December 22, 2024 • 20 mins
Unlock the secrets behind the silent killer that is chronic stress and discover how it may be wreaking havoc on your heart and overall health. Join me, Ryan, on this enlightening episode of the Innate Ability and Health Podcast, where I promise you’ll gain a fresh perspective on the physiological impacts of stress.
Beyond the quick fixes like yoga and meditation; we’re diving into the science behind how chronic stress activates systems in your body, leading to increased cortisol levels and inflammation, ultimately raising your risk for severe cardiovascular issues.
Could past traumas be silently sabotaging your health?
We explore the intricate link between trauma, stress, and physical well-being, revealing how unresolved past experiences might be influencing your current health struggles.
Understanding these connections is crucial for identifying specific triggers and managing symptoms effectively. I offer guidance on observing these patterns, aiming to empower you to tackle the root causes of your stress, rather than just scratching the surface.
In the face of financial and relationship stress, communication and action are your best allies. We tackle the tough conversations around financial difficulties and interpersonal tensions, advocating for gentle communication and taking personal responsibility to alleviate stress. By addressing these root causes head-on, you can pave the way for a healthier, happier you. Plus, find out how you can lend a hand to others on their stress-relief journey, creating a supportive community focused on achieving optimal health and success together.
Email me at support@innateabilityandhealth.com for more information.
Disclaimer:
This podcast is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Innate
Ability and Health Podcast.
My name is Ryan.
We're going to be talking aboutchronic stress and how that
affects your heart health andyour overall health for that
matter.
So there have been many, manystudies done on this, showing
that there is a directcorrelation between chronic
stress and your health, andthere have been many studies
(00:22):
done regarding how this affectsyour heart health.
Specifically, I'm going to bereferring to a very interesting
article called Stress andCardiovascular Disease, a review
.
It was actually published bythe American Heart Association
in circulation in 2021.
And they found that chronicstress activated specific parts
(00:43):
of the endocrine system and thesympathetic nervous system,
which resulted in persistentlyelevated cortisol levels.
So, just to clarify sympatheticnervous system this is your
fight or flight response aspectof your nervous system.
Cortisol is a hormone that canbe raised One person goes into
(01:04):
fight or flight and that canlead to complications if it
remains out of balance, and yourendocrine system, of course,
regulates all your differenthormones in your body, so when
various parts of it getactivated needlessly, it can
result in disruptions that leadto poor health.
Specifically, what's referredto in this article is that these
(01:24):
hormonal changes contributed tosystemic inflammation.
So inflammation throughout theentire body, endothelial
dysfunction, increasedcardiovascular risk, including
hypertension, afib andmyocardial infarction.
So you get an idea that chronicstress is something that you
really have to give its properimportance to.
(01:45):
It's almost a given in to somepeople that stress isn't good
and it's going to lead to sometrouble.
But what can you do about it?
Right, it has to change.
That type of look at it doesn'tget the results you need to get
in order to resolve thedifferent health problems that
can result from chronic stress.
So let's start with a littlebit of diving into stress.
(02:10):
So stress isn't just a mental,emotional thing.
People think I'm stressed, it'sjust how I feel.
It's just I get a little rundown, depressed, but it's no big
deal, I'll deal with it.
The truth is that when a personfeels those things, when a
person knows they're understress or doesn't know they're
under stress but is there's acascade of physiological changes
(02:33):
in the body.
What we just talked about withthe hormone balance going out is
just a part of it.
When you experience stress,whether that's a tough day at
work, relationship challenges,worries about finance, worries
about your future, whatever itmay be your body goes into this
sympathetic state, this fight orflight response, and there's a
(02:55):
certain part of your endocrinesystem that gets activated.
That has to do with that fightor flight response, has to do
with your adrenals releasingcortisol and getting into that
mode, and these systems wereused by the body to protect you
in emergencies, acute situationswhere you had to run fast and
get the heck out of there orfight for your life or whatever
(03:16):
it was.
In the modern world, they tendto get activated and stay on
because of the nature of thelifestyle we're living.
So we have to learn how tohandle those and get rid of the
reason that they cause poorhealth results.
Now, that said, just to clarifyright away, we're not talking
(03:37):
about band-aid actions to justfigure out how to cope with
stress a little better.
Or this is another example ofif I do yoga twice a week and
meditate for 10 minutes everyother day, everything's going to
be good and I got my stressunder control.
That is such a disservice forpeople to think that that's how
it works.
So I really want to help youtoday and learn how to get to
(03:59):
the root cause of why your bodyreacts poorly to stress and why
it can lead to heart, eventsthat are very detrimental to
your overall health and beyondyour own well-being.
