This week started with some exciting news for doctors and those who have ever felt large amounts of work-related stress: “burnout is finally recognised as a medical condition”. Very few journalists noticed the nuance that World Health Organisation only made the statement that burnout and its new definition will be included in the revised edition of the ICD-11, the International Classification of Diseases. Faced with this confusion spread in the press, WHO brought some clarifications to the previous declaration, saying that:

“Burn-out is included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon. It is NOT classified as a medical condition”.

The enthusiasm of having burnout recognised as a medical condition has quickly faded. Burnout is part of the “disease…

Those who know me, whether as a doctor, entrepreneur, friend, reader of my newsletter or listener of my podcast, they know that tackling stress has become a core part of my mission. It is my daily mantra: how can I better help people with chronic, harmful stress.

Our lives are full of pressure and challenges. We can feel drained: not only of energy or emotion, but also because our brains can be structurally modified due to an overload of stress hormones. We know that, for example, chronic stress can enlarge our “fear center”, the amygdala, making us more prone to…

Another holiday has passed, and hopefully it was a good time for many of us. But like most holidays (except ones we may spend alone), while we’re happy to spend time with our family and friends, having plenty of activities which keep us pretty busy, we’re focused on everything but ourselves. Have you ever wondered how much time (besides your 10–20 minutes of daily meditation), during a year, you dedicate to an in-depth reflection on yourself? This is generally a longer process than just a few hours per week, and honestly, many will not even attempt it. Between long working…

We’re in December again, one month before holiday time. For many of us, the rush of end-of-year deadlines, buying gifts, and organising the final details of family reunions has begun. And before getting started with your New Year Resolution, I suggest you start by planning your health, and literally making your Health Calendar.

What for? What is it, you might wonder? Although it’s the job of your family doctor to invite you to book your annual visit with the dermatologist, dentist, ob-gyn (or whatever else), we know that doesn’t work very well in terms of logistics. We might hear the…

At the first glance, getting up earlier, even if only by a few minutes, isn’t an appealing idea. I think most of us would be distinctly reluctant, thinking that is already hard enough to wake up and get to work on time. But as hard as it might look, getting up earlier could change not only your morning rush but the dynamics of your entire day.

I want to share with you an amazing thing that I heard yesterday from one of my patients: “It is amazing how happy I feel getting up earlier, given that I was quite skeptical…

It is well established that chronic stress can lead to and/or exacerbate a variety of diseases including diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, depression, autoimmune diseases, irritable bowel syndrome and many others. On another hand, when you have an inflammatory and/or autoimmune condition, the key stress response pathway, the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis, is often weakened or disrupted.

What does the gut have to do with all of this? Without entering into too many biological details, let’s trust the scientists (since there are more and more studies on this topic) who show that intestinal microbiota (our gut bacteria populations along with some of theirs…

Winter is coming and yes, you need to start cherishing your mood, as we’ll be having less light exposure and many of us will be at risk of feeling down. Let’s see together how you can avoid the winter blues!

Being in a good mood is a blast for ourselves and those around us! Although it is perfectly normal to have a “bad day”, let’s look closer what can be the causes (and eventual solutions) for feeling gloomy more than twice a week over a period of several months.

1. Poor sleep

If you’ve been sleeping poorly for a while, your positive…

Everyone has experienced, at least once in their life, that impulse to eat a bunch of chocolate during a stressful situation or when they’re feeling sad or anxious. There are good reasons for this!

1° With stress, the body’s energy demands increase dramatically. To replenish our reserves quickly, eating rapid sugars and carbohydrates can be an efficient solution. The high cortisol levels released during stress, combined with high insulin levels, may be responsible for making us choosing this specific type of food when we’re in this state of alert.

2° Ingesting a sugar-rich food improves our mood and alleviates…