Erin O'Hara: Naturopath and wellness expert explains how chronic stress can impact brain chemistry

Research reveals chronic stress can impact more than just your state of mind. 

Regular stress has been found to have flow-on impacts - which can disrupt sleep and lead to increased fatigue and anxiety.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains how we can best treat these adverse symptoms.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'd be joining me now to wellness is Aaron O'Hara,
Good morning, Good morning. You're a fan of the passip.
I am a quite like partner. You're a fan of
most vegetables though, I am. What do you do with it?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
You usually roast it, a little bit of salt and pepper,
bit of olive oil.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Just simple as take it in all its partnup glory. Yeah, good,
I hit, It's simple. Today we're going to talk about
stress and how chronic stress can impact our brain chemistry.
Tell me about the impact that chronic stress can have
on our neurotransmitter levels.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, So stress is something that we all experience. I
think there's always moments of stress, whether it's little moments
of a stressful event within your day. But it's when
it kind of flows onto that chronic stress that's when
it's really problematic.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You see a long term what is kind of what
would you define chronic stress as stress that's.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Kind of going from day to day kind of whether
it's a stressful work or relationship or a divorce or
something like that, that's kind of going on from week
to week, which is constant and constantly managing, it constantly
affecting you, and it's having that flow on of effect
of maybe disrupting of sleep, also making you feel anxious,

(01:21):
overwhelmed through the day, and affecting your overall everyday life.
And that's because the chronic stress then can create chronic
inflammation within the body and in the brain as well,
so we can get different symptoms. For some people chronic stress,
they might experience overwhelm, fatigue, anxious, poor sleep, whether it's

(01:42):
getting to sleep or staying asleep, and that's where it
has that flow on effect of really affecting our brain chemistry,
and it affects the neurotransmitter balance in particular. So neurotransmitters
are your chemical messages within your brain, things like dooth means, serotonin, oxytocin,
and they send chemical messages to then affect your nervous system,

(02:03):
your brain, your body function, and the really important to
keep everything in regulation. So when we do have a
lot of chronic stress, there's some interesting research that that
exposure to chronic stress and how it can reduce an
area of the brain called the hippocampus, which has a
lot of important role in learning as well as memory

(02:25):
part of the brain. And when we have that long
term stress, we can get a reduced size and that
that then has an effect on our neurotransmitter balances as well.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
A lot of people who will say that they're under
quite constant stress will describe symptoms like just brain fog,
just unable to think clearly or remember things, and that's
exactly what's kicking in here absolutely.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
So they might notice that they can't remember things, they
just get these sudden blanks even in the middle of conversation. Also,
anxiety can be a big sign of chronic stress or
flowing into depressions, so there's no motivation for getting anything done,
finding no joy in life as well because that disruption
and the chemical messages in the brain with those neurotransmitters,

(03:10):
and there's a lot we can do with just bringing
that stress level into a manageable level, because sometimes the
stress isn't going to just go away and vanish, and
it's like, how can we maintain life