burnout, excessive inflammation can exacerbate its damage, leading to brain fog, weight gain, joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraines. Eating the right balance of essential fatty acids, which is a 4:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, can help guard against mood disorders and burnout while preventing chronic inflammation.

Consider supporting a healthy diet and lifestyle with supplements to prevent burnout.

Vitamins and minerals are essential for a healthy body. Always ask your health care practitioner whether taking supplements might benefit your health. Consider these vitamins and minerals:

• Vitamin D — Get a blood test to determine whether you’re low on vitamin D. Levels are often low during the winter when there’s less sunlight.
• Vitamin C — This antioxidant, found in peppers and other brightly colored vegetables, helps your liver expel internal toxins and fight off external ones while supporting immune function. Those suffering from burnout need more vitamin C and may find a high-strength supplement (between 500mg and 1g) beneficial.
• Magnesium — This mineral supports the release of “calming neurotransmitters” such as GABA. Stressed-out people are often low in magnesium. If you want to supplement magnesium, choose one bound to other molecules, for example, magnesium citrate, which is easier for your body to absorb.
• B vitamin-complex — Stress depletes your body of B vitamins. Taking a supplement can help improve your B vitamin levels.
• Fish oil — Ideally, you should eat three to four portions of oily fish per week. Take a fish oil supplement, or find a vegan omega-3 alternative to support brain health.
• Adaptogenic plants — Boost resilience with plants that help you function better in both low and high-cortisol situations. Certain plant supplements, like ashwagandha, can help calm your nervous system if you’re hyper-responsive and on high alert. If you’re in freeze mode or hypo-responsive, they can give you a mood boost.

Eating prebiotics and probiotics fosters a healthy microbial balance, which helps improve your mental health and energy levels.

Research shows a link between mood disorders and a lack of microbial diversity in your gut. Take these steps to nurture a healthy microbial balance:

• Hydrate — Drink about two liters of water each day to help support digestive functioning and boost your mood.
• Eat bitter foods — Radishes, artichokes, chicory, and rocket support healthy digestion and can improve vagal tone for better communication between the gut and the brain.
• Eat dietary fiber — Foods high in dietary fiber — like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables — contain prebiotics that feed your “good” gut bacteria. Fiber also helps bind used-up hormones, such as cortisol or estrogen, adding them to your stool for improved waste elimination.
• Be mindful of meal times — Space your meals out by about four to five hours, giving your digestive system time to initiate a cleaning process known as the “migrating motor complex” or MMC.
• Eat live probiotics — Probiotics, such as those found in fermented miso and live yogurt, repopulate your microbiome when good bacteria are dwindling.
• Chew food thoroughly — When you chew, your brain responds by releasing digestive enzymes, which prompts your stomach to produce the acid needed to break down food.
• Reduce triggers that diminish gut function — Sugar, alcohol, antibiotics, and gluten impair healthy gut function. Try to avoid these triggers as much as you can.

Recover from burnout by actively relaxing, nourishing your body and brain, engaging physically and socially, and reframing self-limiting beliefs.

Overcome burnout with the “Mood Boosting Method,” which consists of the following actions:

• Restore — Take time to rest and relax. Identify and, ideally, reduce your stressors, and work to develop better psychological and physiological responses to them. Actively engage in mindful activities that calm your nervous system, such as yoga and breath work, and ensure you get enough sleep. If you have a six-hour sleep deficit every week, your adrenaline, cortisol and noradrenaline can shoot up 50% to 80%.
• Nourish — While reaching for junk food when you feel overwhelmed can be tempting, aim to nourish your body with a healthy diet and good habits instead. Consider creating new routines, such as drinking from a stainless steel water bottle throughout the day to reach your hydration targets.Consider adopting convenient, healthy-eating solutions, such as buying pre-chopped vegetables.
• Engage — People with burnout are often disengaged on many levels: They’re disconnected socially; they no longer engage in activities that once brought them joy; and they’re disconnected from themselves, as they don’t spend time pursuing personal interests that once held their attention. Engage in the world again by making time for physical activities and the hobbies you once enjoyed. For example, if you’ve stopped exercising, kick off your burnout recovery by committing to going for a walk twice a week.
• Reframe — Be mindful of how you talk to yourself, reframing your self-limiting beliefs. For example, rather than saying, “I am terrible for eating chocolate when I am feeling low,” you could say, “I am great at reaching for the biscuits in the afternoon!”How you speak to yourself matters, and when you begin positively reframing self-talk, you’ll likely experience greater feelings of self-worth and improved mood.

About the Author

Rachel Philpotts is a registered nutritionist, mental health expert and freelance writer. On her blog, re:Nutrition, she advises readers on how to improve mental wellness through diet.