February 18, 2025 • 22 mins
Can we really control our stress response, or is it hardwired into our DNA? Join us on Living a Full Life as we uncover the age-old battle between the "fight or flight" instincts and modern stressors. Our bodies are wired to respond to threats, whether they come in the form of a saber-toothed tiger or an overflowing email inbox. This episode provides listeners with strategies to manage both short-term bursts of stress and the chronic stressors that linger, by understanding the delicate dance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems of our autonomic nervous system.
Stress doesn't just affect how we feel—it can wreak havoc on our health. In this episode, we explore how chronic stress can disturb hormone balance, disrupt sleep, and even lead to weight gain. By delving into the physiological effects, listeners will gain insight into how stress exacerbates inflammation and immune dysfunction. We talk about heart rate variability as a tool to assess stress and distinguish between controllable and uncontrollable stressors, empowering listeners to recognize and manage their stressors more effectively.
Finally, we offer a vivid analogy of inflammation as a fire, illustrating how stress can fan the flames and lead to severe health conditions. We explore how lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption can add fuel to this fire. Fortunately, there are natural remedies like mindfulness and breathing exercises that can help cool things down. We also highlight the convenience of virtual holistic health consultations offered by Full Life Chiropractic, inviting listeners to seek personalized support from the comfort of their homes. If you're ready to take control of your stress and its impacts, this episode is your guide to a balanced, healthier life.
Contact us at info@fulllifetampa.com if you are intersted in diving into stress and issues that are effecting you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to another episode of Living a Full Life.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori, andthis week we're tackling stress.
Stress is not going to betackled in one podcast.
It's a perpetual thing thatcomes at us from all different
angles.
But understanding what stressis and the effects it has on our
body hopefully keeps youmotivated to keep doing all the
(00:25):
right things that you do everyday to stay healthy.
That's the whole point of this.
Stress is the body's naturalresponse to demands or threats.
It's a natural thing.
It's there for a reason.
It's a wonderful system to keepus protected.
The threats can be physical,they can be emotional, they can
be mental, they can also bechemical.
But these threats can comephysical, they can be emotional,
(00:45):
they can be mental, they canalso be chemical.
But these threats can come tous from all different directions
and it's almost like they do ona daily basis.
And stress can be short-term orit can be chronic.
Short-term is something thatjust currently happened you got
hit in the arm and you got abruise.
That's stress, that isinflammation, that is pain,
that's everything going on right, thereises, and then it will go
away in a couple weeks.
(01:06):
That's short term.
Chronic stress can develop andperpetuate over time and that's
what we're going to dissect inthis podcast today is what's the
difference?
How do we mitigate it and howdo we defend ourselves against
the responses from stress,because we need to.
And how do we deal with stress?
How do we prepare ourselves tohandle situations that are
(01:29):
stressful?
They're going to happen.
There's stress that'sunthinkable, that can happen to
us in our life.
There's stress that happens, itseems like all the time.
And then there's stresses thathappen every few hours of every
day because of the choices thatwe make or because of the
environment that we're in.
These things can happen.
So how the body responds tostress is a real important
understanding and then we canbuild our way up from that.
(01:56):
Stress you may have heard fromhigh school biology is a fight
or flight reaction.
It's a sympathetic reaction tothe response of whatever's
happening Immediately.
What happens in a sympatheticresponse or a fight or flight is
that heart rate increases,muscle tenses and your breath
speeds up to just help with thatflow.
So if the heart rate increases,it means it's going to pump
more blood.
If it pumps more blood, itneeds more oxygen.
If it needs more oxygen, you'vegot to breathe more.
(02:18):
So you breathe more and yourmuscles get tense to get ready
to do some kung fu, fighting orwhatever it is that we need to
do to get through that situation.
That's why it's called fight orflight.
Are we going to fight to defendourselves or are we going to
take flight and get out of herebecause those leopards are going
to eat us if we don't?
So that's the primitive responseto stress and it's ingrained in
(02:41):
our DNA, the programming that'sin there.
It can't be changed.
It's the fundamentalprogramming to any computer on
earth.
There's just hardware thatneeds to be there a screen, a
chip, power, a motherboard.
All that stuff needs to bethere to make the computer work.
And it was the same in the 90swith the first computers as well
(03:03):
your IBM Aptiva, whatever itwas.
It had the same in the 90s withthe first computers as well.
Your IBM Aptiva, whatever itwas, it had the same parts to it
.
It just all looks slicker andslicker and smaller and smaller
as technology improves, but thesame thing is there.
The structure, the DNA, theprogramming that's there is
there.
We are programmed for flight orflight, and you need to
understand that.
So think of yourself as likeprehistoric caveman or woman,
(03:26):
and that's the DNA that'screated in you.
So you hear a weird screech inthe middle of the night.
You don't know if that's ananimal, somebody breaking into
your cave, a pterodactyl I don'tknow what the heck the screech
would be, but that's theresponse.
You need to have an increase inheart rate, an increase in
breathing, a tense in muscle todefend and protect yourself.
(03:49):
That's what we do and up totoday, in 2025, that's the
response humans will have.
That's the response all mammalswill have.
It comes from the hindbrainthat all mammals share together,
just around the amygdala thatprotects us from fear, or it's
the fear center.
