By Dr. Mercola
"Stress is not a state of mind... it's measurable and
dangerous, and humans can't seem to find their off-switch."
These words of warning come from renowned author and
award-winning neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky in the documentary
Stress: Portrait of a Killer.1
The film, jointly produced by National Geographic and
Stanford University where Dr. Sapolsky is a professor and
scholar, shows just how dangerous prolonged stress can be.
As we evolved, the stress response saved our lives by
enabling us to run from predators or take down prey. But today,
we are turning on the same "life-saving" reaction to cope with
$4 per gallon gasoline, fear of public speaking, difficult
bosses, and traffic jams—and have a hard time turning it off.
Constantly being in a stress response may have you marinating
in corrosive hormones around the clock.
This film shows the impact stress has on your body, how it
can shrink your brain, add fat to your belly, and even unravel
your chromosomes. Understanding how stress works can help you
figure out ways to combat it and reduce its negative impacts on
your health.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Dr. Sapolsky has learned a great deal about the human stress
response and its effects on your body by studying primates in
Africa. Every year, he spends a few weeks in the Kenyan
wilderness studying baboon societies that have intraspecies
social and psychological tumult that mimics the stress of modern
man.
He monitors their adrenal hormone levels, namely adrenalin
(epinephrine) and glucocorticoids (such as cortisol). The fact
that baboons live in communities with hierarchical structures
led Dr. Sapolsky to one of his most profound discoveries: baboon
stress is related to hierarchy, or social rank.
The higher a baboon's rank, the less stress it experiences.
The lower its rank, the higher its stress. More importantly, Dr.
Sapolsky discovered that the low ranking "have-nots" of the
baboon world experienced
higher heart rates and blood pressure than the "haves."
Arteries in the "have-not" monkeys filled up with plaque,
restricting their blood flow and increasing their heart attack
risk. This was the first time stress was scientifically linked
to deteriorating health in wild primates. As it turns out, the
same is true for other primates—for example, us!
Mortality Rates Follow a Social Gradient
Professor Sir Michael Marmot performed a 40-year long stress
study in which he followed 18,000 men occupying various
positions with the British Civil Service. His findings
paralleled what Sapolsky found for the baboons: the higher your
status, the lower your risk for stress-related diseases.2
Marmot found that men in the lowest employment grades were
much more likely to die prematurely than men in the higher
grades—there is in fact a "social gradient" for mortality.
Subsequent studies involving women had similar findings. But why
would this be—what does your status have to do with your stress?
It's All About Your Locus of Control
Dr. Sapolsky explains how psychological distress may turn on
your stress response in this
short video
clip. If the link does not work for you, you can access it
on the
Stanford University website (click on “Related to this
Story” in right column, then the tab “More on Stress”). Sapolsky
explains how you are more vulnerable to stress if the following
factors are true:
- You feel like you have no control
- You're not getting any predictive information (how bad
the challenge is going to be, how long it will go on, etc.)
- You feel you have no way out
- You interpret things as getting worse
- You have no "shoulder to cry on" (e.g., lack of social
affiliation or support)
Like baboons, people at the top of the social pyramid feel a
greater sense of control because they are the ones who call the
shots, as well as typically having more social connections and
resources at their disposal. This results in less stress, which
over the long run translates to lower rates of disease.
Stress is also closely related to the experience of pleasure,
related to the binding of
dopamine to pleasure receptors in your brain. The brains of
"primate CEOs" light up brightly in PET scans, whereas the
brains of subordinate monkeys do not, indicating that life is
less pleasurable for the subordinates.
Like primates, people of lower socioeconomic status appear to
derive less pleasure from their lives. Perhaps this is why
laughter therapy is so effective!3,
4
Overall, men and women suffer from the same stress-related
illnesses, but they differ in the types of situations they
experience as most stressful. The genders also experience stress
differently. For example, women suffer more stress-induced
anxiety and depression than men.5
One thing is known to be true for both genders: higher
stress equates to a shorter life expectancy.
Are You a Stress Junkie?
The paradox here is that humans have essentially become
addicted to stress. There is "good stress" (eustress) and "bad
stress" (distress)—meaning, you experience certain stressful
experiences as unpleasant and seek to avoid them, but others
you may actually seek out because they're fun. For example,
snowboarding, skydiving, rollercoasters, and scary movies are
experiences that may flip your thrill-switch—and your body
responds to those stresses in the same way as if a tiger were
chasing you.
Your muscles tense, your heart pounds, your respirations
increase, and your body stops all of its non-essential
processes.This can be pleasantly exhilarating, and for some
rather addictive... you might know someone whom you could
describe as an "adrenalin junkie." A thrill is simply the
relinquishing of a bit of control in a setting that feels safe.
But when you're in that heightened state of arousal 24/7, stress
takes its toll on your body—whether you perceive the stress as
"good" or "bad."
Stress Takes a Toll on Your Brain and Adds Inches to Your
Waistline
Science has established that stress can lead to
cardiovascular disease, but did you know that it can also lead
to weight gain—of the worst kind? Stress-induced weight
gain typically involves an increase in belly fat, which is the
most dangerous fat for your body to accumulate, and increases
your
cardiovascular risk. Stress alters the way fat is deposited
because of the specific hormones and other chemicals your body
produces when you're stressed.
Prolonged stress can also damage your brain cells and make
you lose the capacity to remember things. The brain cells of
stressed rats are dramatically smaller, especially in the area
of their hippocampus, which is the seat of learning and memory.
