Tag Archives: stress

The Anatomy of Stress

Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, once said, “Between stimulus and thought, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”

It has been shown that stress creates more wear and tear on the body when
associated with negative thoughts, or if we don’t think we’re coping well with it.
Reframing your stress can build your mental and physical resilience to the
challenges in your life.

STRESS DOES THE FOLLOWING!!!!

1. Stress results in less secretion of digestive enzymes, causing the pH of the stomach to not be as low as what is optimal for good digestion.

2. Stress causes oxygen and blood are diverted from digestion to the brain and muscles/etc instead.

3. Allostatic load: the wear and tear on the body due to the physiological responses that accumulate with chronic stress.

What is STRESS??? Stress is any type of physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes tension in the body. This tension causes chemical, physical or behavioral changes. Stress, or the fight or flight response, is an evolutionary mechanism for survival of the species. It is innate to us, usually on autopilot, and very much needed. However, our lifestyle and society, has caused this system to get overworked and undertaken care of.

• WORK stress, meetings, unhappiness on the job, constant deadlines, conflict
• Exercise is stress. Endurance training is a lot of physical stress.
• Heat and dealing with heat is stress.
• Mental Stress: relationship, trauma, responsibilities, conflict
• Physical stress: Intense workouts, childbirth, illness, injury, lack of sleep, food intolerances, toxins, pollutants
• Stress can be "real" or "perceived"
• Stress is meant to be a short term solution to take care of an immediate need
• Acute stress: short term stress. Normal. Perhaps what you feel right before a race. It gets you "READY". Causes the body to preform on an elevated and focused level. Enhance performance by helping you to "keep your eye on the prize".
• Chronic stress: long term stress. Not normal or beneficial. Like caring for a dying parent.

Sympathetic Nervous System: Gas of the car

• "fight or flight"
• slows the movement of food, prepares for action
• kick into gear, more energy

Parasympathetic Nervous System: Brakes of the car

• "rest and digest"
• controls digestion, sexual arousal, salivation, urination, and defecation
• conserves energy for survival activities

Hypothalamus gland in the brain tells the pituitary to turn on certain hormones in the adrenal glands, such as cortisol. This activates the sympathetic nervous system. This increases your heart rate, increases the blood flow to muscles and the brain and affects your blood sugar. Blood sugar rises to provide fuel, providing glucose to be super available in the blood stream, via the liver breaking down sugar instead of sending bile to the gall bladder. Norepinephrine is also released. This hormone works to increase blood pressure, along with epinephrine. The adrenal glands make adrenaline. The body then prioritizes whats going on in the body. Smooth muscles contract, including the intestines. Blood is diverted from the blood vessels the the muscles and the brain. So you are able to have mental sharpness and do a quick escape. Not getting eaten by the tiger. Blood and digestive enzymes will decrease, as they aren't a priority at the moment.

After the initial "surge" from stress, if the stressor is still present the body then activates the HPA axis. Hypothalamus, Pituitary Adrenal axis. This hormonal system works to keep the body in a state to be able to continue to deal with the stressor by release other hormones, CRH, ACTH and cortisol.

These hormones, over time will ...

• Increased belly fat: Cortisol. Visceral ab fat. Dangerous fat. Cytokyes, causes inflammation. Heart disease, vascular disease, depression, dementia and poor blood sugar management, low muscle tone, increased appetite.
• Food intolerances/food allergies: Chemicals during stress the body releases chemicals such as Histamines which will intensify allergies.
• Leaky gut: Mucosal barrier takes a hit during stress. Inflammation breaks down the barrier. Then a lot bunch of bad things happens. Absorption issues, blood flow is diverted away intestines . Allergies. Hormonal imbalances.
• Elevated blood sugar: Cortisol prevents insulin, which puts glucose into cells. Too much sugar in the blood. Insulin resistance. Plus the sugar molecule is large. And hurts the endothelial lining.
• Increased inflammation: anxiety, depression. This becomes a run away train.
• An altered microbiome: Affects diversity of health bacteria. Diversity is part of health and wellness.
• Increased risk for GERD, acid reflux, indigestion, and ulcers: Protective lipids affected, which protects the precious mucosal gut lining
• Aggravated IBS symptoms: More sensitive to pain. In the gut.
• Increased risk for SIBO: Movement affected out. So bad bacteria isn't "swept out".
• Lowered immunity: Cortisol suppresses the immune function.

Also. New stress points are "recollaborated" or set. So ... you've gotten use to being under chronic stress. So more hormones are needed to get that sharp response that is needed at times. This can lead to times when you notice you don't "respond" quickly to things that you know you should. Like ... an issue in traffic or when your kid runs out in traffic and you are "stuck in place".