It's how we respond.
So we all have that primitivepart of the brain in all mammals
(04:09):
.
It's what keeps us protected,to run from the hunter right.
So that makes sense.
The autonomic nervous system ismade up of both of those, the
sympathetic and theparasympathetic, and that's what
makes up our autonomic nervoussystem.
We want to stay in balancebetween those two.
We can kind of shuffle left orright.
Let's say we choose to go do aHIIT exercise at the gym.
(04:30):
We're choosing to put ourselvesin a sympathetic state there
for the benefits that come withthat the cardiovascular response
, the blood flow, the endorphinrelease, the hormone balancing.
There's a lot of great stuffthat comes from exercise.
Great.
So we put ourselves and then,once we're done the exercise, as
we rest, we go back to normalvitals, which brings us back to
(04:54):
balance.
We may actually eat apost-workout meal.
We may go home have someprotein shake and a banana or
something who knows, and thatwill put us into parasympathetic
, so we'll swing a little bitthere as we digest the food and
go back to balance.
So it's a beautiful dance thatthe autonomic nervous system has
between sympathetic andparasympathetic, but it's trying
to stay balanced between thetwo.
(05:14):
We use heart rate variabilityand we monitor every single
patient that comes to our office.
We don't tell them we're doingthis for stress response, but
that's exactly what we're doing.
We don't want to tell a motherof a three-year-old that we're
going to do heart ratevariability for their stress
response.
We're doing it to see how theirnervous system's working and
that's a great barrier there.
But we check everyone.
We know who's super stressedand who's not, and we've had
(05:36):
discussions about this.
Do you feel like it's comingfrom emotional, physical,
chemical or mental?
Where is this coming from?
And it can open up a greatdiscussion with patients, which
is true healthcare, which isfantastic.
So that's the balance betweenthe two and our autonomic
nervous system and that's how weadapt to stress.
It's a healthy way, it's anormal way, it's a programmed
(05:57):
way to do it.
We cannot change it.
But that's how it works, whichis great and it's actually a
wonderful thing.
But there's some things thathappen with it.
We talked about, you know, somevitals that can change, but
there's chemical and hormonalchanges that can happen when we
are perpetually in stress.
So either short-term stress orlong-term stress, either way,
there's going to be an immediatechemical and hormonal change.
(06:18):
That happens from stressImmediately.
Cortisol changes in the body,the stress hormone hormone, and
it affects.
That's what gets everythingpumping.
Then adrenaline andnorepinephrine gets the body
ready for action.
This is the tensing, this isthe increased heart rate, like
everything, like that endorphinrelease that you get to get you
ready to fight or flight.
That's adrenaline can happen ona roller coaster too.
(06:41):
Those are incidental stressesthat we choose.
We consider these things funand we call them adrenaline
junkies right, those people thatare looking for skydiving,
roller coasters going fast, allthese things.
It's that adrenaline rush thatthey get addicted to and they're
stunt devils.
They just want to do that.
(07:01):
Nothing wrong with that, butyou're choosing to put yourself
into a stressful position whichis controllable because you can
control the outcomes.
Hopefully your parachute worksand all that great stuff, so you
can control the outcome ofeverything.
Chronic stress, however, is notcontrollable.
Hormone imbalances immediatelystart to happen, it disrupts
(07:21):
sleep and we gain weight.
Those are the three biggestthings that people notice from
chronic stress.
They just don't relay it tochronic stress.
Not everyone does.
Not everyone sees that, butthey get it.
They're like I've been workinglong hours, I haven't been going
to the gym, it's my fault.
They get it and that's theirway of saying I've been stressed
(07:42):
.
It's true, and it's absolutelythe side effect of stress.
So stress in itself leads toinflammation.
Constant stress keeps the immunesystem on high alert.
That high alert produces a lotof.
It requires a lot of hormoneproduction for that which is
inflammatory, because we needfats and proteins to do that.
So we're cycling fats andproteins quickly, we're breaking
(08:04):
them down and that process overtime.
It's like keeping the oven onfor too long with it slightly
open.
Eventually the home's going tostart to heat up.
That's how we used to heat ourhomes, the wood-burning ovens.
Remember that.
But if you did that with yourelectric or gas, you'd waste a
lot of energy, but slowly.
What would happen is thetemperature in the home would
(08:26):
increase.
If you kept that oven on at 400degrees Fahrenheit, it would
slowly heat the entire house.
You'd feel it.
That's the chronic stress ofwhat's happening with that and
that's what happens with hormoneimbalances.
That constant stress keeps theimmune system on high alert.
We have excess cortisol whichcan trigger immune dysfunction.
This is where we start to getsick, often because of being
(08:47):
stressed.
See this even in young kids.
They're going through finalexams in high school and college
.
Right when they're done theyare sick the next day.
It's a crash of their immunesystem.
They excess cortisol fromstudying and being worried about
this exam which make, make orbreak their grade for the
semester or for their year.
You know some of these examshave a 50% way.
I remember those classes.
(09:08):
They're like hey, thestatistics exam at the end of
the year is worth 50% of yourgrade.
I'm like holy smokes.
You'd study like crazy for itto try and get an A because if
you didn't you would not get anA in the class right, so those
were stressful.
I remember that.
And that's what triggers theimmune dysfunction.
