Stress 101 - The Responsible Human

In this article, we explore the realm of stress, diving deep into the physiology of stress response, its effects on the mind and body, the specific effect of stress on women’s health, and some practical ways to not just handle, but be resilient and grow stronger in this never-ending modern era filled with stressors.

Word of caution: Do not get stressed by the sheer amount of information shared in this article 🙂

I personally deem all the information highly crucial in this era.

To get the best out of it, make sure you bookmark this post, and return to it periodically, reading one block at a time and using a practical tool at a time to make it a daily habit.

Contents

What is stress?
Why is the stress response crucial?
When stress is a problem?
Different types of Stressors
Practical ways to deal with chronic stress
The Science of Stress
Stress and Women’s Health
Conclusion
Resources
References

What is stress?

Stress is a physical or mental response by our body to an external cause.
This external cause can be real or not. In the case, where this external cause is not real and is only a perception or thought, the body’s specific reaction is termed “Anxiety”.

Why is the stress response crucial?

Imagine a scenario, where you are on a camping trip, relaxing and enjoying with the family, about to have dinner together, just when you spot a bear too far from your area. When you spot the bear, you perceive it as a threat (and you should), at this point, your brain triggers the stress response, also called the “fight or flight response”. What this response does is increases your heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, respiration, and muscle tension, along with shutting down the systems or activities that are less important for survival, such as growth, reproduction, metabolism, and immunity (as digesting the food in your gut or building muscle is the less important at the time than making sure you live). This is done in order to direct all resources to the most important actions for survival at the time, fight or flight.

This response can actually be extended to 4 types of responses: freeze, fight, flight, or faint. When faced with a threat, your first response would be to freeze and hope the threat does not notice you, if failed, you would either fight, or run, and if not successful in those too, you might run out of energy or pretend to be dead, in the hope that the threat leaves you alone.

Hence, this preparation of directing the energy resources to systems important for survival (the stress response) is crucial.

When stress is a problem?

Stress becomes a problem rather than a helpful response, when it occurs too much or for too long. As we learned above, the stress response shuts down activities such as digestion, growth, reproduction, and immunity, consider what would happen if your body was in this state most of the day, maybe 14-16 hours out of a 24-hour day, every day.

Now, you might think that you are not facing these threats of a bear or lion chasing you every day, so why would your body respond like that? Is that so?

The problem is that the part of our brain that controls this stress response is millions of years old. The brain we have now is the result of an evolutionary process, and even though the neocortex (part of the brain that facilitates thinking and reasoning) has evolved, the parts that are responsible for keeping us alive have not, namely the Limbic System (the emotional center of the brain), and the reptilian brain (the oldest part). And, when we face a threat, the reptilian brain is the first to respond, overpowering the thinking brain.

Adding to that, part of the problem is that our brain cannot differentiate between real or perceived threats, and respond in the same way to both. This means, if your phone beeps, in a matter of seconds your body can turn the stress response on based on the thoughts running through your mind such as “could this be an emergency text? could this be a message from my boss? could this be a breakup text?” Now imagine how many times a person’s phone beeps on average, with constant notification alerts that can either produce a happy or response or stress response (however, our minds always lean towards thinking the worst, and before we actually see the alert, the stress response could have been already started).

The effect: The effect of being in this mode most of our days and lives is that it can wreak havoc on important functions of the body such as digestion, reproduction, growth, and immunity. Resulting in not being able to obtain proper nutrition through the food (in turn which can lead to a multitude of diseases), not being able to have a healthy sex life or conceive, and not being able to repair the brain and body (after a lot of thinking or exercise), and not being able to fight infections.

For women, staying in a state of chronic stress can introduce a whole bunch of issues, covered below under “Stress and Women’s health”.

Different types of Stressors

Dr. Mark Hyman says, if you want to avoid stress, you are born in the wrong era.

Well, that statement does make sense, considering the different types of stressors we are exposed to every single day of our lives.