Knowing these things can helpyou save another life or help
you help someone you really careabout and you want to ensure
(04:20):
that they are doing well.
So realize, on the physicallevel, these high cortisol
levels, these endocrineimbalances, lead to very
tangible things high bloodpressure, increased blood sugar,
and we know that high bloodsugar has a whole slew of
problems that we won't even getinto today, beyond heart disease
, but definitely contributing toheart disease.
(04:42):
Of course, we've talked aboutinflammation and also the strain
that it puts on your entirecardiovascular system.
This, done for years, can causea lot of damage and for most
people it has been done foryears.
Let's be real, right.
So, first of all, high cortisolyou may feel wired.
(05:02):
You may not feel wired.
It doesn't.
Just because you don't feellike you're stressed and wired
doesn't mean that you're notexperiencing some of the ill
effects if there are chronicstress situations in your life.
So this whole idea of justblocking it off in some sort of
little box or whatever peoplethink they do and that's how you
deal with stress, and now it'sgone that that's not the way it
(05:26):
works, it's let me make acomparison here.
So person comes in and maybethey're seeing a functional
doctor, naturopathic doctor, andthey say I know they've got a
lot of inflammation in my bodybecause I eat too much sugar and
I drink a lot of caffeine and Idrink alcohol.
But what can you give me thatwill reduce the inflammation?
That's all I want.
(05:47):
And, first of all, thefunctional doctor is not going
to do this ever.
But what if you just took some,say, turmeric, and that's what
you're doing to lower yourinflammation?
I'm taking this pill.
It's going to lower myinflammation and therefore I can
eat whatever I want.
I continue to have lots ofinflammation in my body from
having high insulin, from allthe sugar I eat and the alcohol
(06:09):
that I drink.
Right, obviously, that's notcorrect.
Obviously that makes no senseto anybody.
Especially if you're in thisworld listening to this podcast,
you probably know that thatthat's not the way it works.
The same thing applies forstress.
If you say, okay, I have a lotof stress in my life and I'm way
(06:29):
behind on things financially,my relationship with my spouse
is very strained, my kids don'ttalk to me that much anymore,
but you know what I've decided.
It's all good, I've justreleased it into the universe
and I'm fine.
Yeah, it's all good.
Okay, it's the same thing.
You haven't actually handledthe stress is still sitting
there.
You're just deciding that youthink it's no longer stressful.
(06:52):
I can tell you, the numbers inyour blood work and the eventual
health complications will tellyou a very different story, and
you have to start realizing thatthat is the truth.
That is the way it works, andthen you can go about learning
how to do something about it.
But the first thing is to, justlike they say, you have to
admit that there's somethinggoing on before you can start
(07:14):
handling whatever is going on.
This is very true in all sortsof areas, right?
So the research done byAmerican Heart Association in
this review, it just makes itcrystal clear.
Not that there aren't a ton ofother studies that we couldn't
refer to, but since people knowabout the American Heart
Association and they understandarticles written based on
(07:36):
science and trust, those things,I'm actually bringing that up.
So maybe it can give you somemore awareness as well.
Bringing that up, so maybe itcan give you some more awareness
as well.
So managing stress is notoptional and managing stress
with band-aids is is not enough.
You've actually got to dig inand find out what's going on.
And, of course, this isn't todiscount the fact that you have
(07:57):
to be eating really well and youhave to be taking care of
yourself.
You can't be on the standardAmerican diet and you can't be
having a lifestyle that isterrible, you know.
That doesn't allow you to takecare of yourself.
Right, these are factors aswell, but the aspect of actually
getting to the root cause ofwhy that particular type of
(08:18):
stress affects you in this wayis something you have to handle
as well.
For example, I've worked withpeople who have super high
stress jobs and you'd think thatthey'd be a mess, but they're
really put together and theirstress levels are not actually
that bad when you measure them.
And then I've worked withpeople who have very low stress
(08:40):
lives, but the littlest thingsets them off and the next thing
you know they're havingpalpitations, their digestion's
off, they're depressed, allthese different things.
So there's a reason why peoplereact differently.
It's just like with food.
It's a reason why some peoplecan have gluten and some people
can't.
There's a reason why somepeople can experience certain
types of stress and have it notaffect them, and another type of
(09:02):
stress will definitely affectthem.
I haven't found anybody who's100% stress-proof.
There's usually a weak chink inthe armor, so to speak, and
once you found that and yourepair that, then the person is
really bulletproof as much as wecan be in, given how life works
.
So let's dive into this a littlebit.
Let's go over how we wouldactually handle addressing
(09:25):
stress in a way that isn't justa bandaid cover up.
