Take the Pressure Down — stress and how to tame it

Midlife can be a stressful time when we’re dealing with issues such as caring for aged or ill parents, raising teenagers, job or financial stress, the loss of loved ones, husbands retiring, and so on, as well as hormonal changes. It’s a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if ‘we’ll encounter stress, and it pays to be proactive in looking after ourselves in the face of it.

Our cavewoman physiology

You probably know that our reactions to stress are patterned on primitive ‘fight or flight’ survival reflexes. When we are stressed our bodies secrete a hormone called adrenalin from the adrenal glands that sit behind the kidneys. Adrenalin is what gives you the impetus to fight or flee. The earliest humans were usually fighting or running from some sort of life-threatening danger, so their production of adrenalin was accompanied by physical activity. Our physiology hasn’t altered since those times, so our bodies expect to be active when our adrenalin is pumping. Usually they’re not, because we’re driving or on the phone at work, so the adrenalin builds up and adds to our bodily stress.

Cortisol is another hormone produced by the adrenals in response to stress. Ideally this only occurs occasionally, but if cortisol levels are too high for too long, in response to chronic stress, over exercising or regularly going to bed later than 10.00-10.30pm, the side-effects can include bone loss, muscle wasting, weight gain around the middle, and increased vulnerability to viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and so on. Almost every major human illness has been linked to chronic stress.

In addition to our bodies’ tendency to accumulate fat when we’re stressed, we’re also likely to reach for foods like chocolate, ice cream, cakes or biscuits to soothe our upset or anxiety, and to eat more of them than we normally would.

We need healthy adrenal glands

At menopause, our estrogen levels adjust so that we can’t bear children. Our ovaries slow their estrogen production, but nature provided us with a back-up system, so that estrogen could also be produced at other sites, such as our fat cells and our adrenal glands. If our adrenal glands are exhausted by chronic stress, they can’t provide supplementary estrogen. It’s not only estrogen levels which alter at menopause — progesterone levels fall too. If progesterone is low and estrogen stays relatively high, this creates a condition known as ‘estrogen dominance’ which is toxic in the body and instrumental in diseases such as breast cancer. The adrenals are also a back-up source of progesterone, so again, they need to be healthy.

Overstressed adrenals have also been linked to headaches, joint and muscle pain, infections, fatigue, low blood pressure, Crohn’s Disease, autoimmune disorders, and the inability to recover from thyroid disease.

How best to deal with tired adrenals? You need plenty of rest, sleep and peace, as well as nutritional and possibly hormonal support. Nutritionally, you need good quality protein at each meal, good fats, plenty of vegetables and some fruit. Beneficial supplements include vitamins B and C, minerals such as zinc, calcium and magnesium, preferably from food sources, and herbs such as licorice. Be aware that caffeine can pump up your stress levels.

Taming stress

There’s no best way to do this, and there are plenty of options that you can build into your lifestyle. These include exercise, belly breathing, having a good laugh, aromatherapy, baths, massage, yoga, tai chi or chi gung (qigong), relaxation techniques and visualization, sex, music, meditation, acupuncture, sleep, good nutrition, counseling, holidays, time in nature, creative activities, pets, family, a cuppa with a friend, and community support.

In addition, it’s valuable to learn to let go of stressful old emotional habits. By adopting and practicing positive emotions we can eliminate those habits and do our bodies a big favour. Keeping present, with our attention on ‘now’, also prevents negative emotions like anger, fear and resentment from filling our thoughts. Trusting ourselves and our desires, having fun, and doing what we love vs what we think we should do is critical too.

It’s OK to slow down

Mobile phones and email have been a big part of the urgency that has crept into daily life in recent years. But a faster life hasn’t meant a happier or higher quality life, and around the world, people have begun to say no. In May 2007, Intel introduced ‘zero-email Fridays’ to encourage staff to actually speak to each other rather than sending emails. Some trains in the UK have mobile-free carriages, and a bakery in Cronulla has posted a notice to tell customers they would not be served if they were talking on a mobile phone (it’s rude!). The rest of us can also say no to becoming victims of constant electronic communication.

The ‘slow movement’ is catching on as people take back their lives and focus on doing the things that matter to them. In the process, they are turning off the TV and trying yoga or rediscovering the fun of board games, picnics, painting, fishing, cooking and gardening. Constant rushing is exhausting, and we can all benefit from taking a look at how to simplify our lives, and as Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slow suggests, reconnect with our ‘inner tortoise’.

There’s no way to stop life from happening, so consider how to deal with stress before it happens. Look at your own patterns and decide on some approaches you could put in place to avoid it building up, such as regular massages, breaks from work, lunches with girlfriends, and so on. Find ways to transform your experience of the situations you find stressful, so that you can replace negative emotions with positive ones during the experience. And finally, sometimes stress still creeps up on us, so be sure to nurture yourself after a stressful event.

Take the Pressure Down — stress and how to tame it

Our cavewoman physiology

We need healthy adrenal glands

Taming stress

It’s OK to slow down

Further reading