Have you been feeling stressed lately? If you answered yes this is completely normal, more than likely most of us feel stress on the daily. Especially in the world we live in the amount of stressors are endless. Work, family, relationships, and environmental conditions are just some of the stressors we may face. While having stress is a part of our life it’s how we manage it that is important. Some stress can actually be motivating for us however we also know that chronic stress can have detrimental effects on our health. This is where we also see the link between nutrition and stress making it an area I feel is important to discuss. Digestive issues, gastric ulcers, depression, moodiness, poor sleep, pre-mature aging, cognitive decline, high blood pressure, and cancer are just some of the health conditions we may face. Understanding how our body reacts when under pressure is important. For a majority of my career I have worked with people once they already face these medical conditions but if we know all the things that can prevent an illness I like to take a proactive approach and treat some of the underlying factors if at all possible.
Imagine this situation you’re jogging on the side of the road when a car coming in your direction is heading straight toward you. Worried that you may be hit by this distracted driver your brain senses this danger leading to a series of physiological events along the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis (HPA) and is part of the sympathetic nervous system. This signaling pathway from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland (both in the brain) causes the adrenal glands (right above the kidneys) to secrete the hormones cortisol and epinephrine (aka adrenaline). Cortisol has a few functions in the body that can help us deal with the danger. One it releases stored blood sugar into the bloodstream so that we have the energy to fight the stressor. Along with providing glucose it also turns down insulin production to prevent glucose from being stored so the glucose remains available for use. It also turns down non-essential functions when we are in this ‘fighting’ situation such as digestion and reproduction. As mentioned previously having some stress and cortisol release can be a good thing. For example, when exercising you’re pushing your body into sometimes an uncomfortable state and cortisol can help supply blood glucose to your large muscle groups. Cortisol narrows your blood vessels while epinephrine increases heart rate, together causing the blood to pump faster throughout your body. So back to the car scenario this pathway of events gives our bodies the energy to jump out of the way and save ourselves. Once the situation has resolved hormones level return to normal and we go about our day. But in the event this stress becomes a constant, cortisol levels remains high.
Thinking back to what cortisol does in the body when it’s told to fight or flee a situation the health concerns we can expect become apparent.
–Release of glucose into the bloodstream and insulin production turned down. Can you guess what this may cause? If you guessed diabetes or weight gain you are right! Diabetes (type 2) is brought on by chronically high levels of blood glucose. One of the functions of your pancreas is to create and release insulin however when there is too much glucose it is unable to keep up with the insulin demand and eventually tires out. Chronically high cortisol levels mimic this situation as insulin production is turned down. Without insulin our cells are not getting the energy they need. Starved cells then signal to our brain to eat more food and the cycle worsens. Also remember that any unused glucose is stored as fat.
-Reduced digestion: Digestion is a process that works best when we are operating within our parasympathetic nervous system. We know that during stressful times we are operating within the sympathetic nervous system. Unfortunately, we can’t operate these two systems simultaneously. One with chronic stress can experience bloating, indigestion, and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract which may lead to gastric ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease (IBS/IBD) to name a few.
–Vasoconstriction and increased heart rate: While it’s good to have increased heart rate and more efficient blood flow throughout the body when needed, over time it can lead to cardiovascular concerns. A continuous constriction of the arteries can lead to damage and plaque development. I look back at my time working in the hospital in which so many patients came in with strokes and very little (and in most cases) there was no focus on stress and how to manage this HUGE risk factor.
I mentioned also the risk of cognitive decline, poor memory, and disrupted sleep as possible side effects as well and without going into a whole ton of detail on the chemistry behind how this damage occurs, I will link an article for my science peeps and also provide a super short synopsis. Our brain has several different regions, all of which provide different functions. The hippocampus (responsible for memory and learning), amygdala (emotional responses), and pre-frontal cortex (attention, concentration, focus) make up the limbic system of the brain and are the areas where chronic stress starts to cause long-term problems. Chronic stress has been found to impact all of these areas a little bit differently from structural changes, reduced neuron development/survival, atrophy or damage from high amount of inflammatory markers.
My hope for this blog is that my audience can put more focus on lifestyle and how important it is to manage more than just our diet. We could have the most perfect diet but if we are chronically stressed we are not going to reap all the 
benefits of that diet. In the next part of this two part series I will be discussing the use of adaptogenic herbs to help combat the effects of stress including my favorite evening cocktail, MOON MILK 🙂 .I will also share some resources for stress management including my favorite essential oil blend, Adaptiv..