That isn't just okay.
I'm going to do somemindfulness techniques and be
aware that I'm stressed, and I'mgoing to exercise, doing
restorative yoga and whatnot.
Now, mind you, all of thesethings are totally valid.
They're helpful.
What's this?
We're not saying takingturmeric is bad or it's not
(09:47):
helpful, but it isn't enough.
It's definitely not.
If that's the only thing you'redoing, right, do you want to
meditate?
If you want to go on long walksat sunset, by all means do.
They will definitely help.
But if you're leading astressful life and you think
that's going to handle it fully,you might not get the results
you're looking for.
And that's what I'm trying tobring home by going over this.
(10:10):
When a person is under stress,we know that their body reacts
in a certain way.
Well, your mind reacts in acertain way as well, and the
reason your mind reacts in thatway has to do with the way you
process things in your life andthe way your emotions are
hardwired to react in your life.
(10:30):
So if you have had certainincidents in your past that were
triggering to current stressfulevents that you're experiencing
, then it creates this effectwhere, when you experience
current life, the stress of thatcurrent life situation really
reacts poorly on your body.
(10:51):
Now understand this at thelevel of trauma.
When a person is experiencingsomething that's traumatic, when
they're undergoing a terriblesituation, whether it's physical
, whether it's the loss of aloved one, whether it's some
sort of other emotionalsituation, maybe not getting
ahead quick enough, maybe beingunder such intense economic
(11:13):
strain that it's almostunbearable, whatever it is, when
a person's in that trauma state, their ability to think and
their ability to processinformation and react in a sane
manner lowers.
We all know somebody might sayI'm just under stress, that's
why I'm not handling things theway I should.
It's kind of innately knownthat that's the way it works.
(11:40):
But when you dig into it, whatyou can find is that your body
actually identifies and yourmind identifies what's going on
in those traumatic incidentswith possible bad effects in
your body.
So let's say a person gets hitby a car and during the time
they get hit by the car the caractually punctures their lung.
They get hit so hard that oneof the metal fragments in the
(12:01):
car punctures their lung.
So thereafter, when they're inlife and maybe they drive truck
and they are under stress fromtheir job because they're not
getting their things done fastenough on their route and they
might lose their job, and thiswhole thing has a lot to do with
driving and being aroundvehicles.
And they were in a car accidentone time when they had severe
(12:23):
damage to their lung.
Now their day-to-day stress oflife is affecting their physical
health very directly becauseit's hinging on this earlier
incident.
Now they're not usually thatobvious.
I'm bringing that up so it canbe very clear how this might
work but that incident of traumagets identified mentally with
(12:43):
damage to the lung and maybethat damage to the lung put a
lot of strain on the heart atthe time.
All those rush of hormones andcortisol and adrenaline really
cause some damage in the wholecardiovascular system, right?
So, that said, when you'reexperiencing this stress in
present time, it has to do withcars and economics and driving.
(13:04):
It really affects the body.
Now, another person who neverhad that type of stress and
trauma in their life might behave a driving job and have
stress on it and it doesn'taffect their health because they
don't have that past history,but it's usually not that
obvious.
There's usually a lot morerelated incidents that have to
be sorted through and how it allfits together has to be worked
(13:26):
out.
But it can be worked out andwhen you know how to do that,
it's very simple.
But the first thing isrealizing that there is this
direct relation between yourhealth and trauma and stress and
how that all works.
Now, chronic stress is unique inthat it keeps that non-optimal
state of health that may besitting on some past thing that
(13:47):
happened in your life.
Mind you, it doesn't have to bebeing hit by a car.
It could be the loss of someonein your life.
It could be a traumatic changein your life.
It could be the loss of someonein your life.
It could be a traumatic changein your life.
It could be a number of things.
When that chronic stress linesup with these things and they
both impact your health, that'swhen you get a kind of a double
down on how it can affect yourbody and cause inflammation.
(14:09):
It doesn't even totally track.
How can me having stress at myjob cause my body to be inflamed
?
Like how does?
Here's how it works.
We just went over it, right.
It really is that simple,although when you dig into it
and check it out, it can befairly complicated.
So, yes, finding ways toalleviate and lessen the stress
in the day-to-day life willimprove the results.
(14:30):
But you see, you haven'teliminated the reason that it's
even an issue in the first place.
So what you want to do is youwant to do both.
If you're not able to dive inwith somebody, or you're not
able to work on that earliertrauma rate at the moment, okay,
fine, work on reducing thingsthat you know are triggers for
your health.
So this is where you can narrowit down a little bit.
