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Chronic stress increases cortisol and inflammation. Chronic conditions: anxiety, adrenal fatigue, depression, autoimmunity,  recurrent infections, heart disease. 

 

— CHALLENGES

High stress environments and lifestyles, overwork and workaholism, chronic unhappiness and lack of purpose, spiritual disconnection, dysfunctional family dynamics, oppressive social dynamics, adrenaline driven entertainment, insomnia.

 

— PREVENTION

Meditation, mindfulness practices, daily walks, conflict resolution, spiritual practice, time-off and time-out, more sleep, more napping, intergenerational family healing, more social community.

 

— OVERVIEW

Stress releases cortisol which increases inflammation. Chronic stress can make you inflamed and sick.

Long-lasting psychological, emotional and physical stress is acidifying, immune suppressing, and  depleting. The stress response is triggered in our brainstem, also called our hindbrain or reptilian brain, which sends the 'flight or fight' signal to the adrenal glands. As a result, adrenaline and cortisol are released into the bloodstream, and the bodymind prepares to either run away, fight, or freeze.

The stress response helps us to respond quickly to threats in our environment. It helps us survive. However, when stress is intermittent over a long duration, or even constant for a long period of time, the stress response can’t be sustained, and the holistic health of the person begins to break down. So if you're addicted to stress, and rely on a dose of cortisol to get yourself out of bed in the morning, or to get through the next task on your list, you may have to make some adaptive changes if you want to be healthy for life—and for a lifetime. Happily, to make these changes you don't have to do anything. In fact, you may need to do less.

If you haven't learned to meditate, it may be time. The ancient practice is as current today as ever. Meditation and mindfulness practices, like forest walking, decrease stress and increase happiness. They reduce stress on your heart, lift your spirit, calm your emotions, and free your mind from repetitive, habitual thoughts that keep you from being present, creative and conscious. Regular exercise also gives you relief from stress, as does playing, power-napping, and sleeping 8 hours at night.

So take a break, take a deep breath, close your eyes. Stop what you're doing for 20 minutes to alter your stress response, calm your thoughts, and shift the stress signals and pheromones. To be healthy and to maintain a state of health, you'll need to take charge of your stress body. Learn to turn it down a notch from fast beta brainwave frequency to slower alpha wave, theta wave, or even the deeper delta wave associated with cell regeneration.

It’s easier to make healthy changes when we accept that chronic stress is bad for our systemic health. Cortisol tells our immune system to go into inflammation mode, and channels energy away from digestion, detoxification and sex to give more energy to the stress response. That's adaptive when you're being chased by a tiger. But if you're not, if the tiger chasing you every morning to work is a paper tiger you create in your head to motivate you, well, you're only creating a future heart attack, increasing your risk of cancer and inflammatory flare-ups, and setting yourself up to catch every cold and flu that’s coming down the path.

Stress can also come from chronic infections that cause you to fight pathogenic microbes day in and out. Until those infections are healed, such as an infected root canal or Lyme disease, the peace you crave might evade you. So meditate on that too. Do a muscle test. Both of those are good ways to check in with your embodied self to get a read on what you need to heal and be more well.

 

— FURTHER READING