The stress of the restaurant and Kitchen.
Easy action steps for healing.

Mental stress changes the chemistry of your body, and tightens your body’s tone.

The kitchen is one of more mentally stressful work environments. You don’t need examples if you work in one. What is needed, is an understanding of why you feel the way you do and what you can do about it.

Mental stress causes body chemistry changes like adding vinegar to baking soda. Inflammation and adrenaline are let loose throughout the body. KABOOM. If you are working under stressful conditions all week, your stress level doesn’t go down. Sustained mental stress puts fatigue on the adrenal glands, leading to a condition you’ve probably heard of….adrenal fatigue. You burn out, feel tired, sluggish, have difficulty sleeping, which cycles back around and creates a vicious cycle of more stress, more fatigue that causes more stress, and so on.

Physically, your body tightens up from mental stress. Neck, shoulders and low back slowly seize. And that’s just from mental stress. The physical stress of standing, cooking, leaning, shuffling and the like, all make matters worse.

Getting a bad night’s sleep also makes matters worse.

The stress of the kitchen is often unavoidable. Exercise is tough to make time for, but it is a solution to get stronger, become more flexible, and burn off mental stress steam. If burning yourself up at the gym or running down the road is not an option, then you may just want to consider doing damage control for the tension and inflammation your body has created.

3 Action steps (for damage control):

Turmeric. Turmeric supplements help reduce inflammation.

CBD. CBD oil without psychoactive effect (getting high), still helps to reduce stress and discomfort. We recommend Pot & Pan Kitchen’s 250mg CBD tincture.

Stretch. Stretch your legs, low back, arms, shoulders and neck.

2 more:
Drink more water.
CBD before bed will help you sleep better

If these steps don’t help, you may have bigger issues creating your symptoms. If you are concerned about your future in the kitchen and your quality of life right now, professional help is easily accessible.

Dr. Lou Jacobs specializes in the health of musicians and restaurant workers. Why? Because he understands both because he’s involved in both. Life experience, along with with 20+ years of clinical expertise working with both groups, makes him Maine’s choice for musician and chef health.