Fighting Bears: Managing Stress is the Missing Link to Better Health

Health’s Silent Threat

You can eat the perfect diet, hire the best personal trainer, and take every supplement, but if you can’t manage stress, your health will still suffer.

Long before security systems, a rush of cortisol was necessary to handle immediate threats, like fighting off a bear.

Since we no longer face those threats, we should be the least stressed generation in history. Yet, many of us spend our days like we are still running from predators. We interact with a virtual world engineered for infinite stimulation. This keeps our nervous system permanently activated. In an effort to escape our self-induced chaos, we distract ourselves with more screentime, food, sugar, and alcohol. We find ourselves worrying about events we have no control over with information we are not even sure is true. This uncertainty breeds anxiety and depression at levels we were never designed to handle.

Ironically, trying to not be miserable makes us more miserable.

The body is completely equipped for short bouts of stress. However, anyone suffering from ongoing stress will eventually break down, even if they are otherwise healthy.

Chronic stress seems so normal it becomes a silent threat to good health.

The Cortisol Connection

While cortisol is necessary for acute stress, chronically elevated cortisol damages metabolic health.

Cortisol tells the liver to dump stored glucose into the bloodstream. However, if you are just sitting at a desk instead of sprinting for your life, that glucose goes unused. Your pancreas then pumps insulin to clear this unearned glucose. Over time, these internal stress-driven glucose spikes lead to insulin resistance - even if you are on a strict low-carb or sugar-free diet. High insulin also locks fat cells from being used for energy. Your ancient brain doesn’t know the threat isn’t a famine. Your brain only knows survival feels threatened, so it preserves and rations energy.

If you have excess weight you can’t seem to drop, stress could be the cause.

Muscle Destruction

High cortisol is also catabolic - meaning it breaks down muscle tissue in your body. Chronically elevated levels force healthy muscle to be converted into energy through a process called gluconeogenesis. This is catastrophic for a healthy metabolism.

While your body should be using dietary fat or carbohydrates (glucose) for energy, chronic stress forces it to burn its most expensive asset (muscle) for emergency fuel instead of maintaining lean muscle tissue.

This leads to:

• Less muscle and strength

• Higher body fat

• Poor insulin sensitivity

• Higher chance of a shorter lifespan

Stress also makes recovery from exercise significantly harder. If you are under severe duress or sleep-deprived, avoid intense workouts. Instead, enjoy relaxing activities that promote recovery and relaxation, such as a walk in nature, yoga, prayer, meditation, music, or a therapeutic massage.

Ongoing stress also leaves you chronically exhausted because it impairs mitochondrial function. When stress reduces the output of these cellular power plants, your entire system runs on empty. You cannot build muscle, recover from workouts, or burn fat efficiently when your cells are starved for energy.

Misbehavin’ Cravings

Many people are overweight simply because they use food to cope with stress. This makes sense because cortisol directly binds to receptors in the brain that amplify cravings for hyper-palatable foods - such as refined sugar and fried foods. Your brain thinks it needs fast calories to survive stress.

Quality sleep is also essential for mitigating stress, but nearly impossible when you are constantly ruminating, and even harder when doomscrolling in bed to the bright flicker of unnatural blue light. Even after one night of this, insulin sensitivity drops by at least 30% the next day, while your appetite hormones - ghrelin and leptin - are completely disrupted. When you are sleep deprived, ghrelin spikes and leptin plummets. In turn, you crave more junk and feel less satiated - a perfect storm for unhealthy weight gain.

The Unplugged Human

If you feel stressed, check your screentime.

The average American adult spends between 7 and 11 hours staring at a screen every single day. At least four of those hours are spent staring at a smartphone, with about 2.5 of those hours dedicated to social media - a number that climbs to at least 3 hours a day for young adults.

When you are constantly plugged in, you slowly lose your grip on reality because you are viewing a world curated for outrage. The world looks scary, everything is bad for you, and everyone seems richer, better looking, and happier than you.

This skewed perception is especially true for younger generations (ages 12-25) who are sadly the fastest-growing demographic for prescribed antidepressant medication and rising suicide rates.

In fact, over the last decade, suicide rates have climbed 17% among 18 to 25-year-olds. Additionally, the fastest percentage increases are observed among the most impressionable - young girls between the ages of 10 and 14.

This has sparked a global reckoning.

While international governments from the UK to Australia push social media bans for minors, a landmark California jury recently held Meta and Google liable for engineering platforms directly fueling childhood anxiety.

This is also one of the rare issues with bipartisan support.

Take A Breath

In order to lower cortisol, you must transition your system from the sympathetic (fight or flight) to the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.

One of the most powerful methods for this is focused breathing. When we are stressed, we take tense, shallow breaths from our throat and mouth. This restricts blood flow and our ability to relax. Instead, take slow and deep breaths from your belly (diaphragm) and nose. This will relax your nervous system and boost nitric oxide production, delivering oxygenated blood and natural energy straight to your cells.

Try the 4/4/4 Method to calm your system.

• Sit tall with your spine straight and gaze forward

• Inhale through your nose for four seconds

• Hold for four seconds

• Exhale slowly for four seconds

• Repeat this sequence 10 times