Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and accredited Positive Psychology practitioner Smaranda Maier discusses the detrimental effects of daily stress on our lives .
Last week, we were talking about stress and how we can identify negative and positive stress in our body. As we agreed on the existence of both positive and negative stress, and both being part of our daily life, we are going to focus on how negative stress impacts the core engine of our physical and emotional health—the heart.
On a physical level, when a stress factor occurs, the body goes into a “fight or flight” response. This means that our nervous system moves from a parasympathetic state, where all the energy and attention are focused on rest and digestion, keeping all our organs in a state of balance and optimal functioning, to a sympathetic state where the body is on alert. This shift disturbs the communication channels inside our highly intelligent body, signalling the brain that there is a danger threatening us.
This response is very helpful when you are in the wild and need to protect yourself from a predator, which was common in our evolutionary history. However, things are quite different now, and we must unpack the dangers that threaten us.
We are obviously not dealing with predators or T-Rex attacks anymore, but our body reacts the same way to modern stress factors that are not necessarily physical. The modern-day T-Rex can be a stressful job that keeps us stuck in non-natural light exposure for eight hours a day, followed by convenient, highly processed meals warmed up in the microwave to save time, and managing a busy household. Another T-Rex might be a difficult relationship, a divorce, or the loss of a family member. All these emotional stressors activate our sympathetic system to keep us safe.
Don’t get me wrong, our sympathetic system activation is part of our highly intelligent human design but what is not human by design, is to remain in the activated state after the danger passes. This is where chronic stress starts, and where all the surprising and chronic physical symptoms take root.
Let’s look for a second at the biology of stress, or what happens in our body when stress occurs.
The sympathetic nervous system releases norepinephrine, while the parasympathetic nervous system releases acetylcholine. Sympathetic stimulation increases heart rate and myocardial contractility.
During exercise, emotional excitement, or under various serious medical conditions (e.g., heart failure), the sympathetic nervous system is activated. Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system causes pupil dilation, bronchiole dilation, blood vessel constriction, sweat secretion, inhibits peristalsis, increases renin secretion by the kidneys, and can induce reproductive organ contraction and secretion. In contrast, parasympathetic stimulation decreases heart rate and constricts the pupils (World Journal of Cardiology).
Neuroscience shows us that our brain is not always able to distinguish between imagined reality and reality itself. If you want to test this, close your eyes for a second and imagine a healthy, juicy lemon, freshly halved in front of you, and remember the sourness of the lemon juice. Do you sense your mouth watering and that tickling sensation on the top of your mouth? All these physical sensations occur while you are here reading this article.
This is proof that stress can do the same to our physical body just by thinking about or remembering a certain event. Because our heart is the core engine of our body, it is highly impacted by stress or chronic stress. You are probably asking, “Okay, I get that, but how can I help myself or my heart to regulate and to move from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state and remain there when the stress is gone?”
Here are a few things that you can do: create a healthy and optimal chemical environment in your body by having a wholesome, nutritious diet, keeping yourself hydrated, moving your body, and making sure you get much-needed sleep.
You might know all of these by now and still find yourself unable to deal with the stress and regulate your body, constantly worried about your heart health.
I highly recommend looking a little deeper into the root cause of your stress and investing some time and energy to find out what keeps your body stuck in the sympathetic state. It could be an unpleasant or traumatic event from your past, a toxic substance you are unaware of, chronic lack of sleep, or a side effect of long-term medication.
There is so much help available out there. Please don’t try to deal with this on your own if you have tried and feel it’s not working. Your heart deserves better health.