REFRAME STRESS ACTIVITY

• Event: My top employee quit.
• Stress Story: I may lose my job. He never liked me anyway. My numbers are going to go down, and it will take forever to find someone new. Emotion/Response: Fear New
• New Stress Story: I’ll find another employee – one who’s a good fit and happy to fill the current role. Emotion/Response: Hopeful

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What the heck is Glutathione?

(gloota-thigh-own) Glutathione is a POWERFUL antioxidant. Why haven't you heard about it. Because it's not jazzy sounding like some. Not behind some product. Lots more could be said here, but we will skip for another day. We hear the word antioxidant ALL THE TIME. We throw that term around like we really understand it. But do we? If we did, I bet we'd try to get more of them. And hear this. Not all antioxidants are created equal. If you're breathing right now, moving your eyes to read, holding your breath... blinking, WHATEVER, you have the process going on in your body. Metabolism. Fact of life. We like to breathe, so the process is a great thing. But just like we like our cars, because walking to Starbucks everyday would not be all that pleasant, there are downsides to this process of living and breathing. Think of your car. You put gas in, the engine burns the gas for fuel, things go zoom to starbucks...but we totally forget the negative stuff, because in our car, unless your muffler goes out, you don't know that the exhaust of the engine burning fuel is a fact of life. We don't see it. It's behind us. Unless we are sitting behind the city bus, waiting for it to move the heck out of the way so we could get to starbucks. Ok. So back to the body. You blink, press the gas pedal, your body needs fuel to do that. Zoom. Inside you, the process's exhaust is called a free radical. And he's just plain crazy. Actually, a free radical is an unstable oxygen molecule, missing an electron. And left unchecked, causes lots of problems. What the free radical does is take an electron from whatever neighbor happens to be walkhing by, and GUESS WHAT, turns that perfectly innocent, and maybe functionally totally fine cell into a free radical itself. SEE?????? So think of on down the road...some dirt in the tank is ok. Fuel filter takes care. A bit more...replace the fuel filter...but there is wear and tear. And eventually...So maybe you get the picture. What it's really called is oxidative stress. Forward thinking doctors will say that this is the foundation of just about all disease and sickness. So whats a person to do? Stop breathing? Stop blinking? Introduce A N T I O X I D A N T. Simply put, this wonderful thing of nature, The Antioxidant, neutralizes the free radical. The antioxidant has an electron to donate without going crazy itself. And PRESTO. All is well in love and war. The key with antioxidants. You really don't know when you'll be behind the bus...literally breathing in toxins (free radicals and who knows what else), do your body needs to have lots of antioxidants on hand. IN the bloodstream. In the body. So...for more information, for those you like this kind of stuff, "G" or glutathione, is a triple threat to toxins. It neutralizes free radicals, enhances the immune system and detoxifies the liver. And here's a kicker, even if you're doing everything right, just by aging, antioxidants like G start to slip. The levels just go down. So, what about this one. There are literally thousands of antioxidants. What's so special about this one. Well, its found in every cell of the body, protecting the cell's engine from bacteria, viruses and toxins. Did you know that antioxidants have a very short life span. Once they neutralize a free radical. Bye bye birdie. HOWEVER!!! G has enough zip to revitalize spent antioxidants like C and E, and recharging itself as well. SUPERMAN!!!! So where does this G come from. Amino acids, particularly in foods such as asparagus, spinach, avocado and squash. Your body takes the plant version can CONVERTS it to replenish the body's supply. So your body's primary detox organ is the liver. Ever thought about that? The liver is seriously important. Though aren't they all. Check out the blog on the facial smoothie. What a clear face. Detox the liver because if the liver is not working all that great, those toxins gooooooo...ON THE SKIN, ON THE FACE. Waste products/toxins on the face is what that is really saying. A whole slew of skin things can be cleared up by loving on the liver. What the liver does is determine if an item is a nutrient to be absorb or gotten rid of. And when there isn't enough G around, there's a traffic jam. Toxins pile up, and they got to go somewhere. G owes much of it's fame to a sulfur-rich amino acid found in eggs, garlic and whey protein. Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage help to restock the body's G supply. Green tea, fish oil and resveratrol also aid in making G. And CHECK THIS OUT, aerobic exercise and yoga boost G levels as well. So understand, your body makes this. Or converts it from plant form. No simple pill. So a more whole food diet is needed. And less stress, less toxins. Here is a list of foods. And know that if you eat more fruits and veggies, your body will rely less on G, and thus you'll have a stock pile, for when you're sitting behind the bus, your body is equipped to deal. Or if you boss really lays it on you. Or you go run a 26 mile race.  :)  Nourish the body, so when stress comes, it's LESS STRESSFUL. G- foods: asparagus, spinach, avocado, squash, melons, grapefruit - EATEN RAW Building Blocks for G: eggs, garlic, whey protein (bio active and undenatured or nondenatured proteins).

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