(14:52):
You can take a look at yourcurrent stress and, instead of
wondering if you're stressed ornot, try to dive into.
The next level was does thistype of stress seem to affect me
physically?
After that stress, do you feelphysically drained?
After that stress, does certainparts of your body have pain in
them?
After that stress, do you feelweakness in certain areas?
(15:13):
If that's the case, then thoseare the specific areas of stress
that you really need to work onfor improving your health,
rather than saying, okay, youjust need to lower the stress in
your life.
No, you need to lower specificareas of stress most importantly
.
Yes, overall lowering of stressis always a good idea, makes us
feel better and it makes ushappier, makes us more
(15:33):
successful, etc.
Etc.
But if you're really trying toalleviate a specific physical
situation, you have to take itto the next level.
In present time, what type ofstress seems to cause the body
situations?
It's very easy to observe.
Of course you could do testing,you could work with myself and
really dig into these more, butthere are ways you can look at
(15:56):
it holistically and figure itout a little bit on your own and
then start alleviating thoseareas of stress really as a
priority.
Don't worry so much aboutoverall stress in your life that
can be stressful.
I've got to lower my stress.
Doctor says it's hurting myheart.
What area, let's say.
You figure out that it'sspecifically your job.
Okay, good, then you dive in,you go, okay.
How can I alleviate the stressin the job?
(16:17):
And here's a little secret foryou how can I alleviate the
stress in the job?
And here's a little secret foryou Usually, when an area of
your life is stressful andyou're under stress in that area
, it's not just thecircumstances of that situation,
even if it appears to be, evenif you can say, okay, it's
completely, because I made$2,000 a month and I need to
make $10,000 a month.
(16:38):
That is a stress, and it mayseem that that's all it is, but
if you really look into the areathat's causing you not to be
able to make enough money eachmonth, then you will find that
somewhere in there is somebodywho's trying to cause you
trouble, who's maybe not gotyour best intentions in mind.
And when you find that personand you start realizing what
(16:59):
they do and maybe figure outways to circumnavigate them or
just not be around them or getthem out of your life if
possible, they're really anissue.
If it's somebody that you alsohave a relationship with that
you need to maintain or that youwant to maintain, then you have
to figure out how to deal withthat person using communication,
and, of course, there's alwaysways of doing that.
(17:20):
Now, another thing to keep inmind is when you are figuring
out how to handle people in yourlife.
Don't go for the big, dramaticexit or entrance to handle a
situation.
Confront them in front of alltheir peers and demand that they
change their ways.
That's not gonna get you whatyou want.
What you wanna do is figure outa very simple approach that is
(17:41):
very light and allows you tostart improving your
relationship with them andimproving the way you interact
with them, and then that willsnowball in the right direction
if you're approaching thiscorrectly.
Now I'm giving you some reallypowerful tools here, but they
only work if you really applythem, and sometimes it's harder
than you might think to applythese things and get the results
(18:02):
you're looking for, but it isvery doable.
So, just to summarize obviouslyyou want to get to the root
cause, and there's a reason.
There's a connection betweenyour health and stress, but also
you want to get to what's goingon in present time.
If you can't do that right now,who in your present time
environment where you have themost stress that's causing you
(18:24):
physical trouble, might beholding you down or causing you
to not flourish and prosper.
And when you found that personor persons, then that situation
has to be resolved usingcommunication, but a very gentle
approach.
Don't try to be dramatic aboutit as much as you might say oh,
I want to be, because I knowthat this person's really behind
all of this and I need to do itNow.
(18:46):
All of this said, it's alsovery, very important that you
don't adopt a victim attitudeabout this.
Oh, that person's the cause ofthe way I feel and my stress.
Oh, that situation is the causeof it.
Or I wasn't born with the meansto handle this type of thing
and now I'm having to nobodyelse.
All of these things blame,blame, blame.
(19:07):
They're not going to help youalleviate the stress.
They may make you feeljustified in the moment and
raise your spirits a little bitmomentarily, but you really have
to decide that you'reresponsible for the situation
you're in and you understandthat there is something that can
be done about it and you wantto do something about it and
pursue it and use these tools Ijust went over and get some
(19:32):
results and when you've gottensome results, fortify yourself
with those results and go forthe next level until you get to
that point where you know thatstress really isn't affecting
you.
I would love to always helppeople.
If you're working with me andyou have questions on something
I talked about in this episode,feel free to reach out to me.
But even if you're not, feelfree to reach out and find out
(19:54):
what I could do to help youreally dig in and find out why
stress, even, is an issue foryou in the present moment, in
your day to day life, in yourheart, health, etc.
If you have any other questionsunrelated, of course, you can
always reach out to me as well.
