Chronic Stress: An Introduction

by Nina

Wounded Bird by Brad Gibson

An ongoing theme that we’ll be exploring in depth on this blog is the negative effects of chronic stress on long-term health and the need for stress management as an important aspect of healthy aging. So perhaps it’s a good time for me to define exactly what we mean by “chronic stress” and to let you know a little about why it is such a serious problem.

I learned about dangers of chronic stress the hard way. Back in the early nineties, I had a job as the documentation manager and lead technical writer at a software start-up company, while at the same time I was raising two children. As you might imagine, the pressure was intense as our small company struggled to meet our first deadline, the first test of the product by real customers (who needed my manuals to teach them how to use the product!). As the deadline approached and I started working overtime, I began having difficulty sleeping. I also started losing weight because the stress made me so feel nauseated that I lost my appetite. Eventually I was so anxious, exhausted and nauseated that even though I met my deadline (and the company went on to success), I couldn’t bounce back to normal health. It took a year and half of therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes to recover completely.

Feeling stressed is not always a bad thing, however. It’s your body’s normal response to perceived danger or extreme physical activity (often called the “fight or flight response”), which is vital in keeping you safe and active. When you encounter a stressful situation, whether it is a grizzly bear or a stack of tax forms, your body releases hormones (adrenaline and noradrenaline) to provide you with the energy and alertness needed to cope with the situation. And anyone who has almost been run over an SUV knows the feeling: heart racing, rapid breathing, gut clenching. This is because in stress mode, your nervous system stimulates your organs and mobilizes energy by: 

• raising your blood pressure 
• increasing your heart rate and the blood supply to your skeletal muscles (and away from your gut) 
• dilating your pupils and bronchioles, providing improved vision and oxygenation 
• generating needed energy by breaking down sugar and fat stores for immediate use 

Between stressful situations, your body needs to rest, recover, and acquire new energy, so your nervous system responds by:

• lowering your blood pressure 
• reducing your heart rate, diverting blood back to the skin and gastrointestinal tract 
• contracting your pupils and your bronchioles for reduced oxygenation 
• stimulating your salivary gland secretion, accelerating digestion, and promoting normal movement of food through the gut 

But what if the stress is long term? When you almost get hit by a car, escape from a bear or finish your taxes, the incident is over quickly and you bounce back to normal soon after. But if the stress is ongoing or “chronic,” maybe because of continuing job pressures (like mine at the software company), marriage problems, health problems, and so on, your nervous system is continuously on the alert and this can overtax your body potentially causing:

• heart disease 
• hypertension (high blood pressure) 
• insomnia and/or fatigue 
• digestive disorders 
• headaches 
• chronic anxiety or depression 
• weakened immune system 

(Hmm, I just counted, and it seems I developed almost half of those symptoms, rather impressive in a weird sort of way.)

Of course, these symptoms are not only unpleasant but will seriously compromise your long-term health if you can’t manage to bring them under control. In addition, several age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Diabetes are exacerbated by stress, and some theories of aging itself (such as the telomere theory I discussed last week) propose stress as a factor in the aging process itself.

I hope you’re not getting too stressed out by reading all of this! I credit yoga with helping me stay well since that breakdown. And in the coming weeks, we’ll be offering many different alternatives for managing your stress even as you take on the many challenges that life has to offer.

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