What do a wedding, high taxes, a new job and a global pandemic have in common? They are all obvious causes of stress. The American Medical Association defines stress as “any interference that disturbs a person’s mental or physical well-being”. By this definition, life is full of stressors big, small, good or bad, and understanding how stress affects your health is instrumental to knowing how to move forward on your journey to wellness. How does stress affect our metabolism and immune function specifically? Are there ways to track the effect a specific stressor is having on our metabolism and immune function? And what can we do to help ourselves maintain good health during times of increased stress?

How Stress Affects Our Health – The Impact of Stress on Our Metabolic & Immune systems

Metabolism is the process in which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. This energy is used to run all the functions of your body. Just a few examples of what it does even at rest is maintaining your hormone levels, as well as your cellular growth and repair. You can use diet to control your metabolism to some extent, but dietary intake is only one part of what determines your metabolic rate. How your genes are expressed in your body size and composition, your gender, and your age are other parts of that equation. 

What role does stress have on your metabolic process? Stress in any form and for any length of time can interfere with your body composition, dietary intake, and hormone output. You can end up feeling sluggish, worn down, unmotivated, and fatigued. Weight gain, weight loss, or a combination of both leading to frustrating fluctuations may also be noted symptoms.

Your immune system has a complex multi-pronged approach to keeping you as healthy as possible. White blood cells, lymphocytes, antibodies, natural killer cells, growth hormone and so on all have specific functions that help protect us from organisms that cause harm, illness & disease.  We always want these first responders of our immune system to be in top-notch shape and on the ready. Can and do stressors alter their functions? Simply put, yes! As just one example: stress can increase your cortisol hormone level output, a higher level of cortisol can lower the functions of your responder immune cells, then causing your immune system to weaken in its function. This leaves you open to more occurrences of infection, or to having infections go from what would be temporary, to a long-term chronic condition, like chronic Lyme or other autoimmune disorders.  

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash          The combination of stress and your metabolism doesn’t always mix; it can lead to weight loss or gain and can cause short and long-term health issues if left unchanged or untreated.

A Plan to Improve Your Overall Health

We can all admit it’s hard to maintain healthy habits when we’re stressed. Our sleep patterns get thrown off, our diet may change from balanced good foods to fast foods, and an increase in alcohol all have shown to negatively affect our metabolism and immune system. A real unfavorable cycle can start, since you feel worse in general, it makes it harder to face the very stressor you’re trying to deal with, leading to prolonged stress. There is good news! You can make changes that will provide your body and mind with positive support, and we can help.

First, let’s take a moment to identify and examine the source of your stress.  Ask yourself; Is it something you can alleviate? If not, can you get help with dealing with it?  Pay close attention to your dietary intake in a way that you can decrease your body’s exposure to sensitivities, allergens, sugars, caffeine, and processed foods. Create an environment where you foster good sleep. Consider adding supplements, vitamins, or herbal remedies to support your body’s sympathetic nervous system.

How can the Integrated Wellness Clinic help you manage your body’s response to stress? Our practitioners can help pinpoint what your body is doing with the stress you are under. You will be provided with an effective targeted plan tailored to support and treat your weakened areas. After you get your treatment plan worked out with your practitioner, you can set up appointments with the Health & Wellness Nurse Coach. Our HWNC can discuss how to implement this plan into your lifestyle in a way that is manageable for you, as well as teach you how to add in other stress-reducing techniques. These techniques include breathing exercises, nutrition planning, and more.  Let us be part of helping you achieve the goal of managing a healthy response to stress, so you can get on to doing and enjoying the benefits of a healthier life.