Use my email cm at naturalheart doctorcom, or follow me on
(20:14):
social media at Ryan MarkKimball, and you can reach out
to me any of those ways.
I always like to help people.
That's why I do this, that'swhy I present this information
and if you're someone who wantsto start incorporating these to
help others, of course, samething Feel free to reach out to
me.
I'd love to give you some toolsthat you can use to help people
that may be working with youthat you know are undergoing
(20:35):
stress, and it's part of whatthey need to fully get to where
they want to be and have thatoptimal state of health, optimal
state of success, optimal stateof happiness that we're all
reaching for.
So thank you very much.
I will see you in the nextepisode of innate ability and
health.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Innate
Ability and Health Podcast.
My name is Ryan.
We're going to be talking aboutchronic stress and how that
affects your heart health andyour overall health for that
matter.
So there have been many, manystudies done on this, showing
that there is a directcorrelation between chronic
stress and your health, andthere have been many studies
(00:22):
done regarding how this affectsyour heart health.
Specifically, I'm going to bereferring to a very interesting
article called Stress andCardiovascular Disease, a review
.
It was actually published bythe American Heart Association
in circulation in 2021.
And they found that chronicstress activated specific parts
(00:43):
of the endocrine system and thesympathetic nervous system,
which resulted in persistentlyelevated cortisol levels.
So, just to clarify sympatheticnervous system this is your
fight or flight response aspectof your nervous system.
Cortisol is a hormone that canbe raised One person goes into
(01:04):
fight or flight and that canlead to complications if it
remains out of balance, and yourendocrine system, of course,
regulates all your differenthormones in your body, so when
various parts of it getactivated needlessly, it can
result in disruptions that leadto poor health.
Specifically, what's referredto in this article is that these
(01:24):
hormonal changes contributed tosystemic inflammation.
So inflammation throughout theentire body, endothelial
dysfunction, increasedcardiovascular risk, including
hypertension, afib andmyocardial infarction.
So you get an idea that chronicstress is something that you
really have to give its properimportance to.
(01:45):
It's almost a given in to somepeople that stress isn't good
and it's going to lead to sometrouble.
But what can you do about it?
Right, it has to change.
That type of look at it doesn'tget the results you need to get
in order to resolve thedifferent health problems that
can result from chronic stress.
So let's start with a littlebit of diving into stress.
(02:10):
So stress isn't just a mental,emotional thing.
People think I'm stressed, it'sjust how I feel.
It's just I get a little rundown, depressed, but it's no big
deal, I'll deal with it.
The truth is that when a personfeels those things, when a
person knows they're understress or doesn't know they're
under stress but is there's acascade of physiological changes
(02:33):
in the body.
What we just talked about withthe hormone balance going out is
just a part of it.
When you experience stress,whether that's a tough day at
work, relationship challenges,worries about finance, worries
about your future, whatever itmay be your body goes into this
sympathetic state, this fight orflight response, and there's a
(02:55):
certain part of your endocrinesystem that gets activated.
That has to do with that fightor flight response, has to do
with your adrenals releasingcortisol and getting into that
mode, and these systems wereused by the body to protect you
in emergencies, acute situationswhere you had to run fast and
get the heck out of there orfight for your life or whatever
(03:16):
it was.
In the modern world, they tendto get activated and stay on
because of the nature of thelifestyle we're living.
So we have to learn how tohandle those and get rid of the
reason that they cause poorhealth results.
Now, that said, just to clarifyright away, we're not talking
(03:37):
about band-aid actions to justfigure out how to cope with
stress a little better.
Or this is another example ofif I do yoga twice a week and
meditate for 10 minutes everyother day, everything's going to
be good and I got my stressunder control.
That is such a disservice forpeople to think that that's how
it works.
So I really want to help youtoday and learn how to get to
(03:59):
the root cause of why your bodyreacts poorly to stress and why
it can lead to heart, eventsthat are very detrimental to
your overall health and beyondyour own well-being.
Knowing these things can helpyou save another life or help
you help someone you really careabout and you want to ensure
(04:20):
that they are doing well.
So realize, on the physicallevel, these high cortisol
levels, these endocrineimbalances, lead to very
tangible things high bloodpressure, increased blood sugar,
and we know that high bloodsugar has a whole slew of
problems that we won't even getinto today, beyond heart disease
, but definitely contributing toheart disease.
(04:42):
Of course, we've talked aboutinflammation and also the strain
that it puts on your entirecardiovascular system.
This, done for years, can causea lot of damage and for most
people it has been done foryears.
Let's be real, right.
So, first of all, high cortisolyou may feel wired.
