Stress triggers the fight-or-flight response - a survival mechanism that dates back to caveman days. The body secrets a cocktail hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol) that This hormone cocktail trigger a series of physiological reactions known as the stress response: it’s “Game on!”. If you “perceive” the stressor as more of a threat than a challenge, cortisol levels spike to give you the energy to either confront or escape danger.
Your body doesn’t know the difference between an actual lion and your boss breathing down your neck. The same hormones that once helped you outrun predators are now wreaking havoc because our stressful busy lives don’t exactly allow for a healthy cooldown period, and “danger” pops up like you were playing Whac-A-Mole: work emails, financial strain, unachievable deadlines, traffic-jammed school runs, or a social media-frenzy.
Health problems arise when you cannot manage to switch off the stress response, flooding your system with long-term high cortisol.
Cortisol ensures you are peckish and forgetful
Cortisol tells your body to store fat like it's preparing for a long winter, even if it’s the middle of summer. Where does that fat tend to gather? Right around your belly, of course, even if you are not overweight. How considerate! Furthermore, it contributes to insulin resistance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. To make things worse, those love handles are metabolically active; they pump out pro-inflammatory chemicals that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and even depression.
It’s a classic catch-22: stress cranks up your cortisol, which encourages your body to store fat. That extra fat makes you even more susceptible to stress. It’s like a never-ending loop of stress and snacks!
While stress impacts your waistline, it’s also doing a number on your brain. Feeling foggy? Like you can’t remember where you put your keys or the fact that you’ve already reheated your cuppa three times? That’s not just "being busy"; it’s stress slowly eroding your brainpower. Paraphrasing Stanford’s Dr. Robert Sapolsky, chronic stress is like a neuron assassin, targeting the hippocampus—the brain’s memory and learning hub. Over time, this can dull your cognitive edge, making it tough to focus and upping the ante for mental health woes like anxiety and depression.
Truly Gut-Wrenching
If you’ve ever had a “gut feeling” during a stressful situation, there’s a good reason for that. The gut and brain are in constant communication through the gut-brain axis, and stress significantly disrupts this dialogue. Research shows that chronic stress disrupts your gut microbiome (the trillions of bacteria living in your digestive system), which in turn affects brain function
Stress can promote bloating, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and leaky gut. When you gut lining gets inflamed, it disrupts nutrient absorption and can even trigger food sensitivities you didn’t know you had. So, if you're finding yourself increasingly intolerant of gluten, dairy, or life in general, stress might be to blame.
PRO TIP: Consider swapping your daily rant sessions for some fermented foods or a good probiotic. Your gut—and your mood—will thank you!
So, not only is your brain suffering because of stress, but your gut is too. And it goes both ways: the gut-brain axis is a two-way street, which means stress can exacerbate gut issues, and those gut problems can further mess with your mood, memory, and cognition.
Surviving Meetings, Not Germs
Over time, cortisol suppresses the immune system by preventing T-cells from proliferating and rendering them unresponsive to interleukin-11. It sounds like space talk, but essentially, cortisol tells your immune system to take a coffee break just when you need it the most, leaving you susceptible to infections and illnesses. Prolonged stress can impair communication between the immune system and the HPA axis, leading to inflammation and making you vulnerable to autoimmune diseases. So, while cortisol might help you survive a stressful meeting, it’s not doing you any favours in the germ-fighting department!
Blame it on the switch
Stress is not inherently harmful, and it can even be positive (good stress = eustress); the problem is our inability to turn off the stress response. Real or perceived, good or bad,... sustained stress can cause trouble.
When stress overstays its welcome and becomes chronic your body is in constant “alarm mode”; that is when it becomes a health hazard: wrecking your metabolism and cardiovascular system, weakening your immune defences, and messing with your mental health. So, while a sprinkle of stress can be exciting, letting it run rampant is a recipe for disaster.
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