Steven V. Joyal
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 For many people, chronic stress has become "natural," and they don't even admit it's a problem. Lisa, for example, is a forty-one-year-old single working mother of two teenagers who has type 2 diabetes. Her children participate in after-school sporting events, which she often tries to attend after work, and she typically brings work home with her as well. Since her mother was diagnosed with cancer last year, she has spent much of her spare time helping with her care in a nearby town. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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 In a way, the fact that chronic stress underlies many of our problems is great news because we know that how we respond to stress dramatically affects what it does to our bodies and minds. Most of our evolution took place when we were hunter-gatherers, and while there's nothing we can do about that, there is something we can do with that knowledge. As McEwen writes in The End of Stress as We Know It, "It's not inevitable or normal for the very system designed to protect us to become a threat in itself. |
Dan Buettner
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 Their moai may very well be part of the equation. chronic stress takes its toll on overall health, and these women have a culturally ingrained mechanism that sheds it every afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Books like Bowling Alone chronicle how people in the United States are increasingly alienated from their neighbors. On average, an American has only two close friends he or she can count on, recently down from three, which may contribute to an increasing sense of stress.
GARDEN SECRETS
From Motubu, Craig, Greg, Rico, and I ventured back inland and headed north along the coastal highway toward
Oku. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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| If the brauches stew too long in the out-of-balance broth of chronic stress, they pull back in an effort to keep the cell from dying, "like a turtle retracting its head," according to McEwen. And because growth factors and serotonin aren't flowing, the process of neurogenesis is interrupted. The new stem cells that are born every day don't turn into new neurons, so there's a shortage of building material to reroute signals and break the cycle. |
| It also helps explain why constantly high levels of Cortisol — due to chronic stress — make it hard to learn new material, and why people who are depressed have trouble learning. It's not just lack of motivation, it's because the hippocampal neurons have bolstered their glutamate machinery and shut out less important stimuli. They're obsessed with the stress.
Human studies also show that excess Cortisol can block access to existing memories, which explains how people can forget where the fire exit is when there's actually a fire — the lines are down, so to speak. |
| One of the problems with chronic stress is that if the HFA axis is guzzling all the fuel to keep the system on alert, the thinking parts of the brain are being robbed of energy.
WISDOM
Recording memories of stressful situations is an adaptive behavior with obvious evolutionary benefits. It's the wisdom of our collective experience that has allowed us to survive, and Cortisol has played a major role. Neuroendocrinologist Bruce McEwen first found Cortisol receptors in the hippocampus in rat brains in the 1960s, and then in rhesus monkeys, and now we know they exist in humans. |
Wendy Bazilian, DRPH, MA, RD, Steven Pratt, MD, Kathy Matthews
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 Choose a method or two that suits you and practice it regularly to help reduce chronic stress. You'll find that these techniques will ultimately reduce your body's physiological response to stress and will also become pleasurable interludes in your daily routine. |
| And that's not all: Both chronic stress and sleep deprivation each play an independent role in our struggles with overweight and obesity.
Most people who are struggling to lose weight never stop to consider the effect that sleep could be having on their efforts. In fact, I've even heard from clients who ask if getting less sleep might be helpful as they'd burn more calories if they were awake more hours. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Studies have shown that chronic stress decreases the immune system's ability to suppress infections. But stress is ubiquitous—nearly everyone reports having stress in the days or weeks before a survey—so it's difficult to link it with illness.
•True or False? Drinking hot tea eases cold symptoms.
True: Black and green tea both contain theophylline, a mild bronchodilator. Drinking tea when you have a cold may open the airways and make it easier to breathe. The heat and steam from the liquid also thin mucus and ease congestion. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Consuming quality herbal supplements on a regular basis to enhance immune function, counter chronic stress, detoxify the body's primary organs and protect the body from disease. Great sources include www.DragonHerbs.com | www.PlanetaryHerbs.com | www.GHCHealth.com and, of course, Amazon Herbs.
