Stress is the physical and emotional strain put on our bodies in response to challenging situations. It is something that we all will experience at some point in life, and now more than ever, as the current world we live in becomes more and more stressful. The effects of chronic stress on the body has both physical and psychological consequences. Without proper stress management techniques, stress can wreak havoc on our bodies, causing long-term and serious disease.
The Basics: Cortisol and the Stress Response
Cortisol is the body’s stress hormone. In response to a physical or emotional stressor (think: major injuries or loss of a job), the brain signals to the adrenal glands to secrete the hormone cortisol, as well as epinephrine and norepinephrine (formerly known as adrenaline and noradrenaline). The adrenals sit on top of the kidneys, and combined with the pituitary and hypothalamus in the brain, they make up the HPA axis.
After a stressful situation occurs, the brain signals to the adrenals to create cortisol. This cortisol travels throughout the body and causes changes to occur such as increasing heart rate and blood pressure, elevating blood sugar to feed your brain and muscles, slowing digestion, etc. The body is preparing to deal with this “threat” by enhancing energy production and slowing down less vital processes. This is extremely helpful when you are trying to run away from a bear. Once the threat has passes and you are safe, cortisol decreases, and the body returns to a baseline, “non-stressed” state.
But what happens when the threat, or stress, doesn’t go away?
Chronic Stress: Effects on the Body, Inflammation and Long-Term Health
The chronic stress response starts with the presence of long-term, elevated cortisol. When cortisol stays too elevated for too long, the communication between the brain and adrenals (the HPA axis) begins to malfunction. This dysfunction results in abnormal cortisol levels - either too high or too low overall, high when it should be low, low when it should be high, etc.
Cortisol affects most organ systems in the body. Chronic stress is most likely to lead to conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood sugar dysregulation and diabetes, digestive disorders, autoimmune conditions. Other effects include fatigue, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, poor memory, anxiety, and weight gain.
At the core of these symptoms and conditions, and the fundamental effect of chronic stress and cortisol, is inflammation. Inflammation in the body isn’t always a bad thing, and in fact, it’s actually a crucial part of the healing process. However, long-term inflammation, even if low-grade, results in a variety of negative health effects.
Inflammation is a beast of its own, so there won’t be too much discussion here. But you can subscribe below to stay informed about upcoming blog posts that will address this.
Reducing Stress in Your Life: Stress Management Tips and Techniques
So the idea of actually lowering the stress you encounter in your life is probably not too realistic. The very society we live in is wrought with stress- your job, family dynamics, health concerns, politics.. the list goes on. In some situations, we can identify sources of extreme stress and find ways to remove these stressors, such as changing jobs. However, in most cases, these things cannot be changed.
This means the goal is to develop better stress management skills, so that we can process and move through stressful situations more efficiently and effectively. Here are 5 ways to get started in improving stress management:
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise, or cardio, not only helps to balance cortisol levels, it also directly supports the function of the heart, lungs and circulatory system. These are more stamina-based exercises that result in increased breathing rate and heart rate.
How to do it: About 40 minutes of moderate-intensity exercises 3 times per week. Moderate exercises should result in some sweating and you should still be able to talk, though not sing. Some examples are brisk walking, jogging, biking on level ground and swimming.
Mindfulness & Breathing
To get even greater benefit from aerobic exercise, adding in breathing and mindfulness practices before starting exercise can help to lower cortisol even further, almost double the benefit of exercise alone. Low on time? You can also just do the breathing and mindfulness practices and exercises later.
How to do it: Diaphragmatic breathing for 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes of mindfulness. Diaphragmatic breathing is done by focusing on expanding the belly with each breath. Placing a hand over the belly and over the chest can help with this. Mindfulness can be done by sitting quietly, focused on normal breathing or doing a body scan.
Hatha Yoga
Yoga has shown to have benefits to cortisol levels, likely because yoga incorporates many of the above elements - deep, focused breathing, mindfulness and meditation. Hatha yoga is particularly beneficial here as it is slower and gentler than other practices, such as Vinyasa which is fast-paced and more physically demanding.
How to do it: Diaphragmatic or deep breathing for 10 minutes, yogic postures for 15 minutes, then mindfulness and meditation for 10 minutes.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is an adaptogen herb, with adaptogen essentially meaning that it plays a role in regulating the stress response. When studied, ashwagandha taken daily can help to lower cortisol by about 25% after 2 months and 30% after 3 months. There was also evidence that it helped to improve memory and balance hormone levels.
Want to learn even more about how stress affects our gut, hormones, minds and more?
Interested in gaining more insights into stress management techniques?
Subscribe below to stay up to date on new blog posts.
Feel like stress is affecting your health?
Reach out here to discuss options for personalized naturopathic care.
References
“An Investigation into the Stress-Relieving and Pharmacological Actions of an Ashwagandha (Withania Somnifera) Extract - PMC.” Accessed September 27, 2023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6750292/.
Gopukumar, Kumarpillai, Shefali Thanawala, Venkateswarlu Somepalli, T. S. Sathyanaryana Rao, Vijaya Bhaskar Thamatam, and Sanjaya Chauhan. “Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha Root Extract on Cognitive Functions in Healthy, Stressed Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study.” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM 2021 (November 30, 2021): 8254344. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8254344.
Jones, Carol, and Christopher Gwenin. “Cortisol Level Dysregulation and Its Prevalence—Is It Nature’s Alarm Clock?” Physiological Reports 8, no. 24 (December 19, 2020): e14644. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14644.
Liu, Yun-Zi, Yun-Xia Wang, and Chun-Lei Jiang. “Inflammation: The Common Pathway of Stress-Related Diseases.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 11 (June 20, 2017): 316. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00316.
Ma, Xiao, Zi-Qi Yue, Zhu-Qing Gong, Hong Zhang, Nai-Yue Duan, Yu-Tong Shi, Gao-Xia Wei, and You-Fa Li. “The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults.” Frontiers in Psychology 8 (June 6, 2017): 874. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874.
Obaya, Hany Ezzat, Heba Ahmed Abdeen, Alae Ahmed Salem, Mai Ali Shehata, Monira I. Aldhahi, Taulant Muka, Elena Marques-Sule, Mona Mohamed Taha, Marwa Gaber, and Hady Atef. “Effect of Aerobic Exercise, Slow Deep Breathing and Mindfulness Meditation on Cortisol and Glucose Levels in Women with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Frontiers in Physiology 14 (July 13, 2023): 1186546. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1186546.
Thau, Lauren, Jayashree Gandhi, and Sandeep Sharma. “Physiology, Cortisol.” In StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, 2023. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538239/.
Thirthalli, J., G. H. Naveen, M. G. Rao, S. Varambally, R. Christopher, and B. N. Gangadhar. “Cortisol and Antidepressant Effects of Yoga.” Indian Journal of Psychiatry 55, no. Suppl 3 (July 2013): S405–8. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.116315.
Comments