Is that chronic stress overweeks of studying or that week
before, whatever it is, and evendeadlines at work that have to
(09:28):
be made tax year end, all thesestuff, month end.
I mean we deal with stressesall the time and stress-induced
poor diet just doesn't help.
When we have just choices thatwe make with hydrogenated oils,
processed foods, we put thisinto our system and we're just
inducing more stress through ourdiet.
(09:49):
It leads to lack of sleep andthen all the unhealthy habits we
do fuel inflammation Smoking,drinking alcohol, all these
things can fuel to moreinflammation.
So it's a stress when we saystress from a physiological
perspective, stress isinflammation and that's what
we're trying to mitigate,because stress in itself is a
(10:12):
normal thing.
It's a natural thing.
Gravity is stress.
It keeps our feet on the ground.
That's a good stress.
But it is a stress on the body.
It's pulling us down, hence whyour skin starts to sag right as
we get older.
That gravity distortion, right,but it's a good one.
I don't want to be floating allover the place right, that's
weird, but it's a good one.
(10:32):
I don't want to be floating allover the place, right, that's
weird.
So there's good stresses,there's bad stress.
Going to the gym liftingweights, putting pressure on our
tendons, that's a stress, butit's a good stress.
The result from that leads tostronger tendons and stronger
muscles, right?
So the ones that we choose thatare going to lead to bad are
always coming through diet,right.
Always through diet.
Every time we're like, oh, Ijust want one of those things, a
(10:53):
scoop of ice cream.
We're fueling inflammation withthat.
It doesn't mean we can neverhave it.
We just have to be in a statethat will be good to have that
stuff.
It just depends on how muchfire, how big is the forest fire
in the body.
That's how I always that's myanalogy for stress.
For most people there's always alittle pilot inside of us.
(11:16):
There's always a little flamegoing on.
It has to be there.
It always has to be ready tofight.
It's that flame.
If you grew up in the North,you got natural gas furnaces.
There's a pilot that stays on365 days a year.
It's just there in case theheat needs to kick on.
That pilot is there.
It can light the flame and heatthe air that comes through it
to heat up the house but itstays on all the time because if
(11:38):
it goes out, you have tophysically go in there, check
the gas line and make sure youturn it back on.
You have to, otherwise whenwinter comes along, it's not
going to heat up your house.
And that's the analogy.
I keep with the stress thatflame's always there.
When we stress ourselves outand we put more kerosene onto
that, the flame can get out ofcontrol.
It can get very big.
It can turn into a fire whereyour entire boiler room's on
(12:01):
fire or the whole house catchesfire.
Now we're in trouble, right?
So, depending on that, when theflame is small and the pilot's
there and you throw some icecream on it not a big deal
Nothing's going to really happen.
Going to eat some Oreos, goingto eat some processed food, have
some pizza, whatever it's notgoing to hurt.
But when there's a forest firegoing on and our joints hurt and
our knees hurt and we're inpain or we're overweight or
(12:26):
whatever's happening, there'salready chronic inflammation and
we add more to it, we turn thisinto a whole house fire.
That's what inflammation is.
Inflammation is the body'snatural defense mechanism.
For acute, like we talked aboutgetting hit in the arm and
having a bruise, it's forshort-term healing.
So immediately, plasma, redblood cells, white blood cells,
(12:50):
the immune system goes straightto the injury.
The immune system is warned offbecause it's like, listen,
nothing's ruptured, we didn'tbreak the skin, there's no
bacteria that's in here, there'sno viruses, there's nothing
that we need to fight off.
So the killer cells are heldoff and immediately the plasma
and red blood cells and whiteblood cells do their thing to
repair the damage Skin tissue,muscle tissue, tendon,
(13:12):
whatever's there, fat cells thatwere ruptured, whatever
happened.
They go in there and start torepair through blood flow.
That's short-term healing.
So that is a natural defensemechanism.
That is a natural healingprocess.
That is a great thing.
Chronic inflammation no bueno,it's long-term.
It's harmful to have that typeof a response.
(13:34):
A military response happenswhen this happens.
So you get a bruise on your armor you get hit in the arm with
a softball.
Your body puts out the Navy,seals, the military, the Air
Force, the Navy, everyone'sgoing out to be like what
happened?
There was a bomb went off onour forearm.
It was actually a softball.
They go and check it outimmediately.
(13:55):
It happens within seconds,minutes.
The Navy is fed off, the AirForce is fed off, the Marines
are fed off, but the militarystays.
They're like, hey, let's helpclean up a little bit and they
help rebuild.
That's what's going on there.
So the troops or the army,whatever is there and they do
their thing.
This is how I got throughmedical school, by the way, all
(14:17):
these cartoons in my head andthat's how I figured out
everything.
But hopefully they help you too.
Chronic, long-term is where westart to have inflammation
around the heart, inflammationaround the liver, inflammation
around the kidneys, and theorgans start to get bogged down.
Now we're going to exhaust themilitary, they're going to be
tired of constantly trying torebuild, we're going to get
(14:39):
fatigued and now we have thisinflammation which is going to
change physiological effects.
So inflammation around thekidneys or in the kidneys is
going to start to createvasoconstriction within the
kidneys, which means bad bloodflow, bad circulation, bad waste
removal from the body.
