Stress is something we think of as abnormal. It is something to be avoided or remedied. Patients often tell me they think their symptoms are due to stress and often they are correct. How can stress be a natural problem and an abnormal one?

Stress is caused by the processes of life. The normal cellular functions of the brain cause waste products that are toxic. They minimally damage the cell every time they are produced. This requires that mechanisms always be ready to heal the cell on a moments notice. This living, damage and repair cycle actually stress the cells of your brain and serve to make each cell stronger. It makes the cell interconnect with other brain cells by creating more connections that appear like branches on a tree. This stress strengthens the cell and cellular communications.

The stress patients complain about is caused by a fear memory that is rapidly and frequently replayed in areas of the brain concerned with survival. These areas release chemicals that travel via the nervous system and the blood to provoke the adrenal glands to produce epinephrine ( adrenaline) and cortisol. Cortisol is necessary in a fight for survival but too much is toxic to the new brain stem cells produced in the hippocampus. These memories and physiologic responses cause changes that bring more blood to the muscles, less to the intestines, make platelets sticky to reduce bleeding, dilate your pupils and tense up the muscles, accelerate your heart rate and breathing and make us tremble. Our blood sugar goes up and we are ready for attack or flight except instead we get in our car and drive to work where we are sedentary all day.

This is a natural response to a perceived threat. Often we are prescribed medication to help this and it can help. There is something you can do to help yourself - aerobic exercise. This means brisk walking, running, biking, swimming, raking, mowing behind a walking mower, jumping rope or doing calisthetics. When done regularly, these exercises naturally calm and reboot the brain. They break the cycle of fear memory and substitute the calming effect of the brains and bodies natural stress relieving chemicals.

How much exercise do you need? It isn’t entirely clear. Think daily, think brisk, think at least 30 minutes total per day. One session seems to have a benefit and regular exercise over time seems to fit our pattern of hunting and gathering that was the pattern of our ancestors. There was stress for them in trying to find enough food. The relief was in the activity of walking the 5 or 6 miles per day to gather it. You can find the same relief in the same way. There is something to be said for caloric restriction also. Not starvation, but restricting calories and avoiding those that release sugar into our blood quickly.

If you have stress, you may need therapy or medication or both. There is no denying that regular exercise is empowering, effective and beneficial in many ways. If you exercise and don’t get the relief you desire, consult your health care provider.

Want to learn more? Purchase and read the book Spark by John Ratey M.D.. There are chapters on anxiety, ADD, Stress, Depression, and what fitness does to benefit our brain.

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