Just when I think I have it under control, I realize that I’ve overcommitted. I’m in the middle of teaching my live course on improving mind and gut health in real time, still recovering from the craziness of Halloween with three kids—the costumes, the sugar crashes, and the pressing question of how to get the leftover three pounds of candy out of my house—and I also traveled to give a keynote speech on how to take care of your Brain, Bones, and Booty at the Eudemonia Summit last weekend.
Through it all, I’ve also been dealing with election stress, which is no doubt weighing on all of our minds as we find ourselves glued to the news this week.
Stress is a vital sign, but too often we brush it off—it’s sometimes easier to keep barreling through our to-do lists and newsfeeds than it is to face the anxiety and burnout head-on.
But being under chronic stress is a bit like being the proverbial frog in the boiling water. As humans, we can only tolerate so much heat. When things boil over, our systems start to break:
- Sleep: You can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, don’t feel rested, or have persistent brain fog
- Digestion: Bloating, reflux, and constipation are all signs of a fight or flight response in overdrive
- Rashes and breakouts: One of the top reasons people have rosacea, acne, or psoriasis flares is stress
- Headaches: Stress is a common trigger for migraines and tension headaches
So how to reduce stress—especially during a week like this one? Here are the science-backed strategies I turn to to temper acute stress and combat chronic stress.
The research says
Stress triggers a hormonal response in your body. As your adrenals release adrenaline and cortisol, your heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose all rise.
In the presence of an acute threat—like a car swerving into your lane—this adaptive response is helpful. Adrenaline makes your heart beat faster, pumping blood through your veins at an increased rate to give you more energy and increase reaction time. Cortisol prompts your body to release more sugar into your blood, making more glucose available to fuel brain function.
Most of the stress we experience in our modern life, however, isn’t acute, it’s chronic. Over time these physiological changes create heightened risk of diseases and chronic conditions including:
- 20% increased risk of developing diabetes
- 40-60% increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease
- 2.5x more likely to develop Alzheimer’s
Chronic stress is also a driver of anxiety and depression: Of adults who say they experience chronic stress, 51% also report symptoms of depression and 61% report symptoms of anxiety.
In this way, chronic stress may contribute to the development of IBS: 38% of IBS patients have anxiety and 27% have depression—double the rate of anxiety and depression in the general population. Researchers suspect that this relationship is bidirectional.
What I’m doing for my own body
At the Eudemonia Summit I was excited to check out new tech like Ammortal (full-body red light therapy, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, vibroacoustic sound therapy, plus hydrogen inhalation therapy), ShiftWave (pulsed pressure wave therapy) and Apollo (a wearable that helps regulate heart rate variability).
All of these gadgets are designed to reset our nervous systems through stimulation of the vagus nerve, which controls relaxation response and plays a key role in the gut-brain axis, digestion, overeating, and inflammation. This matters because it is only when we are in a state of high vagal tone—i.e. Rest, Digest, Relax, and Heal—that our bodies can be in a healing state and repair those broken systems.
It’s easy to write off this type of tech as “nice to have” but when we are all boiling over it can actually be, if not life saving, certainly health saving. I got out of Ammortal for 30 min and felt like I had a new brain—my entire nervous system shifted into a lower gear and my sense of relaxation was profound.
But since I can’t live in an Ammortal chamber and tech like this isn’t always easily accessible, I prioritize habits that 1) reduce my levels of chronic stress and 2) stimulate my vagus nerve:
Meditation
I talk about meditation a lot because it’s proven. After 40 days of adopting a mediation practice, researchers found changes in participants brain’s structure (cortical thickness) and functional capacity that lower anxiety and depression. This is one of the many reasons we prescribe meditation to almost all of Parsley’s 40,000 patients.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
Exercise is one of the most powerful stress modulators available to us. HIIT in particular has been shown to not just decrease stress and anxiety, but increase resilience. At Eudemonia, I learned that as little as three 1-min sprints (run or bike or row) twice a week improves cognitive velocity (curiosity, creativity, and brain mitochondrial function). Admittedly, I get off track with my HIIT workouts, but every time I do them, I feel the endorphin rush and the impact on my brain health.
Yoga nidra
Sometimes called non-sleep deep rest, yoga nidra is the deeply meditative state of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness that you’re aiming to achieve in savasana (corpse pose) at the end of a yoga class. At Eudemonia, Andrew Huberman talked about how great this practice is for the basal ganglia, part of the brain involved in several cognitive processes including emotional regulation.
Supplements
I take a magnesium supplement to help prevent magnesium deficiency, which can increase the body’s susceptibility to stress. I also take a lion’s mane supplement. Some research suggests these mushroom derived supplements can reduce stress levels after 28 days. I like Host Defense.
What I recommend for you
The above practices will help you reduce chronic stress. Here are my top science-backed strategies to reduce stress right now:
- Take a 10-minute walk. If you’re stressed, my number one recommendation is to get up and move. Research shows even a brisk 10 minute walk can significantly improve mood state (including feelings of depression, dejection, and anger).
- Meditate for 15 minutes. You may think meditation is not your thing (I did) but trust me on this. Take it on-the-go and do a walking meditation by simply bringing your attention to the moment and focusing on your breath to keep your mind grounded in the present (i.e. the color of the trees, the smell of the air, etc.).
- Sit outside. Research shows the positive emotions evoked by spending time in nature can increase vagal tone.
- Watch something funny. This may seem trite but a 2022 study found that laughing calms the vagus nerve. Singing can also lower stress levels via a similar mechanism, per another 2022 study.
Wondering how chronic stress might be impacting your health? Take Parsley’s free quiz and let’s start getting to the root cause of your symptoms. Want to chat in person? I’ll be going deeper on the impacts of chronic stress for longevity at Luminescence, a one-day summit in LA in February. Get your ticket here.