(05:02):
You may not feel wired.
It doesn't.
Just because you don't feellike you're stressed and wired
doesn't mean that you're notexperiencing some of the ill
effects if there are chronicstress situations in your life.
So this whole idea of justblocking it off in some sort of
little box or whatever peoplethink they do and that's how you
deal with stress, and now it'sgone that that's not the way it
(05:26):
works, it's let me make acomparison here.
So person comes in and maybethey're seeing a functional
doctor, naturopathic doctor, andthey say I know they've got a
lot of inflammation in my bodybecause I eat too much sugar and
I drink a lot of caffeine and Idrink alcohol.
But what can you give me thatwill reduce the inflammation?
That's all I want.
(05:47):
And, first of all, thefunctional doctor is not going
to do this ever.
But what if you just took some,say, turmeric, and that's what
you're doing to lower yourinflammation?
I'm taking this pill.
It's going to lower myinflammation and therefore I can
eat whatever I want.
I continue to have lots ofinflammation in my body from
having high insulin, from allthe sugar I eat and the alcohol
(06:09):
that I drink.
Right, obviously, that's notcorrect.
Obviously that makes no senseto anybody.
Especially if you're in thisworld listening to this podcast,
you probably know that thatthat's not the way it works.
The same thing applies forstress.
If you say, okay, I have a lotof stress in my life and I'm way
(06:29):
behind on things financially,my relationship with my spouse
is very strained, my kids don'ttalk to me that much anymore,
but you know what I've decided.
It's all good, I've justreleased it into the universe
and I'm fine.
Yeah, it's all good.
Okay, it's the same thing.
You haven't actually handledthe stress is still sitting
there.
You're just deciding that youthink it's no longer stressful.
(06:52):
I can tell you, the numbers inyour blood work and the eventual
health complications will tellyou a very different story, and
you have to start realizing thatthat is the truth.
That is the way it works, andthen you can go about learning
how to do something about it.
But the first thing is to, justlike they say, you have to
admit that there's somethinggoing on before you can start
(07:14):
handling whatever is going on.
This is very true in all sortsof areas, right?
So the research done byAmerican Heart Association in
this review, it just makes itcrystal clear.
Not that there aren't a ton ofother studies that we couldn't
refer to, but since people knowabout the American Heart
Association and they understandarticles written based on
(07:36):
science and trust, those things,I'm actually bringing that up.
So maybe it can give you somemore awareness as well.
Bringing that up, so maybe itcan give you some more awareness
as well.
So managing stress is notoptional and managing stress
with band-aids is is not enough.
You've actually got to dig inand find out what's going on.
And, of course, this isn't todiscount the fact that you have
(07:57):
to be eating really well and youhave to be taking care of
yourself.
You can't be on the standardAmerican diet and you can't be
having a lifestyle that isterrible, you know.
That doesn't allow you to takecare of yourself.
Right, these are factors aswell, but the aspect of actually
getting to the root cause ofwhy that particular type of
(08:18):
stress affects you in this wayis something you have to handle
as well.
For example, I've worked withpeople who have super high
stress jobs and you'd think thatthey'd be a mess, but they're
really put together and theirstress levels are not actually
that bad when you measure them.
And then I've worked withpeople who have very low stress
(08:40):
lives, but the littlest thingsets them off and the next thing
you know they're havingpalpitations, their digestion's
off, they're depressed, allthese different things.
So there's a reason why peoplereact differently.
It's just like with food.
It's a reason why some peoplecan have gluten and some people
can't.
There's a reason why somepeople can experience certain
types of stress and have it notaffect them, and another type of
(09:02):
stress will definitely affectthem.
I haven't found anybody who's100% stress-proof.
There's usually a weak chink inthe armor, so to speak, and
once you found that and yourepair that, then the person is
really bulletproof as much as wecan be in, given how life works
.
So let's dive into this a littlebit.
Let's go over how we wouldactually handle addressing
(09:25):
stress in a way that isn't justa bandaid cover up.
That isn't just okay.
I'm going to do somemindfulness techniques and be
aware that I'm stressed, and I'mgoing to exercise, doing
restorative yoga and whatnot.
Now, mind you, all of thesethings are totally valid.
They're helpful.
What's this?
We're not saying takingturmeric is bad or it's not
(09:47):
helpful, but it isn't enough.
It's definitely not.
If that's the only thing you'redoing, right, do you want to
meditate?
If you want to go on long walksat sunset, by all means do.
They will definitely help.
But if you're leading astressful life and you think
that's going to handle it fully,you might not get the results
you're looking for.
And that's what I'm trying tobring home by going over this.
