Top Ways to Naturally Manage Stress

In the 21st century, society has become a fast-paced, success-driven society making us feel that we have to be moving on to the next thing to be successful. Living this type of lifestyle comes with a lot of unnecessary stress. What is stress? Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances. Feeling stressed can cause your body to release stress hormones that disrupt important functions in the body. Functions such as digestion, metabolism, energy, and memory loss. Feeling stressed daily can lead to issues such as cellular inflammation, anxiety, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. In today’s article, I am going to discuss with you the effects of stress on your body and how you can manage it naturally.

Stress is an inflammatory response

Inflammation is caused by stress, whether that be mental, emotional, or physical stress. When we experience stress, our body releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is our fight or flight hormone that floods glucose into your muscles for immediate use. This hormone makes your heart pump faster and releases adrenaline. Having cortisol released every so often is healthy. Living in cortisol response too often can present a problem. Our ATP (Mitochrondia) is the powerhouse of our cells. Constantly being in a fight or flight response we use a ton of energy. Due to this, our ATP or mitochondria will start to die off. As these energy cells start dying off our immune system then is compromised making us vulnerable to sickness. Stress can cause colds, bacterial infections, adrenal fatigue, and much more.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh infected volunteers with a cold virus; those who reported in a survey that they were coping with many stresses were twice as likely to get sick as those with fewer problems. Reported by Parents.com

Releasing too much cortisol breaks down the collagen and elastin in our skin causing wrinkles. Research has found that chronic stress can increase inflammation, causing skin aging and accelerating the formation of wrinkles.

Stress can lead to obesity & diabetes

Stress not only consumes our mind it also consumes our body. The symptoms of stress can leave you feeling fatigued, overwhelmed, and unmotivated. These feelings can cause you to make poor decisions regarding your physical well-being making you unmotivated to exercise and make poor dietary choices. Stress makes us uncomfortable and as humans, we are designed to chase comfort. Stress causes us to crave more comfort foods. This is why when we feel stressed we are more likely to have food cravings.

A study in London conducted a study of over 2,500 participants studied the correlation of weight gain to the amount of cortisol released in the hair follicles. The results were that people with higher amounts of cortisol had a higher BMI and waist circumference.

During stress, the microbiome is affected almost as much as our brain. When cortisol is released, the gut sends signals that can cause stomach acid increase, esophagus spasms, nausea, and constipation. The more we stress the worse our digestion will become, creating issues like IBS, and SIBO.

Our blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol all rise when we feel stressed. When our body releases stressful hormones, this sends blood to all of your muscles to help with the fight or flight response. If you suffer from diabetes or have a family history of diabetes, this can make your situation hard to manage. Feelings of stress can create cravings for sugary foods and emotional eating. Keeping track of your blood sugar and your stress is a great way to mitigate and create solutions to the problem.

How anxiety and depression begin with stress

Our mental is more important than it ever has been before. Depression and anxiety disorders all begin with some sort of stress. Whether that be from trauma, abuse, or a lack of emotional attention, all of these circumstances are valid to create stress. When these types of situations are treated, they create a deep-rooted sense of anxiety and stress. Depression is associated with emotions felt from an experience. These emotions create stress for us when are trying to live our normal life and we are bombarded with these overwhelming feelings. These feelings will then create a battle in your head taking precious time away from you being in the present moment.

Since the pandemic started we have seen a 4% to 5% increase in depression.

Major depressive disorder affects approximately 17.3 million American adults, or about 7.1% of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year. (National Institute of Mental Health “Major Depression”, 2017)

Anxiety is a fear-based emotion created from worries about a future event or circumstance. Anxiety is created from certain times in our lives when we had something that stimulated fear for us. Some anxiety is healthy when it comes to going on a first date or having a job interview. Feeling anxious every day negatively affects our health. Over time this creates anxiety disorders such as (GAD) generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and phobias.

GAD affects 6.8 million adults, or 3.1% of the U.S. population, yet only 43.2% are receiving treatment. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men are. GAD often co-occurs with major depression.

What is chronic stress?

If you have endless amounts of stress each day you may be suffering from chronic stress. It is the feeling of pressure and anxiety throughout each day. Chronic stress can be caused by numerous things such as a dysfunctional marriage, an unfulfilling job, and financial stressors. Some of the symptoms of chronic stress are as follows:

- Insomnia

- Aches and pains

- Social isolation

- Fatigue

- Brain fog

- Change in appetite

- Increased alcohol or drug use

- Emotional withdrawal

- More moody towards others

Chronic stress is associated with hypertension, anxiety disorders, high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity. These diseases are sometimes secondary diagnoses to chronic stress. This proves that when we stress too much it can be fatal. Learning how to prevent and healthily cope with stress is vital for your overall health.

How can we manage our stress?

A healthy diet- Incorporating the right foods into your diet can help keep your body's digestive system and metabolic rate in check. Eating an array of colorful fruits and vegetables will provide you with essential phytonutrients and anti-oxidants. These nutrients are important for cleansing and fighting off stress responses in the body.

Eliminate processed foods- Processed foods cause internal stress within your body. When we consume these types of foods, they have shown to make us more sensitive to stress. Eliminating foods that contain a lot of sugar, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and seed oils will prevent you from having an internal stress response.

Non-negotiables- Having non-negotiables can help us create manageable tactics for our stress. Non-negotiables look different for everyone some options could be meditation, affirmations, journaling, reading, dancing, exercise, drawing, painting, or music. What these different activities provide is a mental stimulus that will keep you in a place of peace and joy. We as humans are creatures of habit so the more you can have activities in your life that bring you joy the better.

Time management- the most valuable asset we have is time so using it wisely will give you the power to take control of your stress. In today's hustle culture; we all have our calendars full with every minute full. There is a difference between being busy and being productive. Giving yourself 30-45 minutes a day to just think for yourself and analyze how you are feeling can save you years of your life. A good recommendation would be to have some empty spots on your calendar to free you up so you can disconnect and recollect your thoughts throughout the day.

Social interaction- We all love having that one friend that we can go and talk to when we feel stressed. Having strong and positive relationships is important for you to maintain a healthy mindset. Getting out when you can and spending time with others is a great way for channeling your energy into something positive.

Relaxation methods- Staying relaxed throughout the day is probably the biggest challenge in today’s society. Practice makes perfect and if you apply different relaxation methods to your lifestyle each day it will keep you calm and present. Methods like meditation, breathing exercises, mindfulness, and journaling are great for relaxing your mind.

Over 14% of Americans have meditated at least once. Meditation improves anxiety levels 60% of the time. Meditation can reduce the risk of being hospitalized for coronary disease by 87%. Meditation can reduce the wake time of people with insomnia by 50%, according to mindfulness meditation stats (link)

Stress can affect our health in various ways if we allow it. We have much more control than you think. Take control today with some of the tactics above and begin living with peace and tranquility.