How can we reduce stress?

It’s all very well talking about how what stress is, how stress works and how stress makes us fat or ill but ultimately we all just want to know how to reduce it.

There are plenty of articles out there that will help you to reduce the stress in your life by “switching off” and relaxing more effectively.  But having worked through a pile of studies and books, I am not sure that relaxing more effectively is necessarily what is needed.

I think that we have allowed the term stress to be defined by popular usage, rather than by what the scientists are telling us is happening.  Let me present some alternative thoughts…

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Managing the effects of stress

It’s hard to talk about stress management because everyone has a very strong preconception of what you are talking about.  Surely managing stress is about relaxing and doing less, right?  It’s about being chilled out and not focused on your career.  It’s about spending more time with your family and gardening.

However, from a health and fitness perspective, the damaging effects of stress don’t come automatically from a lack of exposure to stressful situations. If you recall, there are two hormonal pathways associated with the stress response:

1. The fight-or-flight response, which produces adrenaline
2. The HPA axis, which produces cortisol

Both of these pathways get activated to varying degrees following a stressful situation or in anticipation of a stressful situation.  However, it is only the long-term disarray of the HPA axis that causes health problems by way of either decreased or increased cortisol production.  A disrupted HPA axis causes us to get fat and sick and decreases our testosterone levels as well.

So to make sense of stress management, let’s agree to focus on stopping HPA axis disruption and ignore the idea of managing stress itself for the time being.

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So the fight-or-flight response is just fine?

Yes.

Since we are concerned with the effects of a disrupted HPA axis, we don’t care if we experience the fight-or-flight response, so long as it doesn’t affect our cortisol levels.

Interesting, right?

So it might be possible to manage stress very effectively and still have more fun than pottering in the back garden?

Hmm.

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Lack of autonomy and social interaction causes HPA axis disruption

Now we’ve established that it’s HPA axis disruption that’s the bad guy and the fight-0r-flight response is OK, let’s move on and consider what causes HPA axis disruption.

If you cast your mind back a few weeks, you may recall that some of the biggest studies on stress and increased incidence of mortality and metabolic syndrome have been done on UK civil servants. Michael Marmot has been at the cutting edge of these studies that show how work-based stress makes people fat and sick.  Based on his work, Marmot has concluded that:

“Autonomy – the degree of control you have over your life – and the opportunities for full social engagement and participation are crucial for health, well-being and longevity.”

In other words, not being in control of your life causes HPA axis disruption.  And not having a social life causes HPA axis disruption.  I don’t see anything in there about not doing enough gardening.

So go take control of your life and start getting out more.

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Lack of excitement causes HPA axis disruption

We considered above that we had nothing against the fight-or-flight response.  We accepted that it was the HPA axis that was the bad guy.  However, there is evidence to suggest that the fight-or-flight response might be more than just neutral.  It might actually be a way of managing HPA axis disruption.

In a fascinating and controversial study that I’ve reviewed in detail, Arousal and Physiological Toughness, the author found that exposing subjects to intermittent stressors leads to strong and sympathetic nervous system adrenal-medullary arousal and suppression of HPA responses.

In other words, getting an adrenaline fix and recovering from it leads to lower cortisol levels.

The author concluded that “life in a mechanized world can easily result in insufficient physical demands, so that natural toughening is not fostered and the neuroendocrine systems associated with arousal are not maintained near the optimum point of their genetic ranges.”

In other words, we experience HPA axis disruption because there is too little excitement in our lives, not too much.

Excitement comes as standard

Tiger by Koshyk

That kind of excitement is not going to happen in your garden.  Not unless you have a really big garden that backs onto the Serengeti or the Siberian wilderness.

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In the news

I noticed that there had been some similar discussion on the BBC recently.  This BBC article starts by describing a new book by Todd Buchholz, former economic adviser to the White House, called “Rush: Why You Need and Love the Rat Race” (affiliate links: US, UK), which argues that we need stress to feel alive.  Stress apparently keeps our minds agile, makes us feel good about ourselves and helps us live longer.

The uninformed BBC writer tries to contrast this view with the prevailing view, as put forward by Richard Layard, author of “Happiness: Lessons From a New Science” (affiliate links: US, UK),  which calls for a gentler form of capitalism and better work-life balance.

Based on the factors I have explained in this post, I do not see any conflict between the two views.  Buchholz is undoubtedly talking from the viewpoint of someone who has a lot of control over his life and work.  He can set his own direction and manage plenty of meaningful social interactions into his day.  Layard, on the other hand, is speaking for the poor majority, who work in oppressive conditions, have no control over their working lives and whose jobs really do kill them.

It’s not the “stressful” experience of running around getting things done all day that is damaging for our health.  It’s the feeling of defeat and resentment that comes from not being in control of our lives.  Let’s get that straight.

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Wrapping up

I’m keeping this short because I want people to read it.  Remember, you can reduce stress by:

1. Taking control of your life
2. Having more social interactions
3. Having an adrenaline rush

And there’s another wild card point that I’ve left until tomorrow, because there’s an interesting study about it…