(10:10):
When a person is under stress,we know that their body reacts
in a certain way.
Well, your mind reacts in acertain way as well, and the
reason your mind reacts in thatway has to do with the way you
process things in your life andthe way your emotions are
hardwired to react in your life.
(10:30):
So if you have had certainincidents in your past that were
triggering to current stressfulevents that you're experiencing
, then it creates this effectwhere, when you experience
current life, the stress of thatcurrent life situation really
reacts poorly on your body.
(10:51):
Now understand this at thelevel of trauma.
When a person is experiencingsomething that's traumatic, when
they're undergoing a terriblesituation, whether it's physical
, whether it's the loss of aloved one, whether it's some
sort of other emotionalsituation, maybe not getting
ahead quick enough, maybe beingunder such intense economic
(11:13):
strain that it's almostunbearable, whatever it is, when
a person's in that trauma state, their ability to think and
their ability to processinformation and react in a sane
manner lowers.
We all know somebody might sayI'm just under stress, that's
why I'm not handling things theway I should.
It's kind of innately knownthat that's the way it works.
(11:40):
But when you dig into it, whatyou can find is that your body
actually identifies and yourmind identifies what's going on
in those traumatic incidentswith possible bad effects in
your body.
So let's say a person gets hitby a car and during the time
they get hit by the car the caractually punctures their lung.
They get hit so hard that oneof the metal fragments in the
(12:01):
car punctures their lung.
So thereafter, when they're inlife and maybe they drive truck
and they are under stress fromtheir job because they're not
getting their things done fastenough on their route and they
might lose their job, and thiswhole thing has a lot to do with
driving and being aroundvehicles.
And they were in a car accidentone time when they had severe
(12:23):
damage to their lung.
Now their day-to-day stress oflife is affecting their physical
health very directly becauseit's hinging on this earlier
incident.
Now they're not usually thatobvious.
I'm bringing that up so it canbe very clear how this might
work but that incident of traumagets identified mentally with
(12:43):
damage to the lung and maybethat damage to the lung put a
lot of strain on the heart atthe time.
All those rush of hormones andcortisol and adrenaline really
cause some damage in the wholecardiovascular system, right?
So, that said, when you'reexperiencing this stress in
present time, it has to do withcars and economics and driving.
(13:04):
It really affects the body.
Now, another person who neverhad that type of stress and
trauma in their life might behave a driving job and have
stress on it and it doesn'taffect their health because they
don't have that past history,but it's usually not that
obvious.
There's usually a lot morerelated incidents that have to
be sorted through and how it allfits together has to be worked
(13:26):
out.
But it can be worked out andwhen you know how to do that,
it's very simple.
But the first thing isrealizing that there is this
direct relation between yourhealth and trauma and stress and
how that all works.
Now, chronic stress is unique inthat it keeps that non-optimal
state of health that may besitting on some past thing that
(13:47):
happened in your life.
Mind you, it doesn't have to bebeing hit by a car.
It could be the loss of someonein your life.
It could be a traumatic changein your life.
It could be the loss of someonein your life.
It could be a traumatic changein your life.
It could be a number of things.
When that chronic stress linesup with these things and they
both impact your health, that'swhen you get a kind of a double
down on how it can affect yourbody and cause inflammation.
(14:09):
It doesn't even totally track.
How can me having stress at myjob cause my body to be inflamed
?
Like how does?
Here's how it works.
We just went over it, right.
It really is that simple,although when you dig into it
and check it out, it can befairly complicated.
So, yes, finding ways toalleviate and lessen the stress
in the day-to-day life willimprove the results.
(14:30):
But you see, you haven'teliminated the reason that it's
even an issue in the first place.
So what you want to do is youwant to do both.
If you're not able to dive inwith somebody, or you're not
able to work on that earliertrauma rate at the moment, okay,
fine, work on reducing thingsthat you know are triggers for
your health.
So this is where you can narrowit down a little bit.
(14:52):
You can take a look at yourcurrent stress and, instead of
wondering if you're stressed ornot, try to dive into.
The next level was does thistype of stress seem to affect me
physically?
After that stress, do you feelphysically drained?
After that stress, does certainparts of your body have pain in
them?
After that stress, do you feelweakness in certain areas?
(15:13):
If that's the case, then thoseare the specific areas of stress
that you really need to work onfor improving your health,
rather than saying, okay, youjust need to lower the stress in
your life.
No, you need to lower specificareas of stress most importantly
.
Yes, overall lowering of stressis always a good idea, makes us
feel better and it makes ushappier, makes us more
(15:33):
successful, etc.
Etc.
But if you're really trying toalleviate a specific physical
situation, you have to take itto the next level.
