The physiology of stress and mindfulness
The true impact of stress on your health
“Let’s take a breather!”
“Why don’t you get some air?”
“Take a deep breath.”
How often do you hear these phrases when under stress? How does deep breathing actually make a difference? In our fast paced society, stress is a constant nagging emotion that is so ubiquitous we think it is normal and forget how to breathe without even realizing it. If we go back to how we are supposed to function before the modern era, stress came in short term bursts that helped us escape danger. Now, instead of running from a bear and subsequently recovering, our nervous system is in constant fight or flight mode from deadlines, traffic, finances, family, and endless responsibilities.
Chronic stress can contribute to numerous long-term health conditions and affects all systems of the body, but luckily there are ways we can re-train ourselves to deal with stress better.
Our nervous systems are very complex, and the part that regulates our stress response is called the autonomic nervous system, which consists of the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and relax). These two pieces should be in balance for optimal health and well being. We do need both to be active all the time because together they regulate your heart rate, digestion, breathing, and endocrine system.
Why stress matters
Think about what your body would need in an acutely stressful situation. If there is a bear barreling down on you, your sympathetic nervous system ramps up and your heart rate and breathing rate will increase so that your muscles and brain have as much oxygen as possible to prepare you to move and think as fast as possible.
Once you escape the bear (hopefully), the ratio of parasympathetic to sympathetic activity returns to normal. The problem with modern stressful jobs and lives jam packed with activities is that we can get into an elevated sympathetic state for so long that it can be hard to return to equilibrium. Constantly taking short, shallow breaths tells your heart to beat in sympathetic mode. Luckily, this is an area that is increasingly under study and there are many ways you can learn to help yourself get back to baseline.
Stress and long-term disease
When your nervous system is stressed, it tells your adrenal glands to release more of the stress hormone, cortisol. This is a good thing when it is helping short term, but over time too much cortisol causes a lot of problems. We all require a little cortisol in our bodies, but just like your nervous system and the rest of your body’s systems, we need a proper balance.
High levels of cortisol can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, sleep difficulties, weight gain, immune system dysregulation, hormonal imbalances, and poor nutrient absorption.
Go back to the example of running from a bear. What else does your body need for fuel in times of stress? Blood sugar. Cortisol can increase blood sugar, which increases insulin, which over time can lead to insulin resistance and contribute to diabetes. Blood sugar imbalances lead to feeling “hangry”, which we’ve all experienced.
Making matters worse, if you’re sleeping poorly or tired, your body raises your blood sugar to give you more energy to get you through the day.
Treatments that work
Behavioral medicine or mind body medicine is an area that helps people understand their behavior so that they can modify it to prevent, manage, or treat disease. This can be done in many ways, including counseling, Tai Chi, Qui Gong, yoga, guided relaxation (or meditation), progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback and various forms of meditation. Simply re-training yourself to breathe slowly can have amazing health benefits.
Studies have shown mindfulness training to be beneficial for conditions such as insomnia, tension headaches, incontinence, bruxism (teeth grinding), anxiety, PTSD, attention disorders, fibromyalgia, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, and essential hypertension. I was so surprised the first time I saw a patient of mine follow-up with normal blood pressure after implementing only 10 minutes of daily at-home breathing exercises. Healthcare doesn’t get much cheaper than that!
(I’ll take this opportunity to remind you to never stop taking any medication without your doctor’s advice—no matter how good a treatment is working).
Over time, as you train yourself to live in a calmer state, you may find that you don’t need to do mindfulness training as often to maintain the benefits, but you also might want to!
Taking action
Stress reduction is about being highly conscience of your body’s functions, and paying attention to notice what your body is telling you. Next time you’re feeling stressed, stop what you’re doing and take a deep breath of fresh air. Count to six and breathe in, then count to six again and breathe out. Repeat for a few minutes. Scan your body for areas of tension, and let those areas relax. I promise you this will help!
Also, try any/all of these free mobile apps to help you:
- Stop, Breathe, & Think has a number of different guided meditations that can help you in different situations, like calming down before bed, scanning your body for tension, gratitude and mindful breathing.
- Headspace is another free app that has been used in a number of studies. This app has been used in a number of research studies.
- On Do As One, click on “universal breathing room” and breathe in and out with the shape as it contracts and expands. Try it for 5–10 minutes daily. This is cool because you can see how many other people are in the room breathing simultaneously with you.
Give it a try for a solid week, you might be amazed at what you discover!
References
Goldberger, AL and Stein, P. Evaluation of Heart Rate Variability. In: Up to Date, Ganz LI (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA. (Accessed on March 19, 2017.)
Lichtenstein, B. Behavioral Medicine Learning Manual. Mind Body Medicine Course Materials, Bastyr University, Kenmore, WA (2014).