That increases uric acid,increases your pH, increases
(15:01):
your renal pressure, whichincreases your blood pressure.
And I can go through analogiesfor every single organ in the
body and what happens when itstarts to get inflamed.
Typically, that's where thepathology is going to take place
.
But that's what chronicinflammation does.
It's long-term disruption ofthe military and it's going to
exhaust the resources right.
(15:22):
It can only print so much money.
Where inflammation occurs is dueto the stress.
So if we got the kidneys, forexample, can be from poor diet,
a high increase of alcohol inthe diet and smoking.
Let's say we do the poor diet,we smoke and we drink alcohol.
(15:42):
Kidneys, liver, they hate it.
They're the ones that are goingto get it.
If it starts to getinflammation around the brain,
we may notice memory loss, brainfog, mood disorders.
If we get inflammation aroundthe heart and arteries, we can
increase our risk of heartdisease, stroke, heart attack.
These are things that canhappen there.
Gut, this is a very common one.
(16:03):
The gut takes up a lot of space.
You may have seen these things.
If you outstretch the smallintestine and large intestine,
it can wrap around the world orsomething like that.
How long it is?
I should probably look that up.
That's how much.
How long our digestive tract is.
It's huge.
So when you bundle that all upit's like a ball of yarn.
(16:23):
So you take that and then youput it into this ball of yarn
and you stick it in someone'sabdomen.
You're like here, that's yourdigestive tract.
It's a lot of surface area, alot of space, so the gut is the
most common organs to haveinflammation buildup and this
leads to digestive issues, leakygut, irritable bowel syndrome,
(16:45):
ulcers, polyps, ulcerativecolitis, diverticulitis I mean
the gut issues can just keepgoing.
Dysbiosis all the stuff that canhappen in the gut is because of
chronic inflammation.
Then it can go to joints andmuscles.
We see all of this all the timethe joint and muscles, chronic
pain, stiffness, and that's anautoimmune response.
(17:07):
Now your body's starting toattack itself because the
hormone imbalance has been fortoo long.
We've attacked our hormonesystem.
Oof stress, no bueno and notcool at all.
But how do we reduce it andwhat can we do to decrease
inflammation?
Naturally, that's what weshould be focusing on.
(17:27):
Breathing exercises andmindfulness can go such a long
way.
Most of our stress comes fromknowledge, which means our work.
So we're sitting there andwe're exerting mental energy to
do our work.
So if you're a lawyer, anaccountant, a bookkeeper, an
attendant documents,receptionist, manager, any of
(17:51):
these things, which covers a lotof the workforce we're using
our brains and numbers and tasksand Excel sheets and Word
documents and reading a lot andemails and communication.
We're in that.
It, whatever it may be computercode, it's using our brain and
being mindful and breathing canrelax the brain the fastest,
(18:14):
better than exercise, betterthan anything else.
Stepping away, closing youreyes and focusing on your breath
, even for 20 seconds, and beingmindful of your body, putting
yourself in a better ergonomicstate standing up, whatever it
may be, leaning properly in yourchair can be one of the best
things you do.
For that 20 seconds to take thestress off your mind, which
(18:36):
reduces inflammationinstantaneously.
For those 20 seconds to takethe stress off your mind, which
reduces inflammationinstantaneously.
For those 20 seconds.
Now, is 20 seconds enough forthe 12 hours that you're going
to work that day?
No, so maybe we should practicethis more and more regularly.
That's probably the biggest one.
An anti-inflammatory diet is theabsolute best thing you can do.
Breathing exercises is thesmartest thing you can do.
(18:59):
Anti-inflammatory diet is thebest thing you can do.
Whole foods, omega-3s, addingsome turmeric in your diet,
whatever it may be, cleaning itup, reducing processed foods,
reducing inflammation fromchemicals, from the diet can
drastically reduce theinflammation in the body the
fastest possible.
(19:19):
So our diet plays the biggestrole in an anti-inflammatory
diet, in an anti-inflammatorystate whatsoever.
Quality sleep and movement.
We talk about this, andmovement in this case for stress
is simple.
Things like stretching, yoga,walkings, you know, mild
strength training simple thingsthat move your body.
(19:40):
It helps pump circulationthrough so that inflammation can
continue to be processed.
Sitting for long hours and notexercising just leaves us with a
stagnant circulation, and astagnant circulation is hard on
the lungs and the cardiovascularsystem.
There's been studies showingthat people who sit and don't
exercise full-time 40 hours aweek have a three-time greater
(20:03):
risk for heart attack and lungissues than a chronic smoker.
Unbelievable, crazy right, justthat.
Circulatory movement.
And then, of course, managingemotional stress.
Gratitude, social support andmental therapy play a huge role
in that as well.
That's how we get the emotional, the chemical, the physical and
(20:26):
the mind balanced to offset thestresses that we're attacked
with.
You can do it all little bylittle, just like how you do it
every day to beat yourself down.
You can do the little thingsevery day to build yourself up.
If you need support, we're herefor you.
I challenge you to reach out toinfo at fulllifetampacom with
(20:48):
any questions you have.
Just say I need help.
Let's open a discussion throughemail.
You can be anywhere in thecountry.
