"An important read for anybody who is sick of covering up the underlying problems with medications and explore non-pharmaceutical solutions." —Emeran A. Mayer, MD, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and author of The Mind Gut Connection and The Gut-Immune Connection Achieve a balanced mood, clear thinking, and abundant energy through transformative methods based on groundbreaking research on the gut-heart-brain-axis. Depression, anxiety, and burnout are the plague of modern times. Mental wellness issues afflict millions of people worldwide and account for billions of dollars spent on pharmaceuticals and “feel better� products. Unfortunately, most of these solutions make us feel “different� but not really “better�–and certainly not how we want to feel. Nurturing the Brain-Body-Biome is the superhighway to improve physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being through nutrition, movement, and mindset. Written by expert Psychonutritionist Dr. Shawn Talbott—a nutritional biochemist who has dedicated years of research and a dozen books to the study of nutritional psychology—Mental Fitness provides a clear, actionable path to optimize the connection across the Brain-Body-Biome and feel better naturally.

"The Secret of Vigor: How to Overcome Burnout, Restore Metabolic Balance, and Reclaim Your Natural Energy" is a proven and powerful, cutting-edge, 7-day program that can counter the effects of chronic stress to help people:
1. restore balance in the body
2. improve mental/physical energy
3. reduce fatigue
4. alleviate depression
5. sharpen mental focus
6. lose weight
7. manage their risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease
Millions of North Americans complain of feeling tired, stressed, or depressed.
Their daily routine is hectic and stressful, they suffer from constant fatigue, rarely sleep well, continue to gain weight, and at least occasionally are moody. In short, they are lacking in something that psychology researchers call "Vigor."
Vigor is defined as "a 3-tiered sustained mood state characterized by physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being." Vigor is a true measure of wellness because it encompasses much more than simply feeling energetic or being in a good mood or having a sharp mind. People with high levels of vigor are those can-do individuals who get things done - they're motivated. For many people, however, vigor is a state that they have not experienced in many years.
Chronic stress plays a major role in disrupting vigor. Talbott explains that we can dramatically reduce stress, cut fatigue and improve vigor by achieving Oxidative Balance, Stress Hormone Balance, Blood Sugar Balance, and Inflammatory Balance which he refers to as the "Four Pillars of Health." His approach to achieving this is similar to the highly practical and approachable nutrition and supplementation plan in his earlier book, "The Cortisol Connection," but is based on his last ten years of research helping people feel and perform better.
The "Four Pillars of Health" - Oxidation balance, Glycation balance, Inflammation balance and Metabolic balance - are closely linked and affect each other. The program in this book addresses each in turn and also describes how to monitor them all and keep them working together.
Oxidation balance - balancing the free radicals and antioxidants in the body - is necessary to limit cell and DNA damage in every tissue and organ in the body. We can control free-radical exposure and the cellular oxidation (damage) that it causes through a balanced dietary intake of antioxidant nutrients.
Glycation balance - balancing the inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines
- is needed to prevent sugar (glucose) molecules becoming attached to protein molecules, inhibiting their normal functioning. Simple nutritional steps to control blood sugar help to restore blood sugar balance and reduce glycation throughout the body.
Inflammation balance - balancing insulin activity and blood glucose levels.
Inflammation is a normal metabolic process with many life-sustaining benefits. However, if it becomes overactive or misdirected, our bodies can fall into a hyper-inflammatory state leading to pain, stiffness, gastrointestinal problems, and brain fog. Controlling inflammation also helps to balance oxidation, glycation, and cellular stress.
Metabolic balance - correcting imbalance between cortisol and testosterone.
Cortisol is the body's primary stress hormone. Cortisol overexposure leads to a reduction in testosterone levels, and this metabolic imbalance invariably leads to a cascading "domino effect" of increase oxidaton, glycation, and inflammation. In many ways, Metabolic Balance (the ratio between cortisol and testosterone) is the "master controller" among the Four (metabolic) Pillars of Health
What most of us understand as "aging" - wrinkling skin, thinning hair, spreading waistlines, diminished sex drive and decreasing mood and energy levels- is in fact basically a progressive fall in our Vigor.
"The Secret of Vigor: How to Overcome Burnout, Restore Metabolic Balance, and Reclaim Your Natural Energy" contains a "Vigor Self-Test" for testing the reader's level of vigor, and Talbott also suggests easy tips everyone can do to counteract stress such as "leave the cellphone behind" or "get a pet," among others. Perhaps most important is Talbott's 7-Day Vigor Improvement Program (VIP) where he challenges readers to put their new knowledge to the test through his SENSE approach: Stress management, exercise, nutrition, supplements, and evaluation.
Burnout and chronic stress are epidemics in the United States. Both conditions affect millions of men, women and children, and the numbers of those affected are growing. "The Secret of Vigor: How to Overcome Burnout, Restore Metabolic Balance, and Reclaim Your Natural Energy" will help the reader combat these two conditions and their complications. This 7-day plan for improving vigor has proven results. Thousands of men, women and children have seen its quick results.

