Increasing Your Energy Step 5. Stress Reduction

There is a saying, I believe by Ben Franklin, that goes "The only things certain in life are death and taxes". I would like to add an additional "certainty" to that quote: STRESS!  Stress is as much a given as gravity.  If you are alive, then you experience stress every single day.  It may not necessarily be a bad stress, but stress non the less.  There are 2 kinds of stress: bad stress, otherwise known as distress, and good stress, otherwise known as Eustress.  Each stressor, good or bad, produces the same bodily response which is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system.  This system sends a message to the adrenals which releases epinephrine (adrenaline).  Epinephrine causes vasoconstriction, increasing blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac output.  This is so that your body is primed and ready to "fight or flight".  This reaction protects us in life threatening situations.  This is the short term effect, the longer term effect will be discussed later. 

     Now that we all have an understanding of how stress works, lets talk about how bad stress affects our bodies.  Unless you are being chased by a lion, chances are that type of bad stress doesn't happen to you everyday.  The type of bad stresses that I'm talking about are mental in nature.  Stress from work, home, children, money, etc. are all examples of potentially bad stress.  I understand that they could also be good stresses as well but lets leave them here for the moment.  Now, remember what happens when stress occurs (increased blood pressure, heart rate, etc) and think about what you are doing when you experience that stress.  Are you fighting or flighting?  Probably not.  You are probably sitting at your desk at work, or sitting on the couch at home, or driving in your car (road rage stress could be added to the mix as well).  So what is happening is you are increasing the blood flow, which is working to protect you, and you are sitting still, causing an unnecessary strain on your system.  This overtime causes an increase in heart muscle from working overtime, thus causing high blood pressure.  I don't have to explain that high blood pressure is not a good thing do I? I didn't think so.  Now, lets add a long term issue with stress.  The body, sensing a life threatening issue, goes into survival mode and secretes a hormone called cortisol.  Cortisol's function is to protect your body from starving, so it makes fat, and if it doesn't have anything to work with, then it will strip your muscle to make fat.  This is how people can be overweight without eating a lot.  I encourage you to google hypercortisolism, also called Cushing syndrome, and see for yourself the effects of cortisol, which is secreted just about every time you undergo bad stress.  Here is a list of effects of prolonged distress: increased cortisol production, decreased immune system function, erectile dysfunction, constipation, headaches, and fatigue. 

     Ok, time for the good news.  Eustress, again the same bodily response as bad stress, is totally a good thing.  What are some examples of eustress?  Exercise, praying, laughing, your first kiss, etc. just to name a few.  Exercise is one of the most important things you can do to increase your energy.  It uses the stress to strengthen your body, allowing you to be able to handle more stress.  I'll discuss exercise by itself at a later time.   Positive emotion and response to stress actually causes many good responses for the body.  Positive thinking and eustress go hand in hand, releasing hormones which counteract the effects of bad stress.  Here is a list of positive effects of eustress: Increased immune system, regular digestive function, increased libido, increased energy, and a decrease in blood pressure.

     So how do you reduce bad stress?  Well most of that is up to you but here are some tips:

1.  Exercise:  There is no better stress reliever than exercise, so feeling stressed? Hit the gym and you'll be amazed how fast your stress levels go down.

2.  Pray:  I understand that not everyone reading my blogs may be religious, but from my prospective I will say that the only better stress reliever than exercising is praying to God.  He always has the right answer and will never let you down.

3.  Eat right:  I already talked about proper eating, but I haven't discussed how chemicals, excessive alcohol, processed foods, drugs, etc. are negative stressors on the body and need to be moderated or eliminated in order to put as little stress on the body as possible.  

4.  Discuss your distress with others:  Bottling in distress is like having a pressure cooker on high, the longer its on the heat, the more pressure that builds up, and not monitoring it can could result in an unwanted explosion!

5.  Drink more water: Did I mention hydration again? Oh well, there is nothing that being well hydrated won't help! :-) 

   

The moral of this story is that not all stress is bad for you.  Having positive stress ultimately helps you live a long life of health and wellness.  

In Good Health,

Dr. Ara