My mentor has always said, “You can eat right, exercise, and sleep like a champ, but stress will still kill you!”
Many of us have heard of cortisol, a chemical that is released when we are stressed, but do you know what cortisol does to the body?
- Controls blood sugar and when cortisol is high, it increases blood sugar. Think of high blood sugar as sandpaper inside our veins and arteries. What happens when you skin your knee? Well, a similar effect occurs when your blood sugar increases. Inflammation occurs inside our bodies and it leads to eye problems, kidney problems, and heart conditions. Stress can also be the reason why someone eats a very low sugar diet but still has diabetes.
- Cortisol is responsible for blood pressure. Think about it, if your arm is about to be consumed by a wild animal, your body will protect itself by constricting blood flow so that you stand a chance of not bleeding out. Constricted blood vessels lead to a higher blood pressure.
- Cortisol, in conjunction with thyroid hormones, controls our metabolism. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone. When we are stressed, the cortisol blocks another thyroid hormone, T4, is converted into T3. When cortisol is elevated, there is a change in this biologic process, and the active form of the hormone is stored instead. This slows down our metabolism and causes us to store food supplies in our fat tissue to have available because stress tells our body that it doesn’t know where its next meal is coming from.
- Cortisol is also plays a part in the availability of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays a part in controlling our mood and affects our cravings. When we are stressed, we tend to crave salty things which are typically carbohydrates for a quick burst of energy and minerals found in salt to help balance electrolytes which are consumed in higher quantities, along with vitamins, when we are stressed.
What causes all this stress?
Stress can be emotional or physical.
The emotional stress can come from work situations, family situations, holding grudges, or the believing that you do not have enough.
Physical stress comes from places that many people don’t even realize.
There may be a low-grade simmering infection. An overgrowth of yeast can hang on forever and it’s symptoms may be devastating or mild. Some symptoms of a yeast overgrowth are fatigue and craving carbohydrates or wine. Yeast feeds on sugar and is quite adept and asking for what it needs. However, even if those symptoms are mild, that infection is contributing to stress.
Other things that cause physical stress are inflammation (perhaps caused by high blood sugar or crap foods), obesity, overuse of stimulants such as coffee, tea, or sugar, toxins in our food and our environment, and insufficient caloric intake, either from dieting or over exercising.
What can you do?
First of all, stop denying your stress.
So many of us think that we can just manage it and that we will be fine. All of those things that were mentioned above happen in the background and then “all of a sudden” something sneaks up on you and you have Type 2 Diabetes, a heart attack, or a stroke. In the meantime, your body has been dealing with this stress for years and has just tipped. The proverbial straw on the camels back, so to speak.
Other things that you can do include practicing gratitude. Find a minimum of 3 things a day that you can be grateful for. When you are focusing on the good, the bad doesn’t have room to enter into your life.
A spiritual practice can help with stress, whatever that looks like for you. That may be practicing a religion, meditating, or praying.
Practice positive affirmations. My personal favorite is “I am safe.” Just saying that to yourself whenever you feel like things are not going quite right can cause a huge mindset shift and reset your cortisol levels.
Add some movement into every day. Especially during the combination of COVID and the winter months. We tend to be more stationary than ever. Movement not only helps with stress but it also aids in boosting serotonin levels, our feel good neurotransmitter. Just be sure that you do not take up running. Our bodies do not know the difference between running for fun and running from a wild animal and it may contribute to your stress. Instead, choose something like walking, yoga, or some other movement that ties the mind.
Finally, address any food sensitivities that you may have. When we keep introducing food to our body that it is sensitive to, it triggers an immune response that adds to our stress.
So, take the time to breathe! Your body will thank you for it!