Consider the following stressors:

Physical stress (Lack of proper restorative sleep)
Chronic Infections and Injury
Chemical stress (drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine)
Environmental stress (air pollution, cleaning chemicals)
Mental stress (anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, loneliness, fear)
- Can be caused due to factors such as financial, career, and relationships
Nutritional stress (Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies)
Blood sugar fluctuations
- Sudden highs and lows in blood sugar (that happens after eating high glycemic foods such as refined carbohydrate or added sugar, resulting in a high and then crash), have been linked to mood disorders and symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, and worry,
Gut Dysfunction
- Having an unhealthy gut (imbalanced good and bad bacteria due to processed food and sugar, candida overgrowth due to antibiotics, and low stomach acid or parasites) can result in nutrition not being properly absorbed from food and also leaching toxins into the blood, eliciting an immune response and causing inflammation in the body
Gut intolerances
- An unhealthy gut can hamper the strength of the gut leading to food intolerances that otherwise would not have caused issues in small quantities, such as nuts, gluten, and dairy.
Modern stressors: Too much blue light (smartphone and PCs), EMFs (Electromagnetic Frequencies from Phones, Bluetooth, and such machines), Too much sitting, Traffic, etc.

Reading the above list, how many stressors do you think an average person is exposed to on a daily basis?

Consider the scenario where a person slept late due to smartphone use, woke up with an alarm clock (causing a stressful wake-up), rushes to get ready for work, misses breakfast, or picks up some processed refined food such as a bagel or muffin, works on a deadline to complete a task sitting most of the time in front of a computer or dealing with people and having conflicts, comes to home cleaned using harsh chemicals, goes out to a bar to relax with friends (however adds up adding alcohol that relieves emotional stress however causes stress on the digestive system as your liver tries to process the toxins from alcohol), has dinner cooked in vegetable oils, and is on their phone scrolling through social media (another type of stressor) to help them relax (or as he thinks) to get another 6 hour of sleep and repeat it all over again. (Not even considering any financial or relationship stress in the mix).

Now, this might not be an everyday routine but you get the idea. We are exposed to a multitude of stressors on a daily basis where some of them are in our control and some are not. On top of that, most people try to tackle one stressor with another stressor, such as lack of sleep with caffeine, emotional stress with alcohol, and nutritional and lifestyle stress with medicines. Although this does give relief in the short term, in long term the continuous chronic stress from all sources starts exhausting the body’s ability to deal with these stressors, resulting in all sorts of diseases and illnesses (heart problems, diabetes, mental health issues, etc.)

So the question arises, what is one to do other than running off to the mountains and becoming a monk? (Heck, that will be stressful initially too).

Let’s explore some practical ways to handle these stressors in our daily life so we can live with optimal energy to show up for our family and community.

Practical ways to deal with chronic stress

Breathing

Proper breathing has been scientifically proven to counter the fight or flight response-induced stress. Whenever under stress, one of the things that get affected is our breathing, becoming irregular and shallow, mainly chest breathing rather than deep belly breathing. Deep breathing helps to trigger the right part of the brain known as the “Parasympathetic Nervous System ”, the part which induces a relaxed response, as opposed to the left part of the brain “Sympathetic Nervous System”, which controls the fight or flight response.

In the book “The Relaxation Response”, Dr. Herbert Benson, explains how proper breathing techniques can change the expression of genes and alter cell activity.

Proper breathing is shown to induce physiological changes in the body such as lowered blood pressure and heart rate, reduced cortisol (the stress hormone), reduced lactic acid build-up in muscle, balanced oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, improve the immune system, increased energy, increased feeling of calmness.

Deep breathing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to control stress, especially if you can make it a habit. Proper breathing includes deep nasal inhales into the belly, expanding the diaphragm, and slowly exhaling through pursed lips. Long exhales and short inhales (think 8 sec out 4 sec in) are effective ways to curb the stress response in as short as 2 min.

Practicing breathing techniques daily, also trains the body to better handle stressful situations when they happen. One of the ways to train daily is to have a 30-second cold shower in the morning and try to practice deep breathing while your body tries to force shallow breaths and stress.