Stress disrupts your neuroendocrine and immune systems and
appears to trigger a degenerative process in your brain that can
result in
Alzheimer's disease. Stress can also accelerate aging by
shortening your
telomeres, the protective genetic structures that regulate
how your cells age. In the words of Dr. Lissa Rankin, author of
Mind Over Medicine:6
"Our bodies know how to fix broken proteins, kill
cancer cells, retard aging, and fight infection. They even
know how to heal ulcers, make skin lesions disappear and
knit together broken bones! But here's the kicker—those
natural self-repair mechanisms don't work if you're
stressed!"
According to Dr. Sapolsky, the following are the most common
health conditions that are caused by or worsened by stress:
Cardiovascular disease |
Hypertension |
Depression |
Anxiety |
Sexual dysfunction |
Infertility and irregular cycles |
Frequent colds |
Insomnia and fatigue |
Trouble concentrating |
Memory loss |
Appetite changes |
Digestive problems and dysbiosis |
The Dutch Famine Study
The Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study (Hungerwinter Study)
shows that stress in utero might be followed by a lifetime of
poor health. Survivors of the Dutch famine are now in their 60s,
and those conceived during the famine have higher rates of
cardiovascular disease and diabetes and are in poorer overall
health than those conceived after the famine ended. Researchers
postulate that stress hormones in the blood of those pregnant
women triggered changes in their babies' developing nervous
systems as they battled against starvation. Decades later, their
bodies still "remember" this prenatal stress.7
The Dutch Famine Study is not the only scientific research to
show that your mental and physical health can be permanently
affected by childhood stress and trauma. The
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study is an ongoing
research project that analyzes the relationship between
stressful childhood experiences and health outcomes later in
life. There is a very strong correlation
between childhood stress and many diseases, including cancer,
depression, and heart disease.8
Cortisol Can Be an Important Health Challenge
The stress hormone cortisol, released by your adrenal glands
as part of the "fight-or-flight" response, is the master hormone
that regulates many aspects of your body's stress response.
However, cortisol levels are typically elevated across the board
in today's culture, to the detriment of mental and physical
health. The impact stress is having on society as a whole is so
profound that Psychology Today calls cortisol "Public
Enemy Number One:"9
"The ripple effect of a fearful, isolated and
stressed out society increases cortisol levels across the
board for Americans of all ages. This creates a public
health crisis and a huge drain on our economy."
For example, elevated cortisol levels are a potential trigger
for mental illness and reduced resilience, especially among
adolescents. Evidence of the societal affects of unmanaged
stress is disturbingly evident on the evening news, with
seemingly ever-increasing episodes of bullying, suicides, and
mass shootings, which are unfortunate, albeit extreme examples
of what happens when people cannot cope. When you have effective
stress reduction tools, you and your children are mentally and
physically healthier, more resilient and less likely to be
depressed, sick, or violent.
Is It Time to Send Yourself to Cortisol Rehab?
Sapolsky's baboons prove that stress is not inevitable. You
can
change your environment and your responses. And as you learn
how to effectively decrease your stress level, your cortisol
will stabilize, your blood pressure will drop, and your health
will improve in just about every way. It's important to realize
that stress management isn't something you save up to do on the
weekend—it needs to be done on a daily basis, because that's how
often stress rears its ugly head. There are many different
stress reduction techniques, and what works for you may not work
for another.
One may enjoy meditating, but another may feel calmer by
cleaning house! Stress management is a highly individual thing,
and the last thing you want to do is be stressed by your
supposedly stress-busting activity. You'll have to find what
works best for you. Of course, making good
food choices will support your overall health and increase
your resiliency. Be sure to get adequate
sleep as sleep deprivation dramatically impairs your body's
ability to handle stress. Several more stress management
approaches are suggested in the following table.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT): Some of the Most Powerful
Tools for Managing Stress
When it comes to managing stress, the Emotional Freedom
Technique (EFT) deserves special mention. EFT is a group of
energy psychology techniques that involve tapping on several of
your body's acupressure points while focusing on and making
specific verbalizations about the issue at hand—in this case,
stress. Like
acupuncture, EFT is based on the fact that your body is an
electrical system, and vital energy flows along invisible
channels known as meridians. When you're stressed, anxious,
traumatized, or sick, your energy flow can become blocked, which
EFT can help reverse—without the needles used in acupuncture!
EFT has been scientifically shown to calm your central
nervous system and significantly reduce cortisol levels. In
2012, a triple blind study conducted by Dr. Dawson Church (who
can be credited for the majority of current research on Clinical
EFT), found EFT reduced cortisol levels and symptoms of
psychological distress by 24 percent—more than any other
intervention tested.10,
11
Tapping can help your body repair emotional "scarring" and
reprogram the way it responds to stressors. Since these
stressors are often connected to physical complaints, many
people find that pain and other physical symptoms will improve
or completely disappear. There are many styles of EFT, but
Clinical EFT12
is the one I have the most experience with and is the best
established and best supported by scientific research. If you
are interested in experiencing EFT for yourself, please refer to
the video demonstration of EFT for stress relief above.
Although the basics of EFT can be learned quite easily, for
serious issues I recommend your seeking the help of a qualified
EFT practitioner.13
There is an art to these techniques and having an expert guide
you—someone who has spent years training in these skills—will
accelerate your progress. Working with an expert will also
prevent you from falsely concluding that EFT doesn't work, when
you simply need a little coaching and support, especially if you
are working on deeper issues such as trauma or post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). The beauty of EFT is that it can
actually reprogram your body's reactions to the
unavoidable stressors of everyday life, providing a lasting
effect.
As Sapolsky's baboons have shown you, stress is an extremely
significant player in your overall health. The better you get at
managing stress on a daily basis, the better your health will
be.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.