Have you ever noticed that when you are really stressed, you are more susceptible to catching a cold? There is a reason for that, as stress can create havoc in your body.
A healthy lifestyle is so much more than simply eating a healthy diet – as important as that is. A healthy lifestyle is a holistic approach to life that involves looking at every aspect of your life and making wise decisions. And managing stress is a huge factor in good health.
Today I want to look at some of the ways stress effects our body, and then in a future post I will discuss solutions to managing the ever-present stress in our lives.
Stress and Cancer
In 2003, an article titled, Circadian disruption in cancer: a neuroendocrine-immune pathway from stress to disease?, discussed the link between stress and cancer. Stress can disrupt the neuroendocrine and immune circadian rhythms. Because circadian system alterations occur in tumor tissue, tumor-bearing animals and cancer patients (and there is even great disruption seen in more advanced cases), stress could be very related to cancer. In fact the authors inform us that new research shows that a healthy circadian regulation is an important aspect of the body’s defense against cancer.
The bottom line: Managing stress can help you keep a healthy circadian rhythm, which is turn can help your body defend itself against cancer.
Source: PDF
Stressed and inflammation
A 2012 study found that chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing the ability to regulate its inflammatory response. This shows that the effects of psychological stress on the body is linked to inflammation, which can then promote the development and progression of disease in a variety of forms!
This is something really important to understand about stress and its effects on the body because inflammation could lead to a wide variety of disease. The fact that stress causes inflammation is a huge clue as to why stress is so harmful to our bodies.
Stress and Heart Disease
A specific disease linked to stress is heart disease.
Although scientists are still trying to figure out why stress makes heart disease more likely, the effect stress has on the hormonal balance of the body and inflammation could be clue as to why they are linked.
Stress and increased cardiovascular mortality
Further, the author of a study related to mortality in older patients had this to say, “Cortisol is an important component of the stress system of the human body but in higher concentrations can be harmful. Our study shows that older persons with high levels of cortisol have an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. This finding significantly adds evidence to the belief that cortisol can be damaging to the cardiovascular system.”
Cortisol has an important role in our bodies to help us deal with stressful situations, but it appears that when it is chronically elevated it can actually cause damage to our bodies. A further study backed this up by finding a clear link between elevated cortisol levels and a risk for cardiovascular disease. Plus, high blood cortisol levels were linked to an increase in death in patients with acute coronary syndrome.
In fact, cardiovascular disease is so connected to stress that they have even found that childhood stress or trauma is linked to getting heart disease later. The author of one study that linked the two commented, “We think early life stress increases sensitivity to a hormone known to increase your blood pressure and increases your cardiovascular risk in adult life,”
Stress is bad for your health, period. But it turns out that it is also bad for your vanity!
Stress and Belly Fat
Two studies, one focused on women, and another on men, found that those with central fat (or belly fat) were more likely to have a poor coping skills and differences in mood reactivity to stress. Central fat distribution was found in these studies to be related to a greater psychological vulnerability to stress and cortisol reaction to stress.
And yet another study supported the hypothesis that stress-induced elevated cortisol is related to central fat and risk of disease.
But here’s the deal. Stress is part of our lives, for better or for worse. The question isn’t simply what stress does to us, but how we can cope with stress in a healthy way. And that is what I am going to talk about next.
Meanwhile, I’d love to hear from you! How does stress affect your life and how do you cope with it?
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During the last few years, stress has caused my peripheral neuropathy (PN) to flare. In the past, I have achieved complete remission while on the GAPS diet (and experienced flare-ups within 20 minutes when eating something off the diet).
Since taking multiple antibiotics for pneumonia in February, my PN has returned, although only mildly. I recently went to see a naturopath who has put me on a program of good sleep, detoxifying supplements, cod liver oil packs on my upper abdomen, detox baths, and an anti-inflammatory diet. I started yesterday.
The doctor has me so focused on my holistic healing, and it is taking so much time to adhere to the program, that I don’t have enough time left to get into trouble being over-committed to other things, thus lowering my stress that way, too.
Well, it’s 9 p.m., time to get ready for bed in a darkened room.
Em,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us. I am so glad that you have been put o a good program that is helping you heal. Sleep well! 🙂
I looked down the comments expecting to see a lot of great suggestions for coping with stress! I guess folks are relieving their stress by not reading email right now 😉 Which is one of the ways I lower my stress, anyway. In general, sleep is my greatest ally, including a short afternoon catnap. Also, as a once sufferer of chronic fatigue syndrome, I’ve learned to become very adept at weeding out what isn’t necessary in my life. I think one of the best things we can do in life is get a clear eye on what’s really important. The world tries to make us think so many things are important, and they just aren’t.
Thank you so much that you’re doing this series. It’s inspiring my husband to take his belly more seriously. He committed to cutting out sugar for two months, eating a better balance of protein/fat/carbs and not skipping meals, after one of your others posts (and sticking to it so far, with a mindset I’ve never seen him have before). It helps that a couple other scares came just previous to you beginning this series, but you gave him guidelines he felt he could grab on to. And just generally, good info. I really want him to be around for many years, and I’ve been greatly concerned. Answer to prayer. Thank you!
Lynda,
Thank you so much for sharing, both what has helped you fight stress, and also about your husband making positive changes. I am really thankful for your comment as deciding to write this series took a leap of faith for me. 🙂 It’s not that I think I have all the answers, I was just personally researching this topic, and felt I should share some of the info I had found. So I am so glad it has been helpful!
Thank you for writing this, Kimi! Since changing to a real food diet about 7 years ago as the result of two chronic inflammatory health issues, I was able to get off all my medications (praise be to God) and was having very few bouts of pain. But then I started getting periodic recurrences of chronic debilitating pain, I was puzzled about why since I was so methodical about my diet. It was then the Lord began to reveal to me the level of stress I had going on in my life. I made some radical changes (thanks to His grace, one of which was that I was able to quit my job outside the home) and it’s been amazing how much better I am feeling. I can’t wait to read your recommendations for lowering stress, as it’s a constant battle to keep my type A personality under control (LOL!). And I will definitely be sharing this series with my readers. Stress is such an overlooked health hazard! So thank you again for committing to write about it and help us all recognize how we can better manage it! Blessings to you, Kelly
Kelly,
Thank you so much for sharing some of your story with us! I am on this ongoing journey of realizing how significant stress is to my health, and I think that so many of us live with too much stress. I know that I do! So I have been making more and more choices that help me find peace and de-stress – even when I am facing stressful situations. We can help ourselves stay peaceful and calm, even in a stressful world.
And thanks so much for sharing this series with others!
One of my favorite ways to deal with stress is Tapping. It is also called EFT which stands for emotional freedom technique. I started using it when I got divorced and had to give up my business and home a few years ago. I truly believe Tapping saved my life. I am now on my way to getting my certification yeah! I tap daily to reduce my stress and I use it with my clients as a tool to help them transition to a healthier diet. Great article, Kelly thanks
Ingrid,
First, I am so sorry for all of the stress you have lived through. And secondly, thank you so much for sharing about Tapping and your success using it! I am going to talk about that in an upcoming post. 🙂
Hi Kimi
I have had so much success using tapping for cravings with my clients. If you ever want to give it a try let me know. I have a very inexpensive introductory price as I need lots of people to tap with to complete the certification training. You will be amazed at the results, it really works. You can reach me at Ingrid@eatwellenjoylife.com