Consuming superfoods on a regular basis, including goji berries, raw cacao, raw nuts, blueberries, raspberries, macadamia nuts and many others. Great sources include www.TransitionNutrition.com | www.GoodCauseWellness.com | www.NavitasNaturals.com | www.RuthsHempFoods.com | www.Nutrex-Hawaii. |
Steven V. Joyal
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| A 2006 study published in Psychosomaf/c Medicine reports that people with high levels of hostility typically have worse insulin resistance when they are experiencing stress, especially high levels of chronic stress. It is possible that stress-reduction methods may help in this context (see chapter 9).
How to Prevent or Reverse Insulin Resistance
The good news is that there are effective, easy-to-adopt ways to change the course of insulin resistance at the cellular level. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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| Taken all together, these factors combine forces to make the brain bloom and prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress from taking hold. In addition to cranking up the cellular repair mechanisms, they also keep Cortisol in check and increase the levels of our regulatory neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
On a mechanical level, exercise relaxes the resting tension of muscle spindles, which breaks the stress-feedback loop to the brain. If the body isn't stressed, the brain figures maybe it can relax too. |
Marshall Editions
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 A practitioner who can measure adrenal hormones may also be helpful in evaluating the adrenal depletion that can occur with unremitting chronic stress. Adequate sleep and regular meals with little sugar or processed foods are mandatory during periods of stress to avoid physical side-effects. Regular exercise is one of the primary techniques to combat stress. |
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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 One research study found that those experiencing chronic stress had higher levels of interleukin-6, or IL-6, which are pro-inflammatory cytokines that act as signaling messengers between cells of the immune system and which can whip up the immune cells to turn against the body itself. You might remember that this is the same inflammatory cytokine that Douglas Kerr, associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, found in elevated levels in the spinal fluid of MS patients. |
David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes
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 They increase the body's resistance to physical, biological, emotional, and environmental stressors and provide a defense response to acute or chronic stress. They are unique from other substances in their ability to restore the balance of endocrine hormones, modulate the immune system, and allow the body to maintain optimal homeostasis. |
| Adaptogens help maintain homeostasis during chronic stress by regulating the body's adaptive reactions. They produce changes in the body due to the stimulation and balancing of several systems, including the neuroendocrine and immune systems. They have an amphoteric effect and can reduce hyperactivity or hypoactivity of the central nervous system, immune system, blood sugar metabolism, mitochondrial functions, and the HPA axis. |
| People who suffer from acute and chronic stress are more likely to catch colds or the flu and to develop immune deficiency conditions such as cancer or chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome.
Studies have found schisandra has an amphoteric (normalizing) effect on blood pressure, lowering elevated blood pressure and raising low blood pressure. It also is useful, along with bacopa, fresh oat extract, and rhodiola, for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in teenagers and adults. |
| Stress is also two-sided; a little bit is both good and necessary, but excess or chronic stress can be harmful. It is not exclusively connected to difficulties and unpleasant events. A state of stress can exist even while we are experiencing positive events. It is our body's reaction to changes in our environment and psyches.
The term stress also can be used in the negative sense of distress and can be used to describe a chronic state of imbalance in the response to stressful events.
Common Stressors
Biological: Caused by exposure to bacteria, viruses, molds, and parasites. |
| Adrenal fatigue is caused by adrenal insufficiency that occurs when the glands cannot adequately meet the demands of chronic stress.
In adrenal fatigue the adrenal glands function, but not enough to maintain normal, healthy homeostasis. Their output of regulatory hormones has been diminished by overstimulation. This overstimulation can be caused either by a very intense single stress or by chronic or repeated stresses that have a cumulative effect. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Under conditions of chronic stress, the adrenal glands switch from producing DHEA to producing Cortisol. Since DHEA is a precursor of the male hormones, less DHEA can severely limit testosterone production. A high level of Cortisol also leads to blood sugar imbalances, depressed immune function, and sleep disturbances.23
Are Your Hormones Imbalanced?
