Yahoo Lifestyle Beat Your Stress Hormone
By Penny Caldicott
Cortisol is a steroid hormone that our adrenal glands produce to help support our body when it’s under stress. Any emotional or physical stress causes our brain’s control centre to send messages to the adrenal glands by way of the sympathetic nervous system. These glands release cortisol, which increases blood sugar, suppresses the immune system and generates energy by breaking down fat, protein and carbohydrates.
MORE: Stress-Busting Yoga Routine
Cortisol also influences the brain to remember dangerous situations so we can avoid them in future. Chronic stress causes the body to overproduce cortisol. Over time, an excess of this hormone can lead to many illnesses and imbalances (see table at right). In turn, these disorders can trigger burnout, leaving you feeling exhausted, out of control and unable to emotionally connect.
Fortunately, there are many ways in which we can switch off the chronic stress response, bringing peace and calm to our body and mind. Achieving a measure of serenity relies on tickling your vagus nerve, a cranial nerve that travels from the brain to the organs. It controls our parasympathetic nervous system and turns on the relaxation response, which improves memory, reduces inflammation and depression, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, and boosts the immune system. The body needs to activate this response to heal, repair and renew itself.
To keep that vagus nerve humming, squeeze a couple of stress-busting strategies into your daily life. Meditation, yoga, deep breathing, hypnosis, laughing or crying, music and massage therapy, and exercise all increase parasympathetic stimulation. Dancing also relieves stress. One study shows that regular dancing to Argentine tango music can significantly decrease cortisol concentrations in saliva (the mind boggles!).
When a stressful situation excites the brain, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) can help it relax. You’ll find GABA in vitamin B2, B6, B12, magnesium, valerian, hops, passionflower, taurine and inositol (another B vitamin). You can also help reduce cortisol in the body by drinking black or green tea, and getting enough magnesium, vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids. (Eat fish two to three times a week or take a 1-g supplement every day.) Include a few simple strategies such as these, and you’ll quickly feel the benefits!
An overactive stress response can:
Increase:
● blood pressure and risk
of heart disease
● inflammation throughout the body, which is linked to depression, bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease
● weight gain and insulin resistance, which predisposes us to type 2 diabetes
● haemoglobin, which makes the blood stickier, increasing the risk of clots and potentially leading to
stroke and heart attack
● bad cholesterol
Decrease:
● serotonin levels (one of our happy, calming brain chemicals)
● desire for social activity
● sexual receptivity
● bone density, leading to osteoporosis and muscle loss
● immune function
● thyroid hormone, which can lead to hypothyroidism
● good cholesterol
● sleep, leading to generalised fatigue and poor short-term memory
