Stress
Stress is your body's way of responding to a threat, real or perceived. The body's defenses respond with what’s known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction or the "stress response."
Stress makes the heart beat faster, blood vessels constrict elevating blood pressure, blood sugar goes up, muscles tense, the digestive and reproductive systems shut down and the vagus nerve withdraws. These are all good things when it’s a short-term response to a genuine stressor. But mechanisms that are protective in the short-term become damaging over the long term. The long term constant activation of the stress response system erodes resilience and depletes metabolic reserve resilience. In other words, chronic stress, so common in today’s modern age, is damaging our bodies.
Stress is multi-factored and individual. An event that is incredibly stressful for one individual could be completely stress free for another. There’s a saying, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” but that doesn’t apply to stress. There’s no number that can be monitored. It’s not as simple as measuring the “stress hormone” cortisol because it’s more nuanced than that. Frankly, the best measure is if you feel stressed, then you’re stressed, but even that’s imperfect because one can lead a very harmonious life and be still be affected by stressors such as a high glycemic diet or toxic exposure.
Managing stress isn’t as simple as just taking a deep breath. But don’t stress out, with knowledge and certain practices, stress can be managed.
Causes of Stress
Mental/emotional
- Work pressure
- Financial worry
- Family issues
- Marital issues/divorce
- Imprisonment
- Loss of loved one
- Abuse
- Neglect
- Moving
- Losing a job
- Raising children
- Perceived threat
- Caring for a loved one with difficult medical issue
Physical/Metabolic
- Chronic pain
- Disability
- Inflammation
- Chronic Illness diagnosis such as cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s etc.
- Over-exercise (produces high oxidative stress and prolonged elevated cortisol)
- Diet (glycemic control, food allergies/sensitivities) When insulin is chronically high, so is cortisol. If you are an adult and eat more than 30 grams of sugar a day, (one 12 ounce can of cola contains 39 grams of sugar) you are living in chronic stress (source: https://optimalterrainconsulting.com/the-book, Kindle location 4668 of 7162.). A poor diet can feed “bad bugs” in the gut (microbiome dysbiosis) thus deteriorating the gut–brain axis in regulating stress-related responses. Food sensitivities/allergies also place adrenal glands in chronic stress response.
- Prescription, over the counter, and recreational drugs
Toxic chemical exposure
- Pesticides
- Herbicides
- Preservatives
- Heavy Metals
- Cleaning Products
- Body Care Products
- Airborne Chemicals
- Cigarette Smoke
The Damaging Effects of Stress
Chronic stress leads to dysfunction of the HPA Axis (Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal axis), also commonly referred to as adrenal fatigue. The hypothalmus in the brain produces CRF (corticotropin releasing factor), that stimulates the pituitary gland to release ACTH (andrenocoticotropic hormone), the ACTH causes the adrenal glands to release cortisol and other stress related hormones. The more stress the body experiences, the more the adrenals have to work to produce cortisol, the harder the adrenals have to work, the more fatigued they become, the less cortisol they can produce, resulting in even more stress and inflammation.
Stress affects every single cell in the body. Every cell in our body has the ability to produce and receive neuropeptides which neurons use to communicate with each other. Stress changes the neuropeptides our cells release. When the neuropeptides serotonin, dopamine, and relaxin are exchanged they have a healthy effect on the immune system, but when certain neuropeptides such as cortisol, epinephrine, and adrenaline are produced over an extended period of time, they damage cells and weaken the immune system.