While waiting to board my flight I was googling for any interesting medical / public health updates as well as what awareness month April is. I knew March was endometriosis as I’ve already done two articles on it, and yes neither of them were posted in March... Turns out April is Stress Awareness Month and as I am starting my April on holiday, I thought it would be quite fitting to let my frustrations out about stress.
I’m pretty sure I do not need to define what stress is, as all of us will have experienced it at different forms multiple times throughout our lives, whether short- or long-term, or in medical lingo acute- and chronic-stress, respectively.
I’m really struggling to decide on which route to take with this article, to go down the psychological aspect and the neuro behind it, the more person-centered, or more of the impact of it on our overall health and longevity. The options are many, but all intertwine, like most things impacting our health - nothing is standalone. But as the saying goes “Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano”, meaning you should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body. (and, for those of you that mock my love for languages I do not count Latin as a language I know 😂)
But all that being said, stress can be both good and bad (like anything in life), it’s also known as productive and unproductive stress.
Productive Stress (Eustress)
It can enhance performance, it motivates with completing tasks and leads to growth and various achievements.
Tends to be short-term and situational and also feels exciting, so instead of the usual fear / anxiety feeling, it feels more like adrenaline
Unproductive Stress (Distress)
It inhibits performance, negatively affects mental and physical health, it feels unmanageable and frustrating, and leads to decreased performance.
Tends to be long-term and pervasive, as well as debilitating, comes with an overwhelming feeling, like that of anxiety and dread
You might recall a few essays back that I mentioned telomeres, the end bits of your chromosomes which protect your DNA. I guess it won’t be of great surprise that long-term stress is associated with shorter telomeres, which simply translates to, increased incidence of disease and poor survival. I don’t remember which book I read it in, but I vividly recall it stating that the positive stress is associated with lengthened telomeres (it could have even been a podcast like Huberman’s, so take it with a pinch of salt pls).
But why is stress all that bad? Well, when you’re in a stressed state your body thinks there’s a potential threat / stressor (in this case your thoughts), so the amygdala (this processes emotions) recognises the “threat” and sends a message to the hypothalamus (this influences the nervous system and manages hormones). A process of activating the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis occurs, and long-story short the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) is released into your bloodstream which makes your adrenal glands release cortisol, i.e., the basic stress hormone. Cortisol, is quite sneaky and it interacts with the brain to influence your mood, motivation, and also fear.
Long-term cortisol means that one has a hormonal imbalance for an extended time period; this has a dire effect on many parts of the body. (1) leads to weight gain as there is decreased metabolism and increased appetite, (2) immune systems gets affected and weakened so more prone to getting infections, (3) heart health is affected as blood pressure increases, in combination with weight gain and worsened metabolism this means increased risk of heart disease, (4) development of mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, negatively affect memory, (5) high stress can impact women’s cycles and so reduce fertility (this is for both men and women), (6) elevated cortisol can actually decrease muscle mass over time and decrease bone density, those two together mean higher risk of osteoporosis, (7) stomach problems may occur like ulcers, IBS etc. So, pretty much there isn’t a body part that is not affected. Of course, you won’t get every single one of the above, and that is usually after very long-term exposure to stress and not enough taking care of one’s health (eating well, exercising, sleeping enough) which just makes everything worse.
It’s inevitable that at some point in our life all of us will experience a stressor of somesort, whether it’s relating to family, work, friends, relationships, or anything, however, it’s up to us to take some action when it’s happening. It is easier said than done, but truly understanding the impact of the situation both short- and long-term and coming to terms with reality means we can partially let go of the inflicted stress. Being able to take care of oneself is of high importance, I know when I was under periods of high stress, the days when I was sleeping enough, and having things more “in order” made it seems like there wasn’t as much to worry about. I am attaching some snippets from a book that mentions feelings and stress, it gave a different perspective to it…
I’ll leave you with a picture of the sea which I spent many hours yesterday at, just under the sun reading my book. The water was freezing, but as it was 30°C I couldn’t resist not going in. Maybe at times all we need is a good book, sunshine, and the sea.
I hope you enjoyed, thank you for taking some time out of your day to read my essays! See you next week! :)