A lot of this stuff withinflammation can be done
virtually on Zoom, which issuper cool, and the doctors at
Full Life Chiropractic arewell-versed and trained on doing
this holistically and naturally.
So if you need help and thispodcast was like wait, hang on a
second I do.
(21:09):
Glad I listened to this.
It's probably why you listenedto it right to the end.
Info at fulllifetampacom.
Send an email, say listen toyour podcast.
I could use some help.
Well, I'll know exactly whatyou're talking about and we'll
hook you up with a virtualconsult for free to talk and go
through what it is that's goingon, and maybe we can dive deeper
(21:30):
and help you out or refer youto someone locally or someone
else that can help you out aswell.
Stay well, stay healthy.
Thanks for tuning in this weekLike, share, comment on the
podcast, so more listeners getto it, of course, and see you
next week.
Welcome to another episode of Living a Full Life.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori, andthis week we're tackling stress.
Stress is not going to betackled in one podcast.
It's a perpetual thing thatcomes at us from all different
angles.
But understanding what stressis and the effects it has on our
body hopefully keeps youmotivated to keep doing all the
(00:25):
right things that you do everyday to stay healthy.
That's the whole point of this.
Stress is the body's naturalresponse to demands or threats.
It's a natural thing.
It's there for a reason.
It's a wonderful system to keepus protected.
The threats can be physical,they can be emotional, they can
be mental, they can also bechemical.
But these threats can comephysical, they can be emotional,
(00:45):
they can be mental, they canalso be chemical.
But these threats can come tous from all different directions
and it's almost like they do ona daily basis.
And stress can be short-term orit can be chronic.
Short-term is something thatjust currently happened you got
hit in the arm and you got abruise.
That's stress, that isinflammation, that is pain,
that's everything going on right, thereises, and then it will go
away in a couple weeks.
(01:06):
That's short term.
Chronic stress can develop andperpetuate over time and that's
what we're going to dissect inthis podcast today is what's the
difference?
How do we mitigate it and howdo we defend ourselves against
the responses from stress,because we need to.
And how do we deal with stress?
How do we prepare ourselves tohandle situations that are
(01:29):
stressful?
They're going to happen.
There's stress that'sunthinkable, that can happen to
us in our life.
There's stress that happens, itseems like all the time.
And then there's stresses thathappen every few hours of every
day because of the choices thatwe make or because of the
environment that we're in.
These things can happen.
So how the body responds tostress is a real important
understanding and then we canbuild our way up from that.
(01:56):
Stress you may have heard fromhigh school biology is a fight
or flight reaction.
It's a sympathetic reaction tothe response of whatever's
happening Immediately.
What happens in a sympatheticresponse or a fight or flight is
that heart rate increases,muscle tenses and your breath
speeds up to just help with thatflow.
So if the heart rate increases,it means it's going to pump
more blood.
If it pumps more blood, itneeds more oxygen.
If it needs more oxygen, you'vegot to breathe more.
(02:18):
So you breathe more and yourmuscles get tense to get ready
to do some kung fu, fighting orwhatever it is that we need to
do to get through that situation.
That's why it's called fight orflight.
Are we going to fight to defendourselves or are we going to
take flight and get out of herebecause those leopards are going
to eat us if we don't?
So that's the primitive responseto stress and it's ingrained in
(02:41):
our DNA, the programming that'sin there.
It can't be changed.
It's the fundamentalprogramming to any computer on
earth.
There's just hardware thatneeds to be there a screen, a
chip, power, a motherboard.
All that stuff needs to bethere to make the computer work.
And it was the same in the 90swith the first computers as well
(03:03):
your IBM Aptiva, whatever itwas.
It had the same in the 90s withthe first computers as well.
Your IBM Aptiva, whatever itwas, it had the same parts to it
.
It just all looks slicker andslicker and smaller and smaller
as technology improves, but thesame thing is there.
The structure, the DNA, theprogramming that's there is
there.
We are programmed for flight orflight, and you need to
understand that.
So think of yourself as likeprehistoric caveman or woman,
(03:26):
and that's the DNA that'screated in you.
So you hear a weird screech inthe middle of the night.
You don't know if that's ananimal, somebody breaking into
your cave, a pterodactyl I don'tknow what the heck the screech
would be, but that's theresponse.
You need to have an increase inheart rate, an increase in
breathing, a tense in muscle todefend and protect yourself.
(03:49):
That's what we do and up totoday, in 2025, that's the
response humans will have.
That's the response all mammalswill have.
It comes from the hindbrainthat all mammals share together,
just around the amygdala thatprotects us from fear, or it's
the fear center.
It's how we respond.
So we all have that primitivepart of the brain in all mammals
(04:09):
.
It's what keeps us protected,to run from the hunter right.
So that makes sense.
The autonomic nervous system ismade up of both of those, the
sympathetic and theparasympathetic, and that's what
makes up our autonomic nervoussystem.
We want to stay in balancebetween those two.
We can kind of shuffle left orright.
Let's say we choose to go do aHIIT exercise at the gym.
(04:30):
We're choosing to put ourselvesin a sympathetic state there
for the benefits that come withthat the cardiovascular response
, the blood flow, the endorphinrelease, the hormone balancing.
There's a lot of great stuffthat comes from exercise.
Great.
So we put ourselves and then,once we're done the exercise, as
we rest, we go back to normalvitals, which brings us back to
(04:54):
balance.