Other breathing techniques that can help are:

Box Breathing (My Favourite): The NAVY Seal technique to control stress in hard situations. 4 second in through nose, 4 second hold, 4 second out through mouth (pursed lips), 4 second hold (Repeat for 8 rounds minimum)

4-7-8 Breathing (Helps in falling asleep): 4 second in through nose, 7 second hold, 8 second slow exhale through mouth (pursed lips)

Apps that can help: Othership (7 min sessions to calm the mind)

Digital Detox

A digital detox does not have to be a fancy 3,5 or 7 days spent without technology. It can be as simple as, reducing the usage of computer/phone, Bluetooth headsets, turning off your wifi router at night, and making sure your phone is on airplane mode if it is touching your body (or keep it away or carry it in an EMF protective case)

Mindfulness Meditation

Meditation can be a pretty heavy word, especially in the modern era, where there are hundreds of types of meditations one can do. The one I like the most to cultivate well-being and calm th mind is the basic “Mindfulness Meditation”.

To practice it, you sit in a comfortable position or lie down, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing, taking deep slow breaths. letting your mind run through all the wild thoughts it can, not judging yourself, others or reacting to the situations your mind brings up, just let it be and focus on the breath, when the mind wanders to a thought, catch the distraction, then bring the focus back to your breath (not letting the distraction irritate you, as the bringing back of your focus is what trains your mind, to get better at it in long-term). The box-breathing practice at the start of this session can help a lot. Practice this 15 min minimum every day to handle the punches thrown by life better.

Sleep

Sleep deprivation (< 6 hours per night)and poor sleep quality (even when 7-8 hours in total, caused by excess lightning in the evening and stress before sleeping) can adversely affect mood (poor emotional control), brain (decreased IQ), hunger (increase in a hormone that generates hunger and decrease in hormone that creates satiety), poor blood sugar control (cells become more susceptible to accept glucose, leading to increased insulin, which can lead to diabetes in the long term)

If reading this makes you stress, you might want to try the box-breathing technique now and then focus on what you can do about it with the tools at your disposal 😉

You can check out the resources section to learn more about the importance of sleep and ways to get better sleep

Mindset

The way you perceive stress, and the situations and thoughts that create stress can affect how your brain and body respond to it.

In her famous TED Talk, “How to make stress your friend”, Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, shared a study that tracked 30,000 adults in the United States for 8 years, asking questions such as “how much stress you experienced in the last year”, and “do you believe that stress is harmful to your health?” Using the public death records to find out who died, it was found that people who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43% increased risk of dying, HOWEVER, that was only true for the people who believed stress was harmful to their health. On the contrary, people who had a lot of stress, and did not believe that stress was harmful to their health, had the lowest risk of dying, even compared to people who had relatively less stress.

Another study at Harvard University informed participants about the stress response (increased heart rate etc.) and told them to see this response as helpful as if their body is preparing them for something. After that, the participants went through a social stress test (consisting of a 5-minute impromptu speech and a math test designed to elicit stress response), and it was found that when the thought of as helpful, the heart rate of the participants still went up, HOWEVER, their blood vessels did not constrict (which usually do constrict in a stress response, causing heart attacks).

In addition to learning about the stress response, and viewing it as helpful, one important tool can be cultivating a resilient mindset. One basic thought pattern and belief to adhere to are that everything happens according to nature, nothing is good, or bad, and when faced with stressful situations, the difference between what you can control, and what you cannot control, and then focus on the things in your control, your actions, without blaming and judging others. To cultivate a strong resilient mindset, you can look into Stoic philosophy, or just trust the higher power you believe in, and do what you can do to progress, at any given moment.

Exercise

Exercise in multiple studies has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety and can be as effective as antidepressants.

Staying physically active and exercising can help keep maintain a healthy balance between neurotransmitters that make us happy and calm (such as serotonin, and GABA) and ones that generate excitement (such as glutamate, catecholamines, and dopamine).

Interestingly, as low as 15 min of exercise per day, can be enough to stay healthy. On the other hand, exercising too much, especially ones that result in a lot of the stress hormone, cortisol (such as running) can be detrimental to health.

Nutrition

When it comes to nutrition to beat stress, one thing to learn about is that the main stress hormone, cortisol, is anti-inflammatory, that is, it reduces inflammation, which is a good thing, as chronic low-level inflammation is the root cause of many diseases. However, when you have consistent high cortisol levels in the blood, due to chronic stress, the body gets used to having too much cortisol, which leads to the situation where over time, the body is not able to suppress inflammation, resulting in widespread systemic inflammation and a weakened immune system.

