How to Mitigate Stress.

In today’s fast-paced world, stress often feels unavoidable. While we can’t always remove or reduce the causes of stress, we can help to minimise its impact on the nervous system.

During a stressful event, our sympathetic nervous system is activated, prompting the innate fight or flight response. This protective adaptation releases adrenaline, acetylcholine, and cortisol, influencing various body functions to aid in escaping the stressor. Adrenaline and cortisol increase heart rate, enhance blood flow to vital areas, redirect resources from non-essential organs and functions like the skin and the gut, mobilise energy stores and dilate pupils to improve visual acuity.

From an evolutionary perspective, this physiological response evolved to address life-threatening situations, like escaping a bear (or, in my case, a spider). However, in the modern context, the body doesn't distinguish whether the stress is triggered by encountering a bear or receiving a not so great email from our boss. In both scenarios, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, leading to an increase in stress neurotransmitters and hormones. This lack of differentiation can contribute to the ongoing activation of our stress response in various everyday situations.

Following a stress response, the ideal scenario is for the body to transition back into parasympathetic activity, known as our rest and digest state, allowing us to return to normal functioning. However, with repeated or prolonged exposure to stress, our sympathetic nervous system remains activated over time. This persistent activation can give rise to a variety of health issues, underlining the importance of managing and mitigating stress for overall well-being.

Unmanaged, long term or chronic stress can lead to:

• Depression or low moods

• Anxiety

• Menstrual irregularities and poor fertility outcomes (read more here)

• Pain

• Poor immune function, or on the flip side of this, “really good immune function” until you rest… Hello to those people who get sick when they go on holidays!!

• Cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure and heart disease.

• Diabetes or poor blood glucose control

• Obesity

• Burn out

Here are some of my top tips to reduce the impacts of stress:

• Gentle exercise. if you are stressed, ease up on the high intensity exercise. High intensity exercise is a stressor and increases cortisol.

• Time in nature. Feel better after a walk by the ocean, or a stroll in the park? Studies have shown time in nature lowers cortisol. 

• Eat a high protein breakfast. Protein is an essential nutrient and is needed for neurotransmitter production. Starting your day with a breakfast rich in protein is important for blood glucose regulation, which can be dysregulated with stress. Often highly stressed individuals can run on cortisol for hours in the morning without feeling the need to eat, however this tends to just compound the problem.

• A daily breathwork or meditation practice. If this isn’t achievable, 4 slow deep breaths can help to calm the nervous system to shift it towards parasympathetic or, rest and digest state. 

• Support your circadian rhythm by powering down with the sun, including bright lights and screens. The opposite is also true by exposing yourself to morning light after waking.

• Quality sleep. We are aiming for a minimum of 8 hrs in bed. Follow sleep hygiene by reducing your screen time before bed, avoiding caffeine after 12pm and minimising alcohol. 

• Seek support from a counsellor or psychologist if needed.

Things to avoid:

• Limit things that may give temporary relief but are detrimental long-term, such as alcohol.

• Reduce caffeine intake - coffee increases cortisol. If you can’t kick the coffee, definitely don’t consume it on an empty stomach.

• Skip the ice bath. Cold water exposure is a stressor to the body, which again will increase cortisol. 

• Fasting. Another stressor to the body, we also need more nutrients when we are stressed. 

Finding healthy coping mechanisms for stress can be life changing. However, sometimes we need a little more support. When we are stressed, we burn through excess nutrients to keep us going. Herbal medicine and nutritional medicine offer huge support in this area, and can help to body to adapt and improve tolerance to stress.

Stress hugely underpins the state of our wellbeing, if you believe you could benefit from some further naturopathic support, book in a 15 minute discovery call here, to discuss how I can help you.