S.O PIENS, MD

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

How Your Diet Influences Your Mood

Do you know what you eat can affect your mood? Do you know it can affect anxiety and depression? Let me explain.

If you eat good food, it should contain essential nutrients that support the production of serotonin, a major mood regulating hormone. Over 90% of serotonin is produced in your gut, and a healthy gut plays a vital role in supporting healthy brain function through the gut-brain connection. (We’ll discuss in detail later). This helps stabilize your mood and contributes to an overall sense of well-being. Good nutrients also boost your immunity and reduce stress levels.

On the other hand, eating bad food does the opposite. The absence of essential nutrients weakens your gut health, increases inflammation, and lowers your body's ability to cope with stress. This eventually influences how your body handles anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders over time.

One extremely important nutrient you should always make sure is present in your food is fiber. Why is that so? I will discuss that next.

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Water: Nature’s Most Powerful Preventive Medicine

Water, as simple as it sounds, has many important functions in our body that we can hardly imagine. Of course, we all know the benefits of water, but how many of us are truly enjoying those benefits? Water is not only the most important nutrient in our body, it is also one of the most important preventive medicines available to us.

Let me explain. About 50-70% of your body weight is water. This means that the better the water balance in your body, the easier it is to maintain good health and keep diseases away.

There are many diseases you can prevent simply by using water. From the external act of washing your hands to prevent germs, to drinking water to support the health of your joints, skin, kidneys, liver, and heart, water should always be part of your daily routine.

Moreover, fatigue, constipation, dizziness, headaches, and certain mental and cognitive problems can also be prevented when you consume an adequate amount of water daily.

For most adults, it's good to drink at least 2 liters of water per day. But individual needs differ, so you may require more water to stay properly hydrated.

Finally, let's not neglect the value of water. Drink it, use it, and let it provide its full benefits for your body and your overall health.

-S.O PIENS

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Easy Way to Manage Psychological Stress

What do you do when you are always stressed? The answer seems simple: remove the stressor. But is that always easy? If a person is dealing with stress at work or financial stress, how do they simply remove the stressor?

Of course, someone may say, “Change your job” or “Find ways to make money.” But is that always easy? The answer is more nuanced.

In the case of a stressful job, what if there is no other job available, or you cannot easily find another one? How do you deal with that kind of stress?

In general, the main idea is to know what you can control and what you cannot control. Life is always about those two things.

You can never control everything, so you can never determine the outcome of everything. Then, what do you do? You focus only on what you can control.

When managing psychological stress, which mostly affects your mind, the key is to focus on what you can control and let go of what you cannot control.

If it is about your job, ask yourself questions like: Can I adapt? Can I learn new ways of dealing with people? Can I improve my communication skills? And if not, you can still ask questions like: Can I be more optimistic about finding a new job? Can I start my own business? And so on. These are things you can control.

But guess what you cannot control? You cannot control people’s behaviour or attitude toward you. You cannot control your company’s policies or work culture. That is why it is always better to focus on what you can control.

Oftentimes, stress comes from your mind focusing on what it cannot control. So, resist that temptation and always focus on what you can control. With time, your mind will get used to it, and you will see the stress gradually fizzle out.