Therefore, when it comes to food choices, foods that are anti-inflammatory are one of the best choices (such as Omega-3 fatty acids from fish or algae, grass-fed meat, pasture-raised eggs, lentils, flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts).

Moreover, chronic stress also leads to an imbalance in hormones and neurotransmitters, and foods that provide the building blocks for these can help create the balance again, such as Amino Acids from quality protein, B vitamins, and minerals.

Overall a whole-foods-based diet with enough quality protein, healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates, vegetables, and fruits, that provide enough important micronutrients such as Vitamin C and Magnesium can help the body handle daily life stress and provide enough energy to live life to its fullest.

On the contrary, foods that increase inflammation, such as refined and sugary foods (refined flour, gluten, sugar, vegetable oils such as canola oil) and drugs that increase cortisol (such as coffee and alcohol) can add to the daily life stress and reduce the body’s ability to repair itself and handle the life’s punches.

Remember, that food is information, and thus controls how your body expresses its genes, and balances hormones and its metabolism.

To learn more about nutrition, checkout the 3 part series on this blog (Why do we eat and how to do it right) in the resources section.

Supplements

Before diving into the supplements that can help with stress, one point to address is that do you really need supplements.

Among the many reasons to do so, there are 2 main ones which I choose to take supplements.

Number 1, the lifestyle that we live now, is much different than the ones our ancestors used to live. We are breathing toxins every day from the environment, whether at home or outside, are exposed to artificial lightning (another cause of stress) most of the day (And sometimes night), and are exhausting our body’s resources more than ever (by working or exercising too much), that the food that we eat cannot make up for the nutrients our body needs.

Number 2, the nutrition in the food has been decreasing a lot in the past few deceased. The apple we eat today vastly differs in nutritional quality from the apple our ancestors used to eat. The cause for this is the depleting water and soil quality. In 2005, WHO revealed that many important minerals like magnesium are being removed from the water in all of North America. Also, genetic manipulation of foods (especially GMO soy and GMO corn), results in food that might look delicious although has reduced nutritional value compared to the natural variety.

Considering the above, what supplements could help deal with stress? Here are a few:

MultiVitamin (preferably whole-foods based)
Vitamin C
B-Complex
Magnesium (also called the relaxation mineral)
Zinc
Fish Oil
Vitamin D
L-Theanine: L-Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in green and black tea. It has been shown to promote relaxation without causing drowsiness. (Hence biohackers have been pairing the supplement form with coffee to increase focus). 200mg of high-quality L-Theanine supplement (such as the patented Suntheanine formulation) can easily help reduce stress, and anxiety and even improve sleep (the reason most of the new sleep supplements contain L-theanine)

Herbs

“Adaptogens” are specific herbs that as the name suggests, help the body “adapt” to stress. They can help fight fatigue and increase well-being. They help promote hormonal balance as well.

Specifically, adaptogens are active ingredients in a plant or mushroom. The interesting fact about them is that they work differently in everyone to return the body to homeostasis (balanced state), meaning, in a person with high cortisol, an adaptogen will lower it, and in a person with low cortisol, an adaptogen will increase it.

There are numerous studies showing this effect of adaptogens, but the specific mechanism of their working is not exactly known though.

If you decide to try an adaptogen, keep the following points in mind:

Since supplements are not FDA Approved, it is up to the consumer to choose the brand that provides the highest quality, as adaptogens can have heavy toxic metals if not formulated properly (Prefer patented formulations to guarantee the quality, such as KSM-66 for Ashwagandha).

Make sure to try one adaptogen at a time for at least 6-weeks (it takes that long at minimum to notice any difference) and take a break for at least 2 weeks every 3 months.

Some herbs should not be taken in certain situations (such as Ashwagandha in Pregnancy)

It is always best to check with a Naturopath or Herbalist to choose the herb best for your body and goal.

