Stress and not just mental health

Stress can be defined as any event or series of events, physical or emotional, and usually happens in a situation or event where we don’t feel that we are in control or can manage. Stress is normal and happens to everyone, at all stages of life. These stressful situations or events can be either pleasant or unpleasant, for example organising a wedding or travelling overseas maybe considered a pleasant stressful event, whereas exams, relationship break-ups and pain being not so pleasant. Regardless of whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, stress and anxiety lead to physiological and biochemical changes in the body. Depending on how long these situations or events have been going on, and how we are coping or dealing with this stress, may go on and lead to illness and disease in the body. Therefore, stress is not just about mental health, it’s about your health in general.

Activating the sympathetic nervous system and releasing cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline from the adrenal cortex, your adrenal hormones, is how the body reacts to stress and anxiety. You’ve heard of the term ‘fight or flight’ response, I’m sure! This is your sympathetic nervous system reaction, preparing your body, diverting blood to the skeletal muscles, dilating pupils, increasing your heart rate, and releasing blood sugar… your body is literally preparing to run or stay and fight, or so it thinks. While your body is doing this, all the other now, not so essential bodily functions such as digestion and your immune system and tissue repair are slowing down. Your body is trying to protect you, preparing you for the imminent danger, the exam, the financial stress, the loss of a loved one. Once this stress has abated, the cortisol will turn off the release of your adrenal stress hormones, and balance and harmony will return to the body, you begin again to rest and digest. Your body continues with its immune system surveillance and tissue repair.

But what happens when this stressor is prolonged and chronic, or you just seem to bounce from one stressor to another? You seem to be stressed, irritable or anxious all the time. Your previous ‘alarm’ or ‘fight or flight’ response changes into a ‘resistance’ response. This unrelenting stress is causing your cortisol to stay elevated, is playing havoc on your digestion, while fluctuating blood sugar is further exacerbating you feeling irritable and anxious. And now your sleep is disturbed, with or without a night sweat. You may begin to develop physical, physiologic, or behavioural symptoms.

During 2021, healthcare practitioners across Australia have reported mood conditions as the most common clinic presentation.

So, while I cannot suggest to you what you should or shouldn’t be stressing about, as a naturopath I do have some suggestions on how you can help to manage your stress response and possibly dampen down that adrenal cortisol release, and switch more efficiently from the fight or flight response, back to the rest and digest. I believe holistic care to help manage and regulate the stress response involves a combination of exercise, diet, gut health, supplementation, and some focused stress management techniques.

Exercise, while improving fitness, also enhances your body’s immune system, helps to lower the incidence of anxiety and depression with the release of endorphins, improves sleep, and helps to provides a strong self-image. I’m a big advocate for making it fun. Find some friends, walk, and talk, exercise together.

While I’ve already mentioned that stress impacts digestion, chronic stress can lead to decreased nutrient absorption. Impaired gut health has been scientifically linked to brain function, and implicated in illness such as ADHD, autism, chronic fatigue, OCD, anxiety, and depression. This makes sense considering that serotonin, a neurotransmitter for feelings of wellbeing and happiness is found mainly in the gut. So, what can you do to help improve your gut health:

• Consider a probiotic with specific strains for mood
• Reduce/eliminate food additives, emulsifiers, preservatives
• Avoid foods that may aggravate your gut e.g., gluten, dairy, alcohol, sugar
• Increase food diversity of fresh fruit and vegetables
• Eat more fermented foods, organic and unprocessed
• Target anti-inflammatory herbs and spices such as turmeric, coriander, basil, cinnamon, clove, mint, ginger, rosemary, thyme
• Chew your food. Eat in a calm state

Diet, while I could write a whole article on just diet alone, consider that the Mediterranean diet is the most comprehensively researched and scientifically validated diet in the world, so that may be a good place to start. The Mediterranean diet consists of a moderately low meat intake and moderate intake of fish, eggs and dairy; nuts; legumes; fresh vegetables especially leafy greens, tomatoes, onions and garlic, fresh or dried herbs and spices, extra virgin oil as the main dietary fat and a moderate alcohol intake. Studies show that the Mediterranean diet

• Helps to maintain a healthy heart
• Can prevent diabetes and metabolic syndrome
• Improves insulin resistance and abdominal obesity
• Helps prevent depression

As a naturopath I do believe that we should aim to get all our nutrients from our food, but sadly I do also think that this is not always possible. Whether this is due to nutrient depletion in our soils, lack of, or access to organically grown fruit and vegetables, or just the fact that we have so many ‘stressors’ in our lives these days that our bodies cannot keep up with rate of nutrient depletion, I therefore do believe there is a place for supplementation. Magnesium, B vitamins and vitamin C are the most common supplements to help mitigate the effects of stress on the body. Studies show that magnesium repletion produces positive changes in mood and cognition, healthy eating behaviour, healthy stress responses, and better quality of sleep. While the use of herbs (in tinctures or teas) such as oats, lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, passionflower, lime flowers, vervain and ashwagandha have years of traditional use to help calm and restore the nervous system.

Targeted stress management, we all need a little of this in our lives. Whether this is massage, yoga, reflexology, acupuncture, meditation, or exercise as mentioned above, these activities help to:

• Reduce stress
• Balance the nervous system
• Improve sleep quality
• Boost lymphatic function
• Improve circulation
• Helps to detoxify the body
• Enhance the body’s natural healing process

And finally, sometimes just a walk out in nature may be all you need, and it won’t add to any financial stress. So, consider the poetic words of Wendell Berry in “The Peace of the Wild Things”;

When despair of the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and children’s life may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feed

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grass of the world,

and am free.

References:

• Thrive Insights. Understanding the natural medicine practitioner. Sydney, Australia: Thrive Insights; Aug, 2021
• https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/signs-and-symptoms
• The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Dr Catherine Itsiopoulos (PhD APD), Sydney, 2015
• Healing Herbs, Neal’s Yard Covent Garden Remedies; DK Publishing
• The Poetry Pharmacy; Tried and true prescriptions for the heart, mind and soul, William Sieghart; Particular Books, 2017.
• Women, Hormones and the Menstrual Cycle, Ruth Trickey, Melbourne Holistic Health Group, 2011.