So--how can you really lower your stress levels, lose weight, keep it off and protect your health? The first edition of The Cortisol Connection signaled a revolution in our understanding of the effects of stress hormones like cortisol, and explained the relationship between chronic stress, high levels of cortisol and the breakdown of the body's health reserves. In his carefully designed SENSE Program (Chapter 9), Dr. Shawn Talbott presented simple guidelines for reducing stress, lowering cortisol levels, improving long-term health and reaching and main-taining desired weight. Research in the last five years has shown that there is more, and this new edition contains 25 percent new material, including new biochemistry research, an updated stress self-test and a weight-reduction plan two new chapters about the relationships between cortisol and testosterone and cortisol and HSD, the body's fat-storage enzyme, that show the big part they play in stress response and weight gain refinements of the SENSE program based on controlled studies with patients who have used it for over 5 years Dr. Talbott has long maintained that lowering cortisol is as impor-tant to health and longevity as lowering cholesterol. This book explains why. With the information in this book, you can start NOW to reduce stress, lower cortisol levels, avoid weight gain and take more control of your health.

The noted author of "The Cortisol Connection" offers an all-natural, inside-out approach to reversing wrinkles, preventing acne, and improving skin tone with an easy-to-follow program that incorporates diet, exercise, and natural products to control the cellular basis of aging.

More than 60 percent of American adults are overweight. On any given day, millions of people are using one of dozens of popular weight loss programs. They all promise miraculous results with little effort. They're all guaranteed to work for you. So, why do we need another diet book?
One word: cortisol. The recently discovered connection between cortisol and weight gain is not a consideration in other diets. Elevated cortisol levels increase appetite, enhance fat storage, and disrupt blood sugar control. Cortisol control, explained by Talbott in his previous book, The Cortisol Connection, is the missing link to effective weight loss.
The Cortisol Connection Diet is a safe, practical, proven approach that harnesses the 3 key aspects of metabolism that are at the heart of our epidemic of obesity. With this diet, you'll eat all of the foods that you love, but you'll learn how to use your food to control the effects of cortisol and glucose in your body, and ultimately how many calories you burn off or store on your body as fat.

"An important read for anybody who is sick of covering up the underlying problems with medications and explore non-pharmaceutical solutions." —Emeran A. Mayer, MD, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and author of The Mind Gut Connection and The Gut-Immune Connection Achieve a balanced mood, clear thinking, and abundant energy through transformative methods based on groundbreaking research on the gut-heart-brain-axis. Depression, anxiety, and burnout are the plague of modern times. Mental wellness issues afflict millions of people worldwide and account for billions of dollars spent on pharmaceuticals and “feel better� products. Unfortunately, most of these solutions make us feel “different� but not really “better�–and certainly not how we want to feel. Nurturing the Brain-Body-Biome is the superhighway to improve physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being through nutrition, movement, and mindset. Written by expert Psychonutritionist Dr. Shawn Talbott—a nutritional biochemist who has dedicated years of research and a dozen books to the study of nutritional psychology—Mental Fitness provides a clear, actionable path to optimize the connection across the Brain-Body-Biome and feel better naturally.