Stress is Not a Four Letter Word

Stress gets such a bad rap these days. The limitations of the word are doing us dirty. When we provide our bodies with the conditions it has adapted to thrive in, we can gain incredible vitality and strength, both physical and mental. In nutrition, we say it is more important to have lots of the good things than it is to stress about completely avoiding all bad food. Stress is the same. If we focus on bringing in more hormetic, or good stress, the body will naturally begin to right itself. 

Our sympathetic nervous system response was designed to get us out of trouble. Many of the body’s systems (like digestion) go into “sleep” mode while we address the pressing task at hand: running out of a burning building, facing a warring tribe invading our village, escaping a tiger’s wrath, etc. When the danger has passed, we are meant to shake it off and continue living in a relaxed state. 

The response itself is helpful. The problem, of course, lies in the fact that our bodies are running it as chronic background noise, for situations that aren’t actually emergencies: being late, having a difficult conversation, being always on the go, constance vigilance of our surroundings, and just existing in the man made world that operates on industrial time, as opposed to the lower frequency, natural world of horticultural time. 

I started to understand beneficial stress better while I was on a morning hike before my first meal. I was wearing a continuous glucose meter, and as I trekked up our steep ridge trail, I noticed my blood sugar spike. Because I hadn’t eaten, and didn’t have glucose in my bloodstream, my body was releasing glycogen, stored glucose, in order to give me energy to climb up the hill. Now this blood sugar spike had all the downsides of any other: oxidative stress, hormone dysfunction and heart issues. The difference between my hike and eating a sugary snack is that exercise is considered hormetic, or beneficial, stress. The the overall impact is positive, even with the downsides.

It was thought provoking to witness the thing I was trying to avoid also happening in a situation where I was doing something good.

It’s worth thinking about examples of physical and psychological challenges that create more strength and resilience over time. When it comes to making changes, I’m a big fan of “short and frequent”. Pick the one thing on this list that you feel most excited about (provided it is easily accessible), and commit to doing it three times a week for two weeks. You don’t have to do a lot of something to start to feel the benefits. And when you do, you develop an intrinsic desire to do it. if it’s a realistic goal, you are much more likely to make it a routine. Anytime we are struggling with motivation, we need to dial back our aspirations to the most tiniest of improvements, which we can grow over time. We need to be gentle on ourselves.

I will highlight a few of my favorite physical hormetic stressors before I get into a type I have not heard mentioned in the context of overall health: getting out of our comfort zone.

Exercise

While we all know exercise is good, it bears noting that we need different types at different stages of life. The energizing 5 + mile runs you took in your 20’s and 30’s can be depleting in middle age, where exercise like HIIT and resistance training is generally more beneficial.

Weight/Resistance Training 

They say muscle is the primary organ of the metabolic system. As growth hormone decreases starting in middle age, there is no way around it: if we want to stay physically and mentally healthy, we need to incorporate more weight and resistance routines into our week, in some form or another. 

There is a Netflix Series on the Blue Zones, which highlights the habits of people in five different areas of the planet that live the longest. I was struck by how physically active they all were. In Costa Rica, centenarians are still riding horses, chopping wood, and walking miles every day. On the island of Ikaria, Greece, those who have homes at a steeper pitch than their downhill neighbors live a decade longer on average. Just walking down the street raises their heart rates enough to keep their bodies in top form.  In Singapore and Okinawa, it’s more modern forms of group exercise that keep people physically active and living long lives. 

Cold Plunge

We’ve been using a metal feeding trough with a lid as our cold plunge for some time now. It works great for our N. Cal climate, especially in the colder months. For a while I’d just dip in for 10-15 seconds. While it had an immediately energizing impact, I didn’t notice any big changes until I started following Dutch cold therapy guru Wim Hof’s rule of cold immersion for a minimum of 7 minutes per week (which I break down into 2 or 3 separate days).

I’ve noticed two big changes. The first is improved immunity. Winter with kids in grade school is a brutal series of colds, flus and other viruses. Since my youngest started preschool, I am generally on the brink of getting sick throughout winter. Covid and tropical travels gave our bodies a break from months on end of sickness, but back on land again we picked right up where we’d left off: the winter drill of hiding from big social gatherings and taking all the immune supporting supplements. Ever since I’ve started cold plunging, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my immunity. I’m no longer the canary in the cold mine for every micro virus that passes through our doors. 

My sleep has also improved, which has me waking more enthusiastically, as has my overall energy throughout the day. I’m still kind of floored at what a beneficial tool this is. Of everything I’ve tried since I began practicing Functional Nutrition five years ago, I think this is my top #1 favorite tool in my health toolkit. 

My husband has suffered from dizziness when he works on the computer too long for decades. So much so that he had to transition away from computer programming, leaving jobs and turning down others. He’s seen many specialists, made a lot of habit changes,  and tried many treatments over the years, all with varying degrees of success. Since he started cold plunging his dizziness has dramatically improved, to where it’s not an issue most days. 

Sauna

Ever since my back injury five years ago, I’ve had to dial back my intense workouts. As a result, I rarely sweat anymore. After a recent DUTCH (urine hormone panel) test revealed my body is no longer doing a good job of expelling “bad” estrogen, I started using a friend’s infrared sauna as often as I can. We are hoping to invest in one on our property- I’d rather spend our money on a sauna than on the cost of having breast cancer down the road.

Fasting

Our bodies evolved to go periods without eating, to have times of feasting, to not always have a food full of fridge at the ready upon waking each day. In order to give my liver and digestive system the resets they need, fasting has become an essential practice in my repertoire. One caveat about routine and all hormetic stress is especially true with fasting: if we do the same thing all the time, our body gets used to it & it is no longer “stress”. If you’ve tried intermittent fasting, you may notice a plateau in it’s benefits at some point. Ideally we are keeping our bodies guessing with all of this, which keeps metabolism in top form. For me, this means I mix it all up, days of eating lower carbs, days of intermittant fasting, days of feasting and occasional longer 24 + hour fasts throughout the year.

Stepping Outside your Comfort Zone

What about stress to benefit the mind and spirit? Just like our metabolism needs to be kept guessing in order to function well, our mind does not do well with too much consistency. Our tendencies to seek out comfort and safety need some opposition. It doesn’t have to be big or bold, but our overall wellness requires we step outside of our routines and grow. It could be public speaking, learning a new skill, wearing something bold- anything that is a bit of a stretch.

When we were living on the sailboat, I noticed I felt much less anxiety than I do at home. This was surprising, because our life aboard had a lot more risk and danger. But because we were actively interacting with danger, facing it head on so to speak, something in my body’s operating system could relax. Anxiety is in part a worry about what could happen, not what is happening in this moment. When we flex our resilience by sitting in frigid water, by doing things that scare us, by taking calculated risks, it makes us feel more brave and more alive. These tiny thrills-which do mean feeling more fear and facing it, allow us to truly return to stillness and peace when we are relaxed. 

So much of the work I do is helping people find ways to mimic the natural environment the body was adapted to thrive in: a place with varying outdoor temperatures, physical requirements, access to food, trials, tribulations, periods of safety and moments of turmoil.  The more we can incorporate these habits back into our days, the greater the level of thriving we can experience.