Under pressure! Managing stress like a pro
August 8, 2020
We’ve all experienced the more common side effects of stress like poor sleep, muscle tension and changes in energy levels -starting out wired and jittery, but over time possibly presenting as burn out. Did you know however about the other major impacts stress has on our body? Hormones released when we’re stressed affects:
- Our immune response: overall immune suppression and a switch from infection-fighting towards an allergic type (not what we need right now…)
- Blood sugar control: blood sugar levels are increased while the action of insulin is suppressed. This is how stress can contribute to the onset of conditions like type 2 diabetes and weight gain.
- Gut function: our digestive secretions and gastrointestinal motility are suppressed, and the lining of our gut is impaired, all of which drive imbalance in the bacteria of our colon and inflammation throughout our body
- Brain architecture: within as little as one week of stress we start to see changes in the physical structure of the brain. These correlate to loss of short-term memory, impaired ability to concentrate or focus attention, weakened impulse control, irritability, impaired decision making and lack of insight.
Stress is unavoidable in our daily lives – so many of us fall into the trap of saying “things will get better when I’m not so stressed”, but if you’re waiting for things to calm down, you’re going to be waiting a long time (I think 2020 is the perfect example of that!).
We need to support our bodies to be able to cope with the stress life inevitably throws at us. Click on the links below for some quick and simple strategies that reduce stress.
Stress is something our therapist Alexandra Berecry is particularly passionate about, having been in corporate finance for 10 years – she knows first-hand the toll chronic, uncontrolled stress can take on your health. If you’d like to talk more about support to help you improve your resilience to stress, including tailored herbal medicines, you can book in to see Alexandra at The Body Project