How to end stress and lower cortisol
Regretfully, we are all always surrounded by chronic stress. And this is simply unhealthy. There are some people and organisations that are always putting out harmful messages about your surroundings, and the more we are exposed to this threat, the more it can negatively impact all of our bodily systems.
Is our environment dangerous?
Changing your perspective on the environment is one thing that is actually very essential, and I just want to talk about it. It may be difficult to accept, but your surroundings are not as hazardous as they would have you think. It’s risky now. Don’t get me wrong, certain people make money by putting the public in a hostile state, and they frequently emphasise this. It’s simply unhealthy to focus on this negativity all the time.
Therefore, I want you to take action immediately. Right now, I want you to just look outdoors. What do you see, then? Do you see anything that could be dangerous?
There is a tree in the distance, but no hurricanes or tsunamis are visible. It appears to be a rather safe place. Look at the ground now. Take a look at the floor now. Are you currently perched on a possible cliff?
Do you think that any termites that have ruined your foundation will cause you to collapse? The response is no, okay. Now, place your hand on the wall next to you. Do you feel hot, like if your house is on fire? No, but consider what would happen if the ordinary individual simply accepted the constant prospect of harm.
How to prevent stress
Changing your perspective and beginning to filter out some of the stuff you are exposed to is the most crucial thing you can do.
I recently started paying close attention to the videos and TV shows I was watching, and it suddenly struck me how many messages of fear I had been exposed to without any answers.
Therefore, if someone gives you a message of doom and gloom without any answers, don’t watch it because you’re going to start solving these problems when you should be sleeping.
At some point, we need to start filtering out this threat of danger because it’s simply not healthy for our bodies. This also applies to the people you hang out with; I mean, there are a lot of people out there, and I’ve had people around me who would only give me bad news, okay, never any good news.
I’m not saying to ignore some of these dangers, but when you are exposed to them, try your hardest to maintain a calm perspective and stay active to help solve the problem and improve things.
To counteract the enormous danger signals that our bodies are continuously receiving, you should start watching TV shows and spending time with individuals who offer you solutions that highlight the positive and discuss the positive aspects of life.
Stress explained
Let me briefly go over a few points because this is a really important topic. The sympathetic nervous system, which is the flutter fight and the protective mode we go into when we feel threatened by stress, causes every single cell in our body to switch to a completely different program.
In contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system is all about growth, sleep, digestion, repair, and healing.
In reality, that is an entirely other program. I used to have a test called the heart rate durability test that would measure the amount of sympathetic nervous system activation versus parasympathetic nervous system activation. Boy, it was so jacked up to the right, which is sympathetic dominance, just because the environment we’re in was thought to be extremely dangerous, and I’ll say that a certain amount of that has been manufactured.
I mean, if there aren’t enough things going wrong, having other people manufacture more of that is complete insanity, so I think it’s worth understanding.
How chronic stress affects the body
What biological changes result from long-term, chronic stress? Your entire gut microbiome will alter, starting with a decrease in the diversity of your microbiome and an increase in harmful microorganisms.
Every every point I make in this essay is supported by research on the relationship between chronic sympathetic high cortisol stress and your body’s systems.
let’s go on to the immune system
When you experience this ongoing stress, what happens to your immune system? The T cells that are normally present to defend you are shut down, and viruses and cancer cells are essentially put to sleep. Infections take much longer to heal. You have immunosuppression; the immune system is suppressed by stress.
stress and inflamation
Because prednisone is a form of cortisol that is produced by the adrenal glands and is activated by stress, it suppresses all immune reactions, which is why when you visit the doctor with inflammation or an autoimmune disease, they inject you with it to temporarily relieve it.
and stress will make inflammation worse because as soon as it goes away, you start to have a lot more inflammation.
what about fertility?
Does your fertility increase? No, your fertility declines. You become less fertile because you produce fewer sperm and the egg implants in the uterus less frequently. In addition to losing your libido, you typically lose your menstrual cycle. People typically lack sex drive when they are under stress.
What happens to the fuel system in your body?
Trying to follow a ketogenic diet causes your entire metabolism to switch back to producing glucose. This is because cortisol, a glucocorticoid, increases gluconeogenesis, or the liver’s production of new sugar.
When you experience chronic stress, you’re simply pumping out all this sugar that doesn’t come from your diet; instead, it comes from your proteins, including the muscle proteins in your legs and butt, as well as fat and ketones.
This glucose can then be converted to insulin, increasing your risk of developing diabetes.
Now, what’s this? Your body needs this rapid energy when you’re under stress.
