What is stress and how does it affect your health?
We’ve all felt like this at one time or another!
Stress is a major underlying factor underlying health and disease. To make headway to improve your health, your daily stress must be addressed in conjunction with diet and lifestyle changes.
Let’s consider first the Principles of Good Health and Wellbeing
Health is not just the absence of the disease but it is the wellness of the whole body - mental, physical, spiritual, emotional. For example - You may be physically fit and exercise regularly, but are highly strung and snap at the slightest provocation.
Good health is a fluid state - we need to constantly make adjustments to account for outside influences, and internal cycles (such as the menstrual cycle). You think you have it all sorted and be feeling balanced and calm, but then something will blind side you, whether it be work stress, death/illness in the family, illness, relationship problems.
Stressors affect our physical, emotional, spiritual or mental self. We must learn to understand stress, how we individually respond, and then how to deal with the stress so that we can adjust and maintain good health. Maintaining sympathetic stress states well beyond the time period during which those responses are appropriate and useful, results in chronic stress that can lead to negative physical and emotional health consequences.
What is Stress?
All stress is not dis-stress, and negative. Stress can be the expectation of a new job, or experienced before a big event such as a wedding, or work presentation. This stress can be sufficient to call us into action and achieve our goals, even bringing excitement and anticipation into our lives.
We are all under ‘stress’ or pressure in the modern world - from the child starting school for the first time, the teen under social/school stress, young family stress, violence in the home, workplace stress, to the elderly dis-stress of living alone.
We can often not escape the daily stresses, as these are our responsibilities in the modern world - financial mortgage payments, deadlines at work, caring for ill loved ones, managing a busy household with your children, a medical diagnosis. And we adapt to these stresses.
How we adapt to these stresses everyday will affect our health. And….chronic continual stress impacts physical, mental, spiritual and emotional well being.
With chronic stress, our body has difficulty returning to baseline. The body's response to stress remains hyper (switched on), and this can lead to inflammation, and changes to normal hormone responses.
***Stress can also be our thoughts. It doesn’t have to be a physical event. Our thoughts are very real and will cause a physiological response with release of stress hormones and neurotransmitters.**
Stress Response - The Nervous System and The Endocrine System
The nervous and endocrine systems are two systems that through complex interactions respond to stressors to maintain balance.
The nervous system, composed of the brain, the spinal cord, and a body-wide network of nerve cells, monitors and controls almost every organ in the body.
There are two divisions of the nervous system:
the somatic motor system that controls skeletal muscles, and is voluntary (walking, writing etc) ,and,
the autonomic system, all functions of the body that we cannot control.
The autonomic system exists to keep us alive - so that we don’t have to remember to breathe, or that the heart needs to pump, or release of digestive enzymes to break down our food. Stress affects the autonomic nervous system.
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is further divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. These two branches take turns being the dominant branch of the ANS, depending on the situation one is experiencing. The parasympathetic nervous system is activated when a person is resting, and is often called the rest-and-digest mode. The sympathetic branch is dominant in stressful situations, often called the fight-or-flight mode. Most of the time, the ANS is shifting back and forth between the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, although sometimes one of the two will take over.
During a sympathetic response the pupils dilate so we can see that stressful object more clearly. The heart rate increases and the veins, and the lung bronchioles dilate so we have ample blood flow, can breath faster, and run quickly away from the stressor. There is decreased motility and secretion in the digestive tract as well as the reproductive organs (the body considers eating and reproducing to be very low priority when there is a need to fight or flee a stressful situation!).
This is useful in the ancient fight or flight response from the predator, but not the modern day constant wolf-pack.
The digestive system has its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system (ENS). The neurons within the Gastrointestinal (GI) tract are responsible for promoting secretion of digestive juices, permitting food to pass from one area of the digestive system to another controlling peristalsis. REMEMBER: The ENS is under control of the autonomic nervous system, so if we are experiencing stress your digestive capacity and function can be impacted.
Working alongside the nervous system is the endocrine system, a collection of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream in response to neural stimuli. This may be in response to stress, but also part coordinating everyday body functions. The hormones secreted by the endocrine system regulate metabolism, digestion, blood pH, heart rate, blood pressure, reproduction and many other key bodily functions.
Nervous System and Endocrine System - COMMUNICATION and AUTOMATION
When people think of stress they are aware of the role of the adrenal glands, the stress hormones - cortisol and adrenaline, and the sympathetic nervous system fight or flight response. Another theory is the tend and befriend theory and involves the hormone oxytocin , which has been found to motivate individuals under stress to reach out to others for support and nurturing (oxytocin is also associated with maternal bonding, and birthing).
STRESS HORMONES
Cortisol - Cortisol has many functions:
part of the control mechanism of the use of fats, proteins and carbohydrates;
suppresses inflammation;
regulates blood pressure;
increases blood sugar;
can decrease bone formation, and
controls the sleep/wake cycle.