We may actually eat apost-workout meal.
We may go home have someprotein shake and a banana or
something who knows, and thatwill put us into parasympathetic
, so we'll swing a little bitthere as we digest the food and
go back to balance.
So it's a beautiful dance thatthe autonomic nervous system has
between sympathetic andparasympathetic, but it's trying
to stay balanced between thetwo.
(05:14):
We use heart rate variabilityand we monitor every single
patient that comes to our office.
We don't tell them we're doingthis for stress response, but
that's exactly what we're doing.
We don't want to tell a motherof a three-year-old that we're
going to do heart ratevariability for their stress
response.
We're doing it to see how theirnervous system's working and
that's a great barrier there.
But we check everyone.
We know who's super stressedand who's not, and we've had
(05:36):
discussions about this.
Do you feel like it's comingfrom emotional, physical,
chemical or mental?
Where is this coming from?
And it can open up a greatdiscussion with patients, which
is true healthcare, which isfantastic.
So that's the balance betweenthe two and our autonomic
nervous system and that's how weadapt to stress.
It's a healthy way, it's anormal way, it's a programmed
(05:57):
way to do it.
We cannot change it.
But that's how it works, whichis great and it's actually a
wonderful thing.
But there's some things thathappen with it.
We talked about, you know, somevitals that can change, but
there's chemical and hormonalchanges that can happen when we
are perpetually in stress.
So either short-term stress orlong-term stress, either way,
there's going to be an immediatechemical and hormonal change.
(06:18):
That happens from stressImmediately.
Cortisol changes in the body,the stress hormone hormone, and
it affects.
That's what gets everythingpumping.
Then adrenaline andnorepinephrine gets the body
ready for action.
This is the tensing, this isthe increased heart rate, like
everything, like that endorphinrelease that you get to get you
ready to fight or flight.
That's adrenaline can happen ona roller coaster too.
(06:41):
Those are incidental stressesthat we choose.
We consider these things funand we call them adrenaline
junkies right, those people thatare looking for skydiving,
roller coasters going fast, allthese things.
It's that adrenaline rush thatthey get addicted to and they're
stunt devils.
They just want to do that.
(07:01):
Nothing wrong with that, butyou're choosing to put yourself
into a stressful position whichis controllable because you can
control the outcomes.
Hopefully your parachute worksand all that great stuff, so you
can control the outcome ofeverything.
Chronic stress, however, is notcontrollable.
Hormone imbalances immediatelystart to happen, it disrupts
(07:21):
sleep and we gain weight.
Those are the three biggestthings that people notice from
chronic stress.
They just don't relay it tochronic stress.
Not everyone does.
Not everyone sees that, butthey get it.
They're like I've been workinglong hours, I haven't been going
to the gym, it's my fault.
They get it and that's theirway of saying I've been stressed
(07:42):
.
It's true, and it's absolutelythe side effect of stress.
So stress in itself leads toinflammation.
Constant stress keeps the immunesystem on high alert.
That high alert produces a lotof.
It requires a lot of hormoneproduction for that which is
inflammatory, because we needfats and proteins to do that.
So we're cycling fats andproteins quickly, we're breaking
(08:04):
them down and that process overtime.
It's like keeping the oven onfor too long with it slightly
open.
Eventually the home's going tostart to heat up.
That's how we used to heat ourhomes, the wood-burning ovens.
Remember that.
But if you did that with yourelectric or gas, you'd waste a
lot of energy, but slowly.
What would happen is thetemperature in the home would
(08:26):
increase.
If you kept that oven on at 400degrees Fahrenheit, it would
slowly heat the entire house.
You'd feel it.
That's the chronic stress ofwhat's happening with that and
that's what happens with hormoneimbalances.
That constant stress keeps theimmune system on high alert.
We have excess cortisol whichcan trigger immune dysfunction.
This is where we start to getsick, often because of being
(08:47):
stressed.
See this even in young kids.
They're going through finalexams in high school and college
.
Right when they're done theyare sick the next day.
It's a crash of their immunesystem.
They excess cortisol fromstudying and being worried about
this exam which make, make orbreak their grade for the
semester or for their year.
You know some of these examshave a 50% way.
I remember those classes.
(09:08):
They're like hey, thestatistics exam at the end of
the year is worth 50% of yourgrade.
I'm like holy smokes.
You'd study like crazy for itto try and get an A because if
you didn't you would not get anA in the class right, so those
were stressful.
I remember that.
And that's what triggers theimmune dysfunction.
Is that chronic stress overweeks of studying or that week
before, whatever it is, and evendeadlines at work that have to
(09:28):
be made tax year end, all thesestuff, month end.
I mean we deal with stressesall the time and stress-induced
poor diet just doesn't help.
When we have just choices thatwe make with hydrogenated oils,
processed foods, we put thisinto our system and we're just
inducing more stress through ourdiet.
(09:49):
It leads to lack of sleep andthen all the unhealthy habits we
do fuel inflammation Smoking,drinking alcohol, all these
things can fuel to moreinflammation.
So it's a stress when we saystress from a physiological
perspective, stress isinflammation and that's what
we're trying to mitigate,because stress in itself is a
(10:12):
normal thing.
It's a natural thing.
