How does stress arise?

Whenever we perceive a situation that demands  urgent and immediate action, our adrenal glands begin to make adrenalin. Imagine a mad dog chasing us....the fear in our mind is transmitted to the brain and the pituitary gland in the forehead sends signals to the adrenal gland situated above the kidney to produce the hormone adrenalin. The adrenalin is like a siren, an alarming sound to inform everyone about a situation demanding immediate attention and to halt all other activities.  Within a few seconds the adrenalin instructs various organs like the heart to pump more blood, the muscles to get tensed, the eyes to dilate, the lungs to breathe more; in the meantime, glucose is pumped into the blood, which thickens. Within a few seconds, so much glucose is made  available in the blood, that we could run even a mile.  

Stress - an Unwarranted Condition

              This type of adrenalin-mediated reaction is good, even necessary, to handle an attention-demanding situation and protects the body. But this adrenalin secretion which is meant only for combating emergency situations, if triggered unnecessarily like maybe for an unwanted telephone call, a traffic jam, or kids quarreling while watching TV, an irritating boss, spouse or a colleague etc. is called stress. The above unwarranted  reactions if  triggered in our body will make our organs work overtime and exhaust themselves. Understand that under normal conditions your  heart beats more than 60 times a minute. Under stress, you make your heart pound more than 100 times a minute. This will tire your heart and  end up in a heart attack and/or changing of heart valves.

Stress Reactions

      The digested food is converted to glucose in our bodies and excess glucose  is stored as glycogen or fat. Excess glucose in the blood will damage the body organs. Therefore, a hormone called insulin that is produced by the pancreas will remove excess glucose from the blood.

          We have to understand the following fact to maintain good health. The energy needed to run to a response to 'fear and flight' is made available by  adrenalin by increasing  glucose level in the blood.  So when we unnecessarily increase the blood glucose levels it damages the body organs. This is how stress, over a period of time, causes quick ageing and age-related diseases.

          You will realize that this 'fight or flight' response is a high energy process. We might wonder where the extra energy comes from, especially if we were feeling tired immediately before the event that caused the 'fight or flight' response in us.  The answer is that energy is diverted from the body’s normal functions of maintenance and repair. Thus, so long as we are feeling stressed, our digestion, rejuvenation and cleansing functions are turned off.

           Worn out by the process described above, our energy is sapped. We lose concentration, become easily confused, make silly mistakes, fall asleep after lunch, become irritable, find it hard to sleep at night, don’t want to wake up in the morning, sweat more than normal, and/or suffer from headaches.  These are the symptoms that ring bells of the disaster we are causing  our body.

       Instead of addressing the root cause of "low energy" we  get into addictive habits.

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Anti-Oxidants

What are anti-oxidants? We often hear this term. You have heard of the metal Iron? When Iron comes in contact with oxygen in the air, it reacts with it and forms rusts. This rusting is a chemical process called oxidation which  finally destroys the iron. To prevent Iron from rusting, it can be coated with chemicals called anti-oxidants because they prevent oxidation.

Video on Anti-oxidation

Similarly in our bodies, since we breathe in air, the oxygen in it will cause a  biochemical oxidation like rusting. Like the rusting of iron, our bodies age. So we can call ageing a biochemical 'rusting' process.

The rusting is speeded up by inflammatory reactions in our body. In a  new report  in Perspectives on Psychological Science, research investigating how stress can wreak havoc on our bodies and provides some suggestions to further our understanding of this connection.

Inflammation is the body's way of removing harmful stimuli and also starts the process of healing, via release of a variety of chemicals known as pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., interleukin-6). However, too much inflammation can be damaging and has been implicated in the development of many age-related diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's disease, arthritis, and Type II diabetes. Negative emotions and psychological stressors increase the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

"These stress-related changes in inflammation provide evidence of one mechanism through which stressors may accelerate risk of a host of age-related diseases."

Scientists argues that our environment should be taken into account when studying the link between stress and our health. For instance, diet may modify interactions between psychological and immunological responses: Omega-3 fatty acids (found in walnuts) can reduce production of some pro-inflammatory chemicals and increasing levels of omega-3 fatty acids may result in positive effects on mood and the immune system. Environmental toxins (such as pesticides and air pollutants) can have extremely negative effects on the immune system and these effects may be intensified in stressed individuals, increasing their risk for developing allergies, asthma, and viral infections.

Our explanation continues:

How can we prevent ageing ('rusting' of the body)? 

Just as we coat iron with chemicals to prevent it from rusting, nature provides us with abundant chemicals called anti-oxidants to prevent the rusting of our bodies. There are many anti-oxidants that are unknown to scientists. The most popular ones are Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Phyto-nutrients, etc. These anti-oxidants are naturally present in abundance in fruits, vegetables, grains and all foods. Anti-oxidants are rich in nuts and seeds, even though they contain oils which are, in actual fact,  the fastest to get oxidized. This is why nature packs anti-oxidants with oils in nuts and seeds, so that they can prevent rancidity.

Refining oils

But look at what we are doing, we are refining oils! Cholesterol, heart diseases and a lot of other health problems have increased in technologically advanced societies because of the use of refined oils and refined products.

Why is oil refined?

When oil is refined, it is stripped of its natural anti-oxidants. The benefit to the food industry is an  increase in the shelf life of products, at the cost of the consumer's health. The more refined oils you consume, the worse would be your overall health. Try to use unrefined oils and, if possible, cold pressed oils, avoiding the use of solvents. Solvents are used by the oil industry so that the production of oil can be maximized; but these harmful chemicals are left in the oil.

So, if you care for health, use unrefined cold pressed oils. We use unrefined cold pressed sesame oil and coconut oil in most Indian cooking and unrefined cold pressed olive oil in western salads.

Polyphenols have strong antioxidant qualities. Every time your food intake should be with polyphenol-rich antioxidants. 

Read more about Polyphenols by clicking the top menu link.

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