How Stress Messes Up Your Body

In today’s fast-paced world, stress is an inevitable part of life. But have you ever considered the profound ways it can impact your body? At Bannerdale, we see the effects of stress on the body every day. In this article, I’ll share some insights into how stress works for and against your health—and how you can help manage it.

How Stress Messes Up Your Body

Stress can be a killer, it's linked to the 6 leading causes of death but it doesn't have to be that way, our body's stress response is perfectly evolved and without it, we wouldn't be here.

Misuse of the stress response is the real killer so learning how to harness it for your benefit and manage it is the aim of the game here.

Mental health concern is growing and our healthcare system is ill-equipped to deal with it so it's something we need to take responsibility for.

"We have one stress response so learn how to use it"

1. Not all stress is bad

As mental health awareness explodes, stress is often framed as all bad when it absolutely isn't.

Stress is a powerful way to get you to do something and amazing achievements can happen when stress is applied, world records, scientific breakthroughs, and deep feelings of pride that "you did it" wouldn't happen if stress wasn't present.?

Alia Crum of Stanford found that your attitude towards stress affects the impact it has on your body so those who view stress as enhancing gain more of the positive and less of the negative effects of the stress response and those who view it as harmful the opposite.

Where it starts to unravel is when there are heavy doses of lack of control and unpredictability. Scary films and roller coasters harness this to cause excitement but too much is dangerous like when you're in pain and don't understand it.?

2. We have one stress response

Our stress response is about making us feel compelled to do something and have the resources to do it.

We flood our body with stress hormones that within seconds speed up the heart, increase blood pressure and breathing rate and start dumping energy into the bloodstream as it's fight or flight time and our muscles will need glucose and lots of it so get it in the blood and pump it quickly around the body.

There's nothing wrong with this system it's perfectly adapted to handle demanding situations.

Problems arise when the stress response is too frequently toggled on and off rather than an occasional need for it that involves physical activity, evolutionary speaking we usually had to do something physical when our stress response was triggered.

During times of stress, our body prioritises survival over long-term projects like immune function, digestion and reproductive processes.

Chronic stress impacts our body and persistently having glucose in your bloodstream that no one has a need for is called diabetes.

It's one of the reasons why diabetes is so prevalent and also why exercise is so important in managing it because muscles suck glucose out of the bloodstream when they are working or recovering from exercise.

3. Anxiety and fear increasing, physical activity decreasing?

News now is instant, graphic and designed to provoke an emotional response which is far easier to do negatively than positively.

Years ago we consumed our news largely by print with carefully considered pictures, now there is non-censored live footage of most stories immediately available on social media.

Local papers had a bigger role in our lives but they are dying. They focused on what was actually happening locally in your community in a more informative way rather than global sensationalism which viral news is often about as clicks are what matters and bad news sells better than good.

We are plugged into it and think it's our business whilst our real business of looking after our body, relationships, community and being a role model to our kids or peers takes a back seat.

What can you do?

The issue with stress is if you don't have a tried and tested way of managing it your behaviour often changes and this compounds the issue as our self-care and coping strategies are always easier to do when stress is low and harder when we really need them and stress is high.?

Chronic stress, that you can't control or predict is a health battle that can be hard to resolve.

Learning what the important things are for you and how to do them despite not feeling like you want to is key.

Once you master this you have more control, it's a simple concept but genuinely one of the hardest things in life to do.

1. Harness nature

Harness nature and do something about it, the stress response is there to get you to take action so do it and put the adrenaline and cortisol to good use. This is why exercise plays a powerful role in stress management. Moving your body is using energy which can be replenished by all the glucose in the bloodstream and it gets you out of your head and into your body which is a form of mindfulness.?

If what's happening is outside your control slowing your breathing is a superpower and will calm the stress response. The body uses the respiratory rate as a strong indicator of where the body needs to be in regards to stress response as one of the first things that happens when we get stressed is our breathing changes.

Consciously slowing the breath will tell the deep brain centres that the threat has passed so reduce the stress hormone release.

Learning how to belly breathe

2. A problem shared is a problem halved

Problems that are kept inside are generally thoughts and feelings and these eat us. Get them out and they are easier to manage.?

Have as many ways as possible of doing this, exercise, talking to friends, the Samaritans, journaling, dancing, screaming, punching pillows it doesn't matter how just get it out and find ways to make this a regular activity especially when things feel like getting too much.

3. Unplug from things that make you think the future is worse than now

Crucial to my job is making sure people believe better is in front of them rather than behind, long-term injuries take a lot of effort and persistence and without trusting the process that better is coming it makes it so much harder.

Being bombarded with news about the world tearing itself apart, bad things happening, good people dying and all sorts of injustices doesn't help us at a core level of believing that better is coming.

Try unplugging from it a bit and plug into your local community, chat with your neighbour, strengthen your faith or find one. Start the hobby you always fancied, better will always be in front of you when starting something new because that's learning.

C.S. Lewis deeply believed this, his may have come from religion, it doesn't much matter where it comes from but spending hours installing the opposite in our minds is crazy behaviour.

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C.S. Lewis

Steven Ojari - Clinical Director

Bannerdale Osteopaths