Gravity is stress.
It keeps our feet on the ground.
That's a good stress.
But it is a stress on the body.
It's pulling us down, hence whyour skin starts to sag right as
we get older.
That gravity distortion, right,but it's a good one.
I don't want to be floating allover the place right, that's
weird, but it's a good one.
(10:32):
I don't want to be floating allover the place, right, that's
weird.
So there's good stresses,there's bad stress.
Going to the gym liftingweights, putting pressure on our
tendons, that's a stress, butit's a good stress.
The result from that leads tostronger tendons and stronger
muscles, right?
So the ones that we choose thatare going to lead to bad are
always coming through diet,right.
Always through diet.
Every time we're like, oh, Ijust want one of those things, a
(10:53):
scoop of ice cream.
We're fueling inflammation withthat.
It doesn't mean we can neverhave it.
We just have to be in a statethat will be good to have that
stuff.
It just depends on how muchfire, how big is the forest fire
in the body.
That's how I always that's myanalogy for stress.
For most people there's always alittle pilot inside of us.
(11:16):
There's always a little flamegoing on.
It has to be there.
It always has to be ready tofight.
It's that flame.
If you grew up in the North,you got natural gas furnaces.
There's a pilot that stays on365 days a year.
It's just there in case theheat needs to kick on.
That pilot is there.
It can light the flame and heatthe air that comes through it
to heat up the house but itstays on all the time because if
(11:38):
it goes out, you have tophysically go in there, check
the gas line and make sure youturn it back on.
You have to, otherwise whenwinter comes along, it's not
going to heat up your house.
And that's the analogy.
I keep with the stress thatflame's always there.
When we stress ourselves outand we put more kerosene onto
that, the flame can get out ofcontrol.
It can get very big.
It can turn into a fire whereyour entire boiler room's on
(12:01):
fire or the whole house catchesfire.
Now we're in trouble, right?
So, depending on that, when theflame is small and the pilot's
there and you throw some icecream on it not a big deal
Nothing's going to really happen.
Going to eat some Oreos, goingto eat some processed food, have
some pizza, whatever it's notgoing to hurt.
But when there's a forest firegoing on and our joints hurt and
our knees hurt and we're inpain or we're overweight or
(12:26):
whatever's happening, there'salready chronic inflammation and
we add more to it, we turn thisinto a whole house fire.
That's what inflammation is.
Inflammation is the body'snatural defense mechanism.
For acute, like we talked aboutgetting hit in the arm and
having a bruise, it's forshort-term healing.
So immediately, plasma, redblood cells, white blood cells,
(12:50):
the immune system goes straightto the injury.
The immune system is warned offbecause it's like, listen,
nothing's ruptured, we didn'tbreak the skin, there's no
bacteria that's in here, there'sno viruses, there's nothing
that we need to fight off.
So the killer cells are heldoff and immediately the plasma
and red blood cells and whiteblood cells do their thing to
repair the damage Skin tissue,muscle tissue, tendon,
(13:12):
whatever's there, fat cells thatwere ruptured, whatever
happened.
They go in there and start torepair through blood flow.
That's short-term healing.
So that is a natural defensemechanism.
That is a natural healingprocess.
That is a great thing.
Chronic inflammation no bueno,it's long-term.
It's harmful to have that typeof a response.
(13:34):
A military response happenswhen this happens.
So you get a bruise on your armor you get hit in the arm with
a softball.
Your body puts out the Navy,seals, the military, the Air
Force, the Navy, everyone'sgoing out to be like what
happened?
There was a bomb went off onour forearm.
It was actually a softball.
They go and check it outimmediately.
(13:55):
It happens within seconds,minutes.
The Navy is fed off, the AirForce is fed off, the Marines
are fed off, but the militarystays.
They're like, hey, let's helpclean up a little bit and they
help rebuild.
That's what's going on there.
So the troops or the army,whatever is there and they do
their thing.
This is how I got throughmedical school, by the way, all
(14:17):
these cartoons in my head andthat's how I figured out
everything.
But hopefully they help you too.
Chronic, long-term is where westart to have inflammation
around the heart, inflammationaround the liver, inflammation
around the kidneys, and theorgans start to get bogged down.
Now we're going to exhaust themilitary, they're going to be
tired of constantly trying torebuild, we're going to get
(14:39):
fatigued and now we have thisinflammation which is going to
change physiological effects.
So inflammation around thekidneys or in the kidneys is
going to start to createvasoconstriction within the
kidneys, which means bad bloodflow, bad circulation, bad waste
removal from the body.
That increases uric acid,increases your pH, increases
(15:01):
your renal pressure, whichincreases your blood pressure.
And I can go through analogiesfor every single organ in the
body and what happens when itstarts to get inflamed.
Typically, that's where thepathology is going to take place
.
But that's what chronicinflammation does.
It's long-term disruption ofthe military and it's going to
exhaust the resources right.
(15:22):
It can only print so much money.
Where inflammation occurs is dueto the stress.
So if we got the kidneys, forexample, can be from poor diet,
a high increase of alcohol inthe diet and smoking.
Let's say we do the poor diet,we smoke and we drink alcohol.
(15:42):
Kidneys, liver, they hate it.
They're the ones that are goingto get it.
