Killer Stress: A Series Introduction

Years ago, I became interested in the biology of stress. It was catalyzed by a desire to live my life with the highest quality of well-being that I could achieve. My curiosity was met with an important resource from our local library. That resource was a film called ‘Killer Stress.’ It was produced by National Geographic and features the amazing work of Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University and other researchers in the field of stress biology. What I would learn from this film and the subsequent readings would change my life, the content that I teach and the way I teach.

Here’s a startling headline: if stress was a virus or bacteria, it would easily be classified as a pandemic. Far more powerful than the Coronavirus, SARS, H1N1 and flu, it kills us locally and globally. Stress results in a myriad of diseases and disorders so its mask is always changing, but the truth remains the same: stress is killing us and here’s why.

Our brains evolved to manage the stressors of another day. Forty to 50,000 years ago, our brains evolved to manage threats from predators. We developed an alarm system in our body that put us immediately into action. The alarm is a structure known as the amygdala. It sits in the older section of our brain known as the limbic system. This limbic system gives us the physical energy to fight or flee a predator. The physical resources triggered include an increased heart rate, breath rate and blood pressure. Nonessential functions like digestion, elimination and tissue repair are put on hold so all resources can be driven to our extremities to run or to stand your ground.

When the treat is over, we are supposed to go back to a place of rest and restoration, to be replenished for the efforts made to save our lives. This happens readily in other mammals. Take for example, zebras. When they have outrun a lion, they return to grazing, drinking water, caring for their young, repairing any damage from the effort. Unfortunately humans don’t do this and therein lays the rub.

There are two distinct ways that we differ from zebras and other animals that share these limbic systems. One is that we react to perceived threats that are usually psychological (e.g. taxes, relationships, being late, deadlines, political dissension, global warming) and two, we ruminate about these experiences by complaining, retelling the events to others and continuing to live as if these experiences are life threatening.

So, the takeaway here is that our brains under stress keep triggering the limbic system into action. The physical resources that are delivered to our bodies are corroding us internally because we don’t use them physically as they were meant to be used. Our blood pressures stay up, and stress hormones cause plaque to build up in our arteries.

Read the next installment and see how the ravages of stress impact healthcare.