Why have we normalized chronic stress?

By: Kristina Mesinchuk

Most of us live in a constant state of low-grade stress. Although some amount of urgency can be useful in specific situations, like an emergency, if stress hormones go unchecked, they have a negative impact on our health, relationships and quality of work-life balance.

​Evolutionarily, the fight-or-flight response was useful, like when our ancestors lived on the Savanah with hungry lions. Perceived stress, the way we look at a situation, has been shown to down regulate genes involved in healing and immunity. 

On the other hand, being calm has shown to upregulate those same genes. How quickly we
can recover from a stressful situation can also affect other health outcomes. Constantly being in fight-or-flight mode means cells are using all their energy to deal with the present “emergency”. They cannot devote energy to digestion, circulation and other essential functions that keep our bodies balanced, like they do in rest and digest mode, the other division of our autonomic nervous system.

Some amount of acute stress is unavoidable and necessary. The good news is, we can use techniques for stress management as a way of bringing our selves back to baseline. Exercise, nourishment, meditation, breathing, self-hypnosis, guided imagery and visualization, to name a few! People that use these and other methods of managing anxiety and stressors, even for a few minutes a day, have reported better focus and time management skills. These options are cost and time effective strategies for our long-term health.

Learn more about how nutrition affects our ability to deal with daily ups and downs.

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