If it starts to getinflammation around the brain,
we may notice memory loss, brainfog, mood disorders.
If we get inflammation aroundthe heart and arteries, we can
increase our risk of heartdisease, stroke, heart attack.
These are things that canhappen there.
Gut, this is a very common one.
(16:03):
The gut takes up a lot of space.
You may have seen these things.
If you outstretch the smallintestine and large intestine,
it can wrap around the world orsomething like that.
How long it is?
I should probably look that up.
That's how much.
How long our digestive tract is.
It's huge.
So when you bundle that all upit's like a ball of yarn.
(16:23):
So you take that and then youput it into this ball of yarn
and you stick it in someone'sabdomen.
You're like here, that's yourdigestive tract.
It's a lot of surface area, alot of space, so the gut is the
most common organs to haveinflammation buildup and this
leads to digestive issues, leakygut, irritable bowel syndrome,
(16:45):
ulcers, polyps, ulcerativecolitis, diverticulitis I mean
the gut issues can just keepgoing.
Dysbiosis all the stuff that canhappen in the gut is because of
chronic inflammation.
Then it can go to joints andmuscles.
We see all of this all the timethe joint and muscles, chronic
pain, stiffness, and that's anautoimmune response.
(17:07):
Now your body's starting toattack itself because the
hormone imbalance has been fortoo long.
We've attacked our hormonesystem.
Oof stress, no bueno and notcool at all.
But how do we reduce it andwhat can we do to decrease
inflammation?
Naturally, that's what weshould be focusing on.
(17:27):
Breathing exercises andmindfulness can go such a long
way.
Most of our stress comes fromknowledge, which means our work.
So we're sitting there andwe're exerting mental energy to
do our work.
So if you're a lawyer, anaccountant, a bookkeeper, an
attendant documents,receptionist, manager, any of
(17:51):
these things, which covers a lotof the workforce we're using
our brains and numbers and tasksand Excel sheets and Word
documents and reading a lot andemails and communication.
We're in that.
It, whatever it may be computercode, it's using our brain and
being mindful and breathing canrelax the brain the fastest,
(18:14):
better than exercise, betterthan anything else.
Stepping away, closing youreyes and focusing on your breath
, even for 20 seconds, and beingmindful of your body, putting
yourself in a better ergonomicstate standing up, whatever it
may be, leaning properly in yourchair can be one of the best
things you do.
For that 20 seconds to take thestress off your mind, which
(18:36):
reduces inflammationinstantaneously.
For those 20 seconds to takethe stress off your mind, which
reduces inflammationinstantaneously.
For those 20 seconds.
Now, is 20 seconds enough forthe 12 hours that you're going
to work that day?
No, so maybe we should practicethis more and more regularly.
That's probably the biggest one.
An anti-inflammatory diet is theabsolute best thing you can do.
Breathing exercises is thesmartest thing you can do.
(18:59):
Anti-inflammatory diet is thebest thing you can do.
Whole foods, omega-3s, addingsome turmeric in your diet,
whatever it may be, cleaning itup, reducing processed foods,
reducing inflammation fromchemicals, from the diet can
drastically reduce theinflammation in the body the
fastest possible.
(19:19):
So our diet plays the biggestrole in an anti-inflammatory
diet, in an anti-inflammatorystate whatsoever.
Quality sleep and movement.
We talk about this, andmovement in this case for stress
is simple.
Things like stretching, yoga,walkings, you know, mild
strength training simple thingsthat move your body.
(19:40):
It helps pump circulationthrough so that inflammation can
continue to be processed.
Sitting for long hours and notexercising just leaves us with a
stagnant circulation, and astagnant circulation is hard on
the lungs and the cardiovascularsystem.
There's been studies showingthat people who sit and don't
exercise full-time 40 hours aweek have a three-time greater
(20:03):
risk for heart attack and lungissues than a chronic smoker.
Unbelievable, crazy right, justthat.
Circulatory movement.
And then, of course, managingemotional stress.
Gratitude, social support andmental therapy play a huge role
in that as well.
That's how we get the emotional, the chemical, the physical and
(20:26):
the mind balanced to offset thestresses that we're attacked
with.
You can do it all little bylittle, just like how you do it
every day to beat yourself down.
You can do the little thingsevery day to build yourself up.
If you need support, we're herefor you.
I challenge you to reach out toinfo at fulllifetampacom with
(20:48):
any questions you have.
Just say I need help.
Let's open a discussion throughemail.
You can be anywhere in thecountry.
A lot of this stuff withinflammation can be done
virtually on Zoom, which issuper cool, and the doctors at
Full Life Chiropractic arewell-versed and trained on doing
this holistically and naturally.
So if you need help and thispodcast was like wait, hang on a
second I do.
(21:09):
Glad I listened to this.
It's probably why you listenedto it right to the end.
Info at fulllifetampacom.
Send an email, say listen toyour podcast.
I could use some help.
Well, I'll know exactly whatyou're talking about and we'll
hook you up with a virtualconsult for free to talk and go
through what it is that's goingon, and maybe we can dive deeper
(21:30):
and help you out or refer youto someone locally or someone
else that can help you out aswell.
Stay well, stay healthy.
Thanks for tuning in this weekLike, share, comment on the
podcast, so more listeners getto it, of course, and see you
next week.
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