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• Nutri Focus - Stress
  

  Nutri Focus - Stress

  Stress is at an all time high in the UK, with stress-related disorders and ailments accountings for approximately 75-95% of all doctor's visits, according to some estimates. Stress can severely affect health and has been linked to such diverse conditions as cancer, diabetes, immune system breakdown, alcohol and substance abuse, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis, anxiety, depression and suicide to name but a few.

  The most recently published statistics from the UK's Health and Safety executive (www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress/), provide us with a very worrying picture of the stress situation in the UK, a situation that experts believe is likely to get steadily worse rather than better:

  • Estimates from the Labour Force Survey indicate that self-reported, work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for an estimated 13.5 million lost working days in Britain in 2007/08.
  • Around 1 in 6 considers their work to be very, or extremely stressful.
  • Stress is the second most commonly reported reason for work-related ill health, following closely behind musculo-skeletal problems.

  The Chronic Effects of Chronic Stress

  Stress is one of the most commonly used words in relation to ill health and yet few people really understand just how far-reaching the effects of stress can be. Stress can be physical, mental or emotional & can be short-term or ongoing. Stress is everywhere, and as humans we seem to have a very turbulent relationship with our stress response - it seems we can't live with it and yet it is essential for life - we simply couldn't live without it.

  Stress & Evolution - Going Back to Our Roots

  As a species, our stress response has evolved in exactly same way as all other vertebrates. Dr Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Biological Sciences and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, is an expert on stress and has spent more than thirty years studying the physiological effects of stress on health. He commented, "the stress response is incredibly ancient evolutionarily; fish, birds and reptiles secrete the same stress hormones that we do, yet their metabolism doesn’t get messed up the way it does in people and other primates".
  So why, when we all secrete the same stress hormones, is stress causing so many problems for us when in most other animals it doesn't? The simple answer is that our bodies have not yet evolved to deal with the different types of stressors face in the 21st century as compared to those we faced when living in caves.
  Dr Robert Sapolsky explains, ''Stress hormones are brilliantly adapted.
  You mobilize energy in your thigh muscles. You increase your blood pressure and you turn off everything that’s not essential to surviving, such as digestion, growth and reproduction. You think more clearly, and certain aspects of learning and memory are enhanced. All of that is spectacularly
  adapted if you're dealing with an acute physical stressor - a real one!''

  But What Happens When the Stress is Psychological and Chronic?

  When stress is non-life threatening, and is more of a constant psychological stress such as in a high-pressure work environment or through constantly worrying about financial pressures, the stress response starts to work against us. It seems we have not yet evolved fully to deal with classic 21st century stress.
  Dr Sapolsky explains, ''if you turn on the stress response chronically for purely psychological reasons, you increase your risk of adult onset diabetes and high brood pressure. If you're chronically shutting down the digestive system, you're more at risk for gastrointestinal disorders.''
  In situations of chronic stress, all aspects of brain function can also be affected, including the neurons associated with Learning, memory and judgment, which don't function as weft under stress. Long-term stress also suppresses the immune system, making you more susceptible to infectious diseases, and can even shut down reproduction by causing erectile dysfunction and disrupting menstrual cycles.

  The Science Behind the Stress Response

  1. Alarm - This is the classic stress response, which we all experience in a short-term stressful situation. Stress stimulates the pituitary gland in the brain to release the hormone ACTH, which stimulates the adrenal cortex. As a result, DHEA and cortisol levels increase; when these are high enough, the brain stops producing ACTH. Once the stress is over, cortical and DHEA Levels return to normal.
  2. Resistance - With repeated stress, the body becomes tired and less responsive to the effects of cortical. This means that more cortical must be produced. The body can make cortisol from DHEA, so the extra cortisol is made at the expense of DHEA and DHEA levels fall. As it takes more time for these adrenal hormones to raise blood sugar levels to normal, symptoms of fatigue and unstable energy Levels can occur.
  3. Exhaustion - The body can no longer produce enough cortical, so both this and DHEA are low. Irritability, an inability to cope with the slightest stress, low concentration, low energy, depression and headaches are common at this stage. Low tolerance to alcohol and high incidence of inflammatory and degenerative diseases are also typical of this stage.

  The health effects of chronic stress are so far-reaching it would be impossible to detail them all, but here are some of the most common and possibly most debilitating problems that have been linked to long-term stress:

  Depression
  Stress is a major risk factor for depression. Studies have shown that depressed people are much more Likely to have elevated tenets of the stress hormone cortical than people who are not depressed'.

  Breast Cancer
  Studies have demonstrated tine between chronic stress and breast cancer risk. One study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in March 20032 found a link between stressful life events and the occurrence of breast cancer, whilst another found that patients with breast cancer were less likely to survive if they had alterations in their cortisol levels.

  Cardiovascular Health
  It is now well established that stress is a major cardiovascular risk factor. One study published in the British Medical Journal Looked at the cardiovascular effects of work-related stress in 2002. Conclusions of the prospective cohort study were rather alarming; researchers found that those people who reported persistent stress due to work demands had the same level of risk for fatal heart attacks as people who smoke and don't exercise. They also found that employees with high job stress had a 2.2-fold Cardiovascular mortality risk compared with their colleagues with low job stress.

  Homocysteine
  Homocysteine is a natural substance made by the body; however, many people tack the enzyme to break it down completely. Excess levels of the protein Homocysteine can seriously damage the Lining of the arteries and are a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Excess levels have also been linked to Alzheimer's Diseases. Research has shown that stress increases Homocysteine levels in the blood.

  Brain Function
  The hippocampal in the brain has high levels of cortisol receptors. Studies have shown that chronic stress impairs hippocampal funding, leading to neuronal atrophy and destruction, decreased short-term memory, decreased contextual memory and poor regulation of endocrine response to stress.

  Irritable Bowel Syndrome
  Links have been identified between stress and the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Researchers have found that patients with IBS have significant disruptions in capitol levels compared with matched controls.

  Sleep Problems
  Normally, when you are asleep, cortical levels are low. But at times of chronic stress, cortisol levels may not drop sufficiently while you sleep. Thus, disruption of the sleep-wake cycle is a common symptom of chronic stress. If it continues, this initial degree of sleep disruption and insomnia can eventually lead to a vicious cycle of chronic insomnia.

  Thyroid Function
  Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) is produced by the pituitary gland in the brain and stimulates the thyroid gland to produce more thyroid hormone.
  The thyroid grand produces T4, a kind of pre-hormone that is converted into T3, the active hormone. When cortisol levels are raised under stress, TSH levels fall, which means there is less stimulation of the thyroid gland. Cortisol also inhibits the conversion of the inactive 1-4 to the active 7-3 hormone, meaning there is less active T3 in the blood. Chronic stress can therefore have a dramatic effect on the function of the thyroid gland.

  Immune Function
  Chronic and prolonged stress has a significant depressant effect on the immune system. This is why people undergoing periods of chronic stress often suffer from more frequent infections. In an interesting study at Ohio State University College, women who w