Here is a brief list of my favorite adaptogens:

Ashwangandha (KSM-66)
Rhodiola Rosea
Tulsi (Holy Basil)
Reishi Mushroom

The Science of Stress

Okay, it is time to get sciency now (that is a made-up word) to strengthen the understanding of stress, why? because I believe the better we understand something at its core, the easier it gets to make daily life decisions regarding it, as your brain wants you to survive and will not let you make choices that hurt those chances.

Cortisol, HPA Axis and Stress:

Cortisol, as we know, is the main hormone that gets released when we are under stress. It is not an all-evil hormone though, having important jobs such as controlling hunger, digestion, blood pressure, sleep/wake patterns, and capacity to cope with stress. The main job of cortisol is to release stored glucose into the blood (so it can be used to fight or run) and store excess glucose in the liver.

In the best scenario, naturally, our cortisol should increase in the morning so we wake up energetic, and decrease by dawn so we can relax and go to sleep. The problem occurs when this hormone keeps getting surged throughout the day and even at night.

HPA AXIS

HPA Axis is the short form for the fancy word “Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis”. Hypothalamus and Pituitary are parts of the brain and the Adrenal glands are small glands that sit on top of the kidneys. These three organs together regulate stress response, mood, digestion, immune system, reproductive function, metabolism, and energy levels.

An easy-to-understand example as mentioned in the book “Boundless” is as follows:

“You lift a heavy barbell at the gym, your body realizes it is stepping into fight or flight response, and the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, which signals the adrenal glands to secrete more cortisol. Some of the cortisol signals back to the hypothalamus to stop asking for more cortisol, and the hypothalamus asks the same from the pituitary. This is called a feedback loop, and the result is that at the end it puts a brake on the adrenal glands and stops producing cortisol and other stimulating hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.”

If this system is triggered too much for too long (due to the host of different types of stressors we learned before about), the HPA Axis becomes desensitized to the feedback and fails to apply brakes to the stress response. And there comes a time when you cannot just feel the energy in the morning until you get a dose of external cortisol (coffee).

This long-term dysfunction can also lead to Neurotransmitter Imbalance (neurotransmitters are chemical messengers of the body that tell it what to do). That is one way Antidepressants (SSRIs) help, as they increase serotonin, which causes levels of stimulating hormones (norepinephrine to fall) leading to a feeling of low stress (this can result in desensitization to serotonin, meaning more antidepressants are required as the time goes on to feel the same effect).

Stress and Women’s Health

Note: Make sure you read the above section “The Science of Stress” to get the most out of the information below.

One way that Chronic stress harms women specifically is by lowering “Progesterone”.

In her book “The Hormone Cure”, Dr. Sara Gottfried explains, “Most of the havoc from PMS to sleep issues stems from problems with Progesterone rather than Estrogen. Estrogen and Progesterone are like two sides of a seesaw. shifting back and forth over the course of the menstrual cycle.”

Low progesterone can result in estrogen dominance, leading to rage, headaches, cysts, miserable periods, and sleep disorders. Too much estrogen can result in a greater risk of infertility. Too high or too low progesterone can also cause problems (making you fat, moody, and other serious issues).

Progesterone not only balances Estrogen, it also provides an overall sense of well-being. It boosts metabolism and provides contentment. Provides calmness, and relaxation and helps in sleep.

Progesterone is made from a prehormone “Pregnenolone”, and interestingly, progesterone is a prehormone for cortisol. In times of chronic stress, the body has to make cortisol, and if more cortisol is required than being produced, Pregnenolone and progesterone are used to make more cortisol, leading to lower levels of progesterone, a phenomenon called “Pregnenolone Steal”.

So what can you do?

In addition to the tools discussed in this article to control stress, here are a few recommendations by Dr. Sara for low progesterone:

Vitamin C: 750m/day is a safe dose
Hang out with others: Bonding with partner or friends can help
Reduce Caffeine (Coffee, Tea)
Skip the Alcohol: Associated with Anxiety, mood, and headache problems.

Conclusion

Avoiding stress in modern times is inevitable. We can only do our best to develop our understanding, and do what is best for us and the people around us, by taking responsibility of our own health first.

Resources

Winding Down for Sleep
Why do we eat and how to do it right? – Part I
Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend | TED Talk
App Store: Othership

References