You've heard it before - stress kills. The more I dive into my studies in functional medicine, the more I see how and why this is true. And why does this even matter? It's because our modern society is dealing with an epidemic of people constantly living in a stressed state. We have this mentality of "busy=good" and "I'm stressed so therefore I must be working really hard which must mean that I'm super successful and crushing it in life." Can you relate? Well the problem is that by putting stress and busy-ness on a pedestal, we are actually doing ourselves a major disservice. We are making ourselves sicker and less productive rather than dealing with the issues directly.
Stress is one of the most common root causes of dis-ease in the body. Dis-ease over time leads to disease. I've talked before about the importance of our gut health in our overall health, and stress has a major impact on our gut function. When we are predominantly living in a stressed state, our body shuts down our digestion. This leaves people dealing with things like IBS, constipation, slow digestion - and it's all because our bodies actually believe we need to fight for our lives (in a matter of survival) rather than rest and digest. Additionally, stress causes our bodies to store fat because our body believes, again, that we are in dire straights and needs the fat storage as a matter of survival.
Our body has 2 nervous system modes:
1) The Sympathetic nervous system:
This is the system that is known as "fight or flight." It's in this state that we have increased focus and alertness, increased metabolic activities to prepare the body for emergency activity (like run for our lives to escape the sabertooth tiger that is about to attack us). We developed this system through evolution in order for us to survive - and it's meant for just that, short-term bursts of survivalist activity.
2) Parasympathetic nervous system:
This is the system that is known as "Rest and digest." In this state, our external muscles are relaxed, and we have increased digestive activities to store energy for future use. Our systems are work well in this state, and we aren't in a state of heightened alert. This is the state that our body's are designed to be the majority of the time.
The problems arise when we spend the majority of our waking hours in the stressed state rather than a relaxed state. Physiologically, a number of things happen like a burst of adrenaline is produced which promotes cortisol production and release. This has an impact on our thyroid hormone function, lowers metabolism, and can also do things like result in brain fog and lower progesterone (who needs sex hormones when you are just trying to run for your life - your body is promoting survival over fertility). Chronic stress can lead to lower energy, excess body weight, high LDL cholesterol, hair loss, dry skin, carbohydrate cravings, constipation/bloating and impaired nutrient absorption (just to name a few). Stress can also lead to low grade inflammation throughout the body - which in turn is a major factor in many chronic diseases.
There are a few things we need to keep in mind when we think about stress. The first is that stress usually is multifactorial meaning it can have many causes (physiological as well as mental/emotional). Normally, we think of stress as a state of mind, but things like food sensitivities/allergies, toxic exposure and chronic infections can all cause physiological stress. Other simple sources of physiological stress include dehydration, constipation, and poor sleep. Additionally, although exercise is usually considered a form of stress relief, excessive or overly aggressive exercise can actually be part of the problem! It can exacerbate stress for people who are already dealing with stress issues. In this case, movement like restorative yoga or tai chi can be more beneficial. Stress is often a vicious cycle!
So what can we do to help ourselves when it comes to stress?
1) Cultivate mindfulness practices: the more we can work on being present in the moment, the less we think about the future or past (which is often where stress lives). A great tool is to simply use your breath. Deep, belly breathing can actually move you from a state of fight or flight into a state of rest & digest. Use this simple box breath technique: Inhale for a count of 4 (being conscious of breathing deep into your belly and feeling your stomach expand rather than just in your chest), hold for a count of 4, and exhale slowly for a count of 4 or 6. Repeat this 4 times.
2) Consistently write in a gratitude journal: reminding yourself on a daily basis of all the things you are grateful for in your life can be a powerful beginning or ending to your day. It helps us to stay grounded and stops our brains from spinning in all different directions. Gratitude has shown to help people with optimism, happiness and overall less stress.
3) Focus on sound sleep as a priority: getting solid sleep is essential in maintaining good health and keeping stress levels down. Our bodies perform a number of restorative activities (e.g., cell and tissue repair and regeneration, hormone generation, memory storage, to name a few) while we are asleep and if we don't give ourselves the chance, dis-ease runs rampant. Make sure the conditions are right for you to sleep well - dark room, cooler temperature, using a sound machine/white noise, staying off of the TV and electronics/phone for one hour before you go to bed, doing a relaxing activity like reading a real book or having a warm cup of herbal tea -- all of these things help your body and mind wind down and get solid sleep. For poor sleepers - keep in mind that chocolate at noon and coffee at 10am could definitely be a part of the problem. People have different sensitives to caffeine and although you may think you can handle lots of both, if you are sleeping poorly, you should actually reassess your consumption patterns.
Stress is something that we should be actively trying to deal with to heal ourselves and protect our health for the future. I strongly and passionately believe that we can all be happier, more productive individuals if we focus on taking care of our health - and stress is a key factor we must learn to deal with to get and stay healthy!