Cortisol is secreted during stressful moments, but also has a natural diurnal rhythm in the body. Its secretion is highest in the morning, when it helps us jump out of bed and embrace the day! Cortisol secretion is typically at its lowest when we need to begin winding down at the end of the day. There is increased activity/secretions during acute or prolonged exposure to stress. Because most cells have cortisol receptors, cortisol has an impact on numerous functions - affecting blood sugar levels, metabolism, inflammation, memory.
Adrenaline & Noradrenaline
Secreted immediately during times of stress or excitement, adrenaline and noradrenaline increase heart rate and force of heart contractions, increase blood flow to the muscles and brain, relax smooth muscles, assist in blood sugar metabolism, and control the squeezing of the blood vessels which helps to maintain blood pressure during stress response.
Here is how an acute stress would look with the normal stress activation of the endocrine and nervous system response.
The Heartbeat quickens
The breath quickens
Blood pressure increases, pushing blood to the muscles needed for response
Glycogen pulled from storage to glucose for energy
Bronchioles relax and open wider allowing more oxygen to the lungs
Extra oxygen and more glucose taken to brain cells - improve focus & short-term memory
There are cortisol receptors all over the body, and therefore influences of cortisol are widespread:
Proteins from muscle and other tissue are broken down to liberate more amino acids so that the liver can continue to produce glucose and keep blood sugar elevated.
cortisol increases resistance to infection and haemorrhage. In the long-term, however, it suppresses immune function
The level of sex-hormones are inhibited, affecting menstrual cycles and fertility,
ability of the body to go into deep sleep and achieve delta wave patterns is diminished,
Serotonin and dopamine levels are influenced—two neurotransmitters involved in depression.
So you can now see how stress affects:
Weight
Immunity
Menstruation
Sleep
Mood
Digestion
HOW IS YOUR STRESS MANIFESTING
The relationship between stress and illness is complex—different people respond to stress in different ways. Factors such as genetics, coping strategies, nutritional status, personality and constitution, and the amount of support we have available to us can affect the likelihood that our stress overload will manifest as disease. But, once disease manifests a cycle can start between disease and stress, with self-sustaining factors such as inflammation.
Stress Axis Dysregulation
The overproduction and release of adrenal hormones can result in desensitization to those hormones and dysfunctional feedback mechanisms. Sympathetic dominance is a term used by medical scientists to describe an overactive sympathetic nervous system, whereby the body constantly perceives its environment as threatening and the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is "on" more often than the parasympathetic branch. Sympathetic dominance has become associated with many diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, obesity and metabolic syndrome with insulin resistance, and depression.
Chronic Stress Immune System & Inflammation
Cortisol is necessary for normal immune function, but at sustained levels detrimental effects on the immune process can result in anything from autoimmune disorders to immunodeficiency to cancer. Chronic stress can manifest as depressed immune function in one person and immune hypersensitivity in the next.
Chronic Stress & Cardiovascular Disease
In an episode of acute stress, blood pressure increases, therefore sustained stress can result in hypertension (high blood pressure). Hypertension, along with high LDL cholesterol, family history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, smoking, and systemic inflammation are all risk factors for coronary heart disease.
Chronic Stress and Reproduction
Chronic stress affects concentrations of all sex hormones because both cortisol and stress hormones are made from the same molecular backbone. Dysregulation of these hormones can result in an irregular cycle, anovulation, and implantation difficulty during conception.
Chronic Stress and Mental Health
Most people associate the perception of stress with alterations in mood. For some, anxiety is exacerbated when experiencing stress and for others stress might incite anger or depression. Chronically stressed individuals may have lower levels of serotonin and dopamine in their brains—levels linked to changes in mental health.
Chronic Stress and Pain
Some people suffer from chronic pain in the absence of any diagnosable conditions, and studies show that chronic pain has another source - stress. Stress-associated pain may be due to the higher levels of systemic inflammation that are common in chronically stressed individuals.
In considering these responses to stress we could define stress as any force that challenges this equilibrium and requires physiological and behavioral responses for the body to reestablish balance. We are amazingly resilient and can handle these stressors with no problem most of the time!
Taking Action
Identify the stress to make change. What changes can you make?
Sources of Stress -
Psychosocial stress - our perception that something is a threat to us, workplace, finance, family, expectations
Environmental stress - aspects of both our internal and external environment, living through a natural disaster, staring at a computer screen all day, noise/air/light pollution, infection, inflammation, or the sub-optimal performance of an organ
Past traumatic events, activating a sustained stress response
What can drop away? What can you let go of?
What can you reframe - thoughts and words Reframe your words and thoughts.
Not, I am stressed, instead - I have a busy schedule and/or I can do this/I can only do what I can do.
Are your expectations too high, unachievable? Be realistic with yourself and your expectations. Let go of thing beyond your control.
Change will only happen if you make it happen.
Next in Part 2 we will look at how you can support the stress response - the digestive system, nutrition and lifestyle practices.
PRODUCTS AND WORKSHOPS TO SUPPORT STRESS AND ANXIETY