The first step in treating a hormonal imbalance is to get an accurate measurement of your hormone levels. |
Mike Adams
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| To top it off, they're subjected to chronic stress conditions like work stress, environmental stress (breathing polluted air, drinking polluted water), relationship stress, lack of sleep, lack of sunlight, and so on. This chronic stress actually accelerates the depletion of nutrients in the body, leaving people in a deeper state of nutritional deficiency.
Nearly all Americans operate on chronic nutritional deficiencies
So by the time you're done with all of that, the average American has only a fraction of the nutrition they actually need for optimum health. |
Anne Harrington
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 In other words, a generation of young men was dying not just from the HIV virus but from the chronic stress of living with the rejection and disdain of society.
The AIDS-patient community, for its part, seemed to have little trouble incorporating the new ideas about stress and the immune system into a series of politically impassioned stories about what was truly killing them. One early (1986) grassroots volume for and by AIDS patients, for example, had this to say:
We believe that the AIDS virus particularly strikes individuals and groups who have been isolated by the dominant culture. ... |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 Of course, your posse isn't just good for managing chronic stress. In periods of major stress, they can be the anchor you need when you're rocking in stormy seas.
YOU Tip: Chop Big Pieces into Small Ones. You know how mountain climbers get up Everest or marathoners get through Boston? One step at a time. They don't think about the big picture, they think about making it through the next stride or step. When you're facing a seemingly insurmountable task, do the same thing. |
| Such things as exercise and meditation work for some people, and both of them will help you manage chronic stress through the release of such feel-good substances as nitric oxide and brain chemicals called endorphins. But in the heat of the moment, at peak periods of high intensity, you should be able to pull a quick stress-busting behavior out of your biological bag of tricks. Our suggestions:
þ Scrunch your face tightly for fifteen seconds, then release. Repeat several times. This repetitive contraction and relaxation helps release tension you're holding above the neck. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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 Unfortunately, in situations of chronic stress, the fight or flight response becomes counterproductive, leading to a cumulative build up of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and Cortisol. If these substances are not properly metabolized, long-term stress appears to promote disorders ranging from headaches and high blood pressure to rheumatoid arthritis and allergies.21 What is significant here is that the fight or flight response to stress is associated with an elevation of adrenaline, whose oxidation can lead to an excess of adrenochrome. |
| Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that chronic stress is often linked to anxiety, poor concentration, depression, anger, frustration, fear, and sadness.22 If the individual being stressed carries one of the genetic aberrations linked to schizophrenia, adrenochrome levels are likely to be higher than normal and may be linked to paranoia and hallucinations that this indole causes when taken accidentally or experimentally. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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| We do the same thing: When we face chronic stress, we eat more food than we need, and we store it in our omentum for quick access to energy. The steroids released by the HPA axis are also sucked up by the omentum and help grow it as big as the muscles on a weight lifter who is dabbling in similar chemicals. That process proves to be damaging because the toxins from our omentum fat are pumped directly into surrounding organs. But it also offers a tangible way to gauge our stress levels: The bigger our bellies, the bigger our burden. |
| For example, researchers have found that mothers with chronically ill children have shortened telomeres, indicating that chronic stress can have a huge influence on how cells divide—or fail to. The implication is that if you can reduce the effects that stress has on you, through such techniques as meditation (see page 350), you can increase your chance of rebuilding the telomeres and decrease the odds of having your cells die and contribute to age-related problems. |
| People who experience high levels of chronic stress typically fall into a very common cycle of destruction. We're stressed, so we eat onion rings. We're stressed, so we don't have to time to exercise. We eat terribly and don't get up from our desk, so we're stressed. It's a cycle that makes us fat, lazy, and depressed-and depressed that we're fat and lazy. While we know we need to change, many of us just can't seem to get motivated. But here's how you can. |
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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| The same cytokine activity now being measured to help diagnose MS is also present in higher levels in those going through chronic stress.
Of course, one might ask which came first, the chicken or the egg? Is stress a contributing factor that leads to disease—or does disease lead to stress? The answer is both. For patients with autoimmune disease, stress produces a vicious cycle. Chronic illness is in and of itself an ongoing stressful event. |
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