What about lipids like cholesterol and things like that?
It’s interesting to note that when you experience chronic stress, your triglycerides rise, your HDL falls, and your LDL rises.
If you have large buoyant LDL, your LDL will change to small dense particles, which are the more harmful ones that can actually infiltrate the arteries, making your cholesterol profile significantly worse. As previously said, it is crucial to maintain a pleasant and non-serious state of mind.
Now this next one is really interesting too: your ability to detoxify.
I am referring to the cytochrome p450 phase one and phase two enzymes that are found in your liver. Well, these enzymes transform toxins into innocuous water-soluble substances that the body can eliminate, so we’re moving from fat-soluble toxins to the innocuous particles, correct?
Guess what? When you experience long-term stress, they are suppressed, making it difficult to detoxify and causing you to retain toxins.
What about digestion?
Your digestion will be much slower, and you won’t be able to release the bile salts from your liver, which is interesting.
This means that you won’t be able to digest fat. Additionally, your pancreatic enzymes and small intestinal enzymes will be inhibited, which will reduce your ability to digest.
Additionally, you won’t be producing as much hydrochloric acid, which means that you won’t be able to fully digest proteins, absorb minerals, or kill pathogens.
This stress state also inhibits the mucus lining of your stomach, small intestine, and large intestine, which functions similarly to the immunological barrier. As a result, your overall absorption of vitamins and minerals will be reduced.
This next one is also interesting: vitamin D absorption
There is a vitamin D receptor, and stress reduces the amount of vitamin D that can be absorbed or received through that receptor. The fascia, which is the tissue that surrounds the muscles and is highly innovative by your nerves, will actually slow down the absorption of vitamin D in addition to all the other barriers.
Your brain is sending a lot of information to the fascia, and the ligaments surrounding your muscles become tighter, more restricted, you lose your range of motion, and your blood flow to your fascia is reduced.
Chronic stress causes you to maintain this posture, which is similar to being in protect mode—it’s your flight or fight response—and you see that your posture starts to deteriorate. It all has to do with the fascia.
What occurs to the brain, therefore, when the sympathetic nervous system is in constant, chronic overdrive?
The hippocampus, which is responsible for memory transmission, learning, and cognition, is hindered as a result of the shrinkage of that area of the brain. Additionally, it begins to diminish the function of your brain’s cortex. It’s a part of the brain you kind of need.
Another structure in your brain is now active; I’m not sure whether you’ve heard of it, but it’s called the AMYGDALA. The amygdala is primarily involved in anxiety and dread.
Alright, the brain functions similarly to your adrenal glands, therefore it will respond to stressful situations. Regarding thinking in a chronic state of stress, you won’t be able to think critically about problems, solve them, or come up with good solutions.
being imaginative and creative; rather, it will be more akin to reaction mode because problem-solving requires a calm state of mind. To develop truly effective plans and solutions, you must be creative.
The last point I want to bring up is your genes
When you’re under stress, what happens to your genes? All of the bad genes are activated and all of the good genes are suppressed. For example, I’m talking about the activation of genes that cause cancer, inflammation, and other issues.
However, I want to point out that your genes don’t actually cause anything; rather, your lifestyle—which is referred to as epigenetics—is what really drives these genetics. All you need to know is how to turn on and off specific genes.
and certain modifications in lifestyle trigger those transitions. In several of my publications, I always discuss these modifications in lifestyle. Numerous negative things are linked to the genes.
How to reduce stress and lower cortisol
First and foremost, we need to alter the way we think about and perceive our surroundings. We also need to start reducing the amount of danger to which we are exposed. It may be necessary to filter out videos that don’t provide a solution if you find that after watching them, your mood is worse than it was before.
I find that spending time in nature, gaining as much space as I can, and becoming more connected to my surroundings are all forms of treatment.
In order to start flushing out these neurotransmitters and hormones that are causing a lot of this damage, you should also physically work out a lot of the extra cortisol and adrenaline that has been accumulated throughout the day of exposure to all of these things.
After all, the last thing you want to do is experience a lot of mental stress and then simply go to bed at night. Since you won’t be getting enough sleep, exercise is essential. I mean, I have to work out physically every day just to help me sleep and sort of drain things out.
A lot of energy that should be in your immune system, in repair, in digestion, and in your muscles is being transferred because of the second point about adrenaline and cortisol. This means you have enough energy to flee from the tiger, right? You will need to exercise to release those hormones since we have more mental energy now that the tiger is gone, and the entire mechanism is still in place.