In present time, what type ofstress seems to cause the body
situations?
It's very easy to observe.
Of course you could do testing,you could work with myself and
really dig into these more, butthere are ways you can look at
(15:56):
it holistically and figure itout a little bit on your own and
then start alleviating thoseareas of stress really as a
priority.
Don't worry so much aboutoverall stress in your life that
can be stressful.
I've got to lower my stress.
Doctor says it's hurting myheart.
What area, let's say.
You figure out that it'sspecifically your job.
Okay, good, then you dive in,you go, okay.
How can I alleviate the stressin the job?
(16:17):
And here's a little secret foryou how can I alleviate the
stress in the job?
And here's a little secret foryou Usually, when an area of
your life is stressful andyou're under stress in that area
, it's not just thecircumstances of that situation,
even if it appears to be, evenif you can say, okay, it's
completely, because I made$2,000 a month and I need to
make $10,000 a month.
(16:38):
That is a stress, and it mayseem that that's all it is, but
if you really look into the areathat's causing you not to be
able to make enough money eachmonth, then you will find that
somewhere in there is somebodywho's trying to cause you
trouble, who's maybe not gotyour best intentions in mind.
And when you find that personand you start realizing what
(16:59):
they do and maybe figure outways to circumnavigate them or
just not be around them or getthem out of your life if
possible, they're really anissue.
If it's somebody that you alsohave a relationship with that
you need to maintain or that youwant to maintain, then you have
to figure out how to deal withthat person using communication,
and, of course, there's alwaysways of doing that.
(17:20):
Now, another thing to keep inmind is when you are figuring
out how to handle people in yourlife.
Don't go for the big, dramaticexit or entrance to handle a
situation.
Confront them in front of alltheir peers and demand that they
change their ways.
That's not gonna get you whatyou want.
What you wanna do is figure outa very simple approach that is
(17:41):
very light and allows you tostart improving your
relationship with them andimproving the way you interact
with them, and then that willsnowball in the right direction
if you're approaching thiscorrectly.
Now I'm giving you some reallypowerful tools here, but they
only work if you really applythem, and sometimes it's harder
than you might think to applythese things and get the results
(18:02):
you're looking for, but it isvery doable.
So, just to summarize obviouslyyou want to get to the root
cause, and there's a reason.
There's a connection betweenyour health and stress, but also
you want to get to what's goingon in present time.
If you can't do that right now,who in your present time
environment where you have themost stress that's causing you
(18:24):
physical trouble, might beholding you down or causing you
to not flourish and prosper.
And when you found that personor persons, then that situation
has to be resolved usingcommunication, but a very gentle
approach.
Don't try to be dramatic aboutit as much as you might say oh,
I want to be, because I knowthat this person's really behind
all of this and I need to do itNow.
(18:46):
All of this said, it's alsovery, very important that you
don't adopt a victim attitudeabout this.
Oh, that person's the cause ofthe way I feel and my stress.
Oh, that situation is the causeof it.
Or I wasn't born with the meansto handle this type of thing
and now I'm having to nobodyelse.
All of these things blame,blame, blame.
(19:07):
They're not going to help youalleviate the stress.
They may make you feeljustified in the moment and
raise your spirits a little bitmomentarily, but you really have
to decide that you'reresponsible for the situation
you're in and you understandthat there is something that can
be done about it and you wantto do something about it and
pursue it and use these tools Ijust went over and get some
(19:32):
results and when you've gottensome results, fortify yourself
with those results and go forthe next level until you get to
that point where you know thatstress really isn't affecting
you.
I would love to always helppeople.
If you're working with me andyou have questions on something
I talked about in this episode,feel free to reach out to me.
But even if you're not, feelfree to reach out and find out
(19:54):
what I could do to help youreally dig in and find out why
stress, even, is an issue foryou in the present moment, in
your day to day life, in yourheart, health, etc.
If you have any other questionsunrelated, of course, you can
always reach out to me as well.
Use my email cm at naturalheart doctorcom, or follow me on
(20:14):
social media at Ryan MarkKimball, and you can reach out
to me any of those ways.
I always like to help people.
That's why I do this, that'swhy I present this information
and if you're someone who wantsto start incorporating these to
help others, of course, samething Feel free to reach out to
me.
I'd love to give you some toolsthat you can use to help people
that may be working with youthat you know are undergoing
(20:35):
stress, and it's part of whatthey need to fully get to where
they want to be and have thatoptimal state of health, optimal
state of success, optimal stateof happiness that we're all
reaching for.
So thank you very much.
I will see you in the nextepisode of innate ability and
health.
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