stress
Is there anything more stressful than the thought of how our stressful lifestyles are impacting our overall health and well-being?
Stress has become a part of our everyday lives, existing in social circles almost as a badge of honour, boasting busy schedules and stressful lifestyles. However is stress having a negative affect on our bodies? At what point can stress result in long term health complications?
Many of us think of stress as a mental response to a stimuli, however we often underestimates the relationship between mind and body and how they interact with each other.
Our body can respond to stress in a number of different ways, including mental, physical or physiological- ever find yourself with tension through your body or facial muscles, grinding your jaw or even holding your breath? Or maybe you can’t focus and feel flustered and distracted? These responses may be something we are consciously aware of, however it is the physiological affects we may not be able to identify which pose the main threat to our overall health.
When we are stressed our bodies respond by producing cortisol and adrenaline, acute stress can be beneficial for the body and protects us in times of danger or emergency by keeping us alert. However it is the constant production of cortisol, prolonged inflammation and stressed state of the body that leads to chronic complications, having a knock on affect on our whole body and its capacity to function optimally, how so?
Gut Health
We are only just starting understanding the complexity of the relationship between the gut-brain axis. In times of stress, blood flow is redirected away from the digestive tract to keep our bodies alert. This reoccurring state can lead to dysbiosis (the imbalance of bacteria) and inflammation, which is turn can present itself as IBS or other gastrointestinal disorders including leaky gut.
Mental Health
An indicator of the relationship between gut and mental health is the presence and production of serotonin and the pathways of interaction between gut bacteria and neurotransmitters found in the brain. If we are failing to nourish and regulate our digestive functions we are failing to create a healthy gut environment, this consequently may lead to depression, anxiety and other mental health complications.
High levels of circulating stress hormones inhibit the production of GABA and melatonin, the chemicals required for a good nights sleep. The lack or even disturbance of sleep cycles has an impacting effect on our ability to regulate mood and again, has an affect on mental health including eating habits.
Hormonal Health
The body is clever in the way it regulates our hormones, when there is an abundance circulating in the body it will simply suppress production. Yes, this is a positive adaptation, until we look at the affects chronic overload has on the body. Stress can result in an imbalance of sex hormones, impacting sex drive, mensuration and fertility.
Immune Function
Prolonged exposure to cortisol has a suppressing affect on the production of white blood cells required to fight harmful pathogens and bacteria. As a result, inflammation, heightened blood pressure and hypertension can result in cardiovascular complications.
How Can We Reduce Stress?
The easiest way to reduce stress is to firstly identify stressors and triggers, from here, reducing stress could be as easy as simple lifestyle changes. For example
High work load and busy schedule?- be honest with your capacity and prioritise important tasks, try to reduce duties or even delegate.
No time to exercise or slow down? Walk or cycle to work or classes, try adjusting your sleep schedule to find time for yourself
Noise pollution? Find moments of quiet, seek our nature or even drown out noise with meditation, calming music or podcasts.
Yoga & Meditation
Yoga and meditation are becoming increasingly popular in daily lifestyle and routines due to the benefits of relieving stress.
When we engage in yoga and meditation we are calming the mind and body to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, activated by breathing techniques and calming movement. This state of the body is responsible for blood pressure and hormone regulation, including our old friend cortisol.
Diet
Often when we are stressed it can be hard to find the time to prioritise or even worry about our diet, although our food choices have the ability to help or hinder our overall health so it is important to provide the gut with the best fuel to thrive. Include a variety of high fibre food, approx. thirty different kinds a week, eat an assortment of colourful fruits and vegetables and find time to cook balanced and healthy meals. The Mediterranean diet is found to be the most beneficial diet for optimising gut health, so including fruit, vegetable, omega fatty acids, seafood, lean meats and limiting processed foods.
Exercise
When we exercise we are putting out bodies into a state of stress, as a result we produce cortisol and adrenalin in order to perform. However it is the affects post exercise that are beneficial for stress which indicate lower levels of circulating cortisol at the same time as endorphins, neurotransmitters and happy chemicals are being produce.
A note on over exercising and physical stress on the body: listen to your body and understand the signs of overload and burnout. Rest and recovery is just as important when it comes to stress and calming the mind and body.
Schedule time to do things you enjoy, or even just to relax and have a peaceful minute.