#001 You’re At War Against Elevated Stress
👋 Hey, I’m Cyril and welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Democratising Health For All. Each week I explore the dynamic synergy between consumers, healthcare and pharma, in my quest to provide insights to promote a long healthy and a pain-free life
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It is a vicious cycle. Home/ work tensions › worry › de-prioritize health, exercise, diet & communication › prioritize escape, drinking, unhealthy foods, stop talking to others.
A destructive cycle often transpires when we face excessive stress without relief — worry feeds poor coping habits which then intensify distress. Unmanaged stress disrupts physiological equilibrium, chiefly immune function. Brief stress exposure prompts beneficial increases in adrenal and cortisol levels, preparing the body to address imminent threats. However chronic activation of these reactions without respite suppresses our infection-fighting white blood cells.
High cortisol from recurring stress reduces disease-combating T cells, B cells and signaling cytokines vital for coordinated immunity. Simultaneously, adrenaline impacts digestion, appetite and nutrient absorption — further hampering white blood cell output. The outcome is a hazardous muting of immune vigilance, balance and defense precisely when we need resilience. This manifests as inflammation alongside greater infectious vulnerability, slowed healing, and risks of unchecked cellular mutations.
In short, unrelieved stress spurs a self-fueling collapse of wellness and disease protection. Poor lifestyle choices like drinking, unhealthy dietary escapes and social isolation further weaken resilience against subsequent life challenges. Breaking this downward spiral necessitates preemptive lifestyle countermeasures that bolster equilibrium and reinforce whole-body immunity against modern stress overload.
What to do in this order:
Four evidence-backed steps provide a proven template for combating chronic stress and anxiety:
First, meditative practices like breathwork, yoga, and present-moment mindfulness counter neurological and physiological strain from perpetual fight-or-flight activation. These potent cognitive reset tools empower constructive examination of toxic thought patterns inflaming distress.
Second, doubling down on phytonutrient and antioxidant-rich whole foods specifically counters biochemical depletion from distress while nourishing production of suppressed lymphocytes and natural killer cells. This guards against inflammation, sugar cravings and nutritional deficiencies exacerbating anxiety.
Third, frequent low-to-moderate exercise uniquely restores positive inflammatory signaling alongside psychological uplift — making movement an invaluable daily stress reliever and mood stabilizer during taxing times while preventing fitness declines.
Finally, candid verbal processing provides external validation while preventing downward thought spirals or harmful isolation. Even basic social support bolsters psychological hardiness helping withstand external stressors.
Together these four pillars — mindset adjustments, diet upgrades, regular activity and social connection — erect a fortress against deteriorating wellness. Adopting any positive lifestyle upgrade gets this renewal flywheel spinning with compounding advantages over time. Small consistent gains translate to substantially greater stress resilience and considerably reduced risk for a host of prevalent age-related diseases down the road.
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Citations:
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5440113/
- www.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33573164/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7551800/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4465119/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9132394/
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7912123/
- www.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30784011/
- www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2007/04/26/ask-the-expert-vitamin-d-and-chronic-disease/
- www.researchgate.net/publication/348912996_Magnesium_in_Aging_Health_and_Diseases
- www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4263
