Stress and the Nervous System
- Upstream Wellness
- Jun 23, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 6, 2023
Why and How Stress Affects Your Health Have you ever thought to yourself, sure, life is stressful, but I got this? Or wondered why you feel exhausted, frazzled, overwhelmed, and stressed even though nothing in your busy life has changed? This article explains the connection between how your body responds to stress AND what to do about it right now so that you can feel better.
Although stress can affect all parts of your body, it starts with the nervous system, of which there are two parts. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for boosting your ability to be active and alert during times of perceived stress. Ever watched a scary movie and felt your heart race when the monster jumped out at you? That’s your sympathetic nervous system. When this part of the nervous system is triggered, stress hormones are released that communicate to the rest of the body that it is time to react. The sympathetic nervous system response is also called the “flight or fight” response because before the modern world, triggering the sympathetic nervous system would give us the strength, speed, and focus to survive threats like being chased by a Mountain Lion. When the sympathetic nervous system is triggered, your airways open, eyes dilate, heart rate and blood sugar increase, your digestion slows, and your bladder relaxes. The body reroutes energy for immediate strength, speed, and focus, shutting down the systems we don’t need during emergencies. For example, it’s not likely that you can eat when running from a Mountain Lion, so there is no need to have your digestive system preparing for food.
The sympathetic nervous system is connected to nearly every organ of the body, ready to take action. In today’s world, triggers for this type of response can be anything that your mind or body perceives as stress: road rage, lack of sleep, stressful day at work or with kids, injuries, finals week, over-exercising, working too much, loss of a family member, divorce and so much more. While our bodies are well equipped to respond to a single event that triggers the sympathetic nervous system, we run into trouble when these events become chronic. When we chronically trigger the sympathetic nervous system to react, we are signaling to our bodies to keep our heart rate and blood sugar high chronically and to slow our digestion (hello dry mouth, constipation, or diarrhea). As you might have guessed, staying in the “flight or fight” mode is not ideal for keeping your body feeling well.
Opposing the sympathetic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system. Unlike the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system is in relatively few areas of your body. The parasympathetic nervous system stretches from the brainstem (the upper part of the back of the neck and lower back of the head) down the back of the throat and then connects to the lungs, heart, liver, gastrointestinal tract (gut), and bladder. The section of the parasympathetic nerve that runs down the back of your throat is wrapped inside a larger nerve called the vagus nerve (at least 75% of the parasympathetic nervous system is found in the vagus nerve). The parasympathetic nervous system is also called the “rest and digest” response because when this part of your nervous system is activated, your body turns on the systems needed to optimize function. What does that mean? Your gastrointestinal tract increases activity to enhance digestion, your heart rate and blood sugar fall, and your pupil’s contract. In other words, you relax. All these responses allow your body to heal and repair injuries from stress and rest and regenerate for the next stressful event. The problem is that when people spend too much time triggering the sympathetic nervous system and not enough time using the parasympathetic nervous system, they feel chronically unwell. This can feel like any of the following:
· Lethargic or agitated depression
· Fatigue
· Trouble falling or staying asleep
· Trouble waking up in the morning
· Waking up too early
· Chronic pain
· Dizziness when you stand or bend
· Craving salty foods (chips, pretzels, etc.)
· Craving sweet foods (cookies, candy, etc.)
· Feeling “wired but tired”
· Tender joints or muscles
· Inability to handle stress
· Low blood sugar if not eating often
· Slow wound healing
· Unstable body temperature
· Irregular, heavy, or no periods
· Poor digestion
What to do?
Get started today training your body to get back into the rest and digest mode so that you can feel better. This starts with stress management. I know what you are thinking – I can’t quit my job, go on vacation, or magically create more hours in the day, and I don’t need anything else to do. Don’t stress (pun intended); there are ways to start this process in just a few minutes a day for free, in the comfort of your own space. Ultimately, you need tools to reteach your body how to get back into the parasympathetic nervous system so that you can rest and repair the damage from too much stress. There are many ways to do this. Here is a simple way to start.
Remember the vagal nerve mentioned earlier? This is a nerve that runs down the back of your throat. It houses the parasympathetic nerve (the nerve that triggers your body to rest and recover). It turns out that activities that stimulate the back of your throat also activate your vagal nerve and your parasympathetic nervous system. So, what this means is that you have the ability to tell your body it’s time to relax, rest and recover. How, you ask?
There are several ways to do this. Try at least one of the following techniques 5 minutes before bed, after a stressful event, or any time you need to relax.
Gently place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and hum for at least 30 seconds (go for a minute if you can). Try this when you first climb into bed, during commercials while watching TV, before you eat dinner, or before you get out of your car at the end of the workday.
Sing! Sing in the shower, in the car, while you make dinner, with your family or friends or when you are doing routine tasks. Just pick songs that are positive and not stress-invoking.
Breathe slow, focused, deep breaths through your nose. Breathe in for a count of 4 (in your head), hold for a count of 7, and exhale for a count of 8. This has multiple benefits. Mind your posture to increase how much air you can take in. Not only does it activate the vagal nerve, but it also signals your body to increase blood flow which ultimately encourages healing and relaxation.
Practice focusing on each body part and relaxing the muscles. Start with the head, jaw, cheeks, throat, and neck, and slowly work your way down to your toes. This is ideal for those stressful nights when you just can’t fall asleep or 5 minutes before a nerve-wracking presentation.
These techniques may sound simple (because they are), but they can give you control over your reaction to stress with practice. These, in combination with a personalized plan from Upstream Wellness, can help you take steps towards a more enjoyable, less stressful life!
Image is taken from Vectormine/Shutterstock.com
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