Some Stress Basics

It would appear that all living creatures have to deal with stress, whether you are an ameba trying to move to a more favorable pH, a deer avoiding the local wolf pack or a human dealing with family problems.

Clues to Stress Management

What has changed is really our understanding of stress which gives us clues as to how to manage our stress to keep if from causing compromises to our health.

Stress Ideas from 1800s

French physiologist, Claude Bernard described the principles of dynamic equilibrium in the mid 1800s. He noted that external forces or changes in the external environment will have to be reacted to and compensated for by the internal dynamic equilibrium. Some of these external forces might include temperature, oxygen concentration in the air, presence of predators etc.

Ideas from 1900s

In the early 1900s, neurologist Walter Cannon coined the term homeostasis as the understanding of the body's response to stressors was further developed. He worked with the flight or fight responses that we have all studied at some level. He learned that the adrenal glands were instrumental in this flight of fight response as the body modulates levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine. We recognize the initial effects of adrenal response to stress as increased alertness along with increased heart rate. He also advanced the notion that stressors did not have to be physical but could be emotional. The concept of stress coming from emotional sources is not a stranger to us today. Just spend a little time in front of the computer or watching a 24-hour news channel.

Selye Contributes to Stress Understanding

Hungarian endocrinologist Hans Selye continued to advance the science of stress in the mid 1900s. We pay particular attention to his early career research that showed in animal studies, that stress caused a swelling of the adrenal cortex (think cortisol) and atrophy of the thymus along with gastric and duodenal ulcers. The thymus is integral to the immune response which helps explain why chronic stress can contribute to illness. We don't pay too close attention to his last couple of decades of research as that was funded by RJ Reynolds to help prop up their pro-smoking campaigns.

Selye did point out that stress is normal and that proper adaptation to these normal stressors was a healthy response. The problem is therefore, overstress whether acute or chronic. So when we talk about negative effects of stress, we really mean overstress. Without some stress, we wouldn't get anything done. We need some stress for healthy motivation. Soldiers suffering from PTSD often comment about a singular action like their Humvee getting blown up so that would be an acute overstress that taxes the body's ability to return to homeostasis.

Chronic Overstress

The most common cause of overstress is chronic. Everyone has their own list of reasons for chronic overstress but I would guess the two primary categories can be grouped under love or money.

Just like your source of stress will most likely be fairly unique to you, the range of physiological manifestations will be yours. Common signs of overstress are: irritability, sleep problems, headaches, GI disturbances, fatigue, anxiety, over or under eating, decreased enthusiasm for life and related problems.

So what can you do about overstress? Advice will depend on whom you ask but from our point of view, here are some steps that you can take starting now.

Begin With Your Best Diet

A favorable diet is a good place to start. Knowing which foods contribute to overstress and cutting way back or eliminating them. Which foods are on this list will again depend on your particular physiology. We like to run different types of tests like blood antibody (Cyrex Labs), stool antibody (Enterolab) and T-cell tests (Alcat) to help sort this out. Continuing to eat food that contribute to stress will eventually not be worth the pleasure anymore. You increase your risk of diseases of all kinds.

Most common foods on elimination list are sugar, gluten, dairy and eggs.

Plan Other Lifestyle Changes

Sometimes you can make lifestyle changes that will lower your stress. We have done this ourselves a few times by changing practice focus and a couple of times by making a major physical move. By move I mean twice to a different country and a few times to a different state.

Major lifestyle change isn't always possible right now but being aware of the effect that your situation is having on your health, you can begin planning changes. I think it is helpful to write down ALL possible options not matter how ridiculous as this will help you see what real options you really do have to lower stress.

Money Should Lower Stress

Sometimes in my practice I would be asked a money question. I thought this curious as I really don't have a black belt in money management. My answer would therefore be something like this. If you have money and sleep better with it in the stock market, put it there. If you sleep better with real estate, buy real estate. If you have lower stress by buying silver coins, then do that. You get the idea. There is no magic solution for every person but if you use lowering stress as the goal, your best option becomes more obvious.

I should also mention that I often tell people that money should lower your stress and not increase it. If a person gets an inheritance or other large sum of money, they should immediately begin asking what type of money management plan will lower stress.

We have learned to use this stress question to help with a lot of decision making over the years. We ask ourselves which option will tend to lower stress.

Too Much Stress Will Damage Chances of Homeostasis

If you have had enough overstress for decades, your body may not be able to find a good homeostasis anymore. This is where supplements come in. Two things are key here. One is a good night's sleep. If that isn't your problem than we can jump right to the second key and that would be adrenal support. In fact if you do have sleep issues, we want to make sure you are getting adrenal support anyway as your quality of sleep will depend on how well your adrenal glands work to maintain energy levels during the day.

Supplements Can Help

For the people we work with, we have a questions and tests that help us determine which supplements have the greatest chance of helping a person get a good night's sleep. We often use NeuroScience products like NeuroScience Alpha GABA PM for this. For adrenal support, we often use NeuroScience AdreCor and/or BetterGenix AdrenalGenix. We will be inclined to add in AdrenalGenix if hypoglycemia is an issue.

So there you have it. Try to be aware of where your stress is coming from. Plan changes to help lower stress. Learn which foods will help your body manage stress. Take some key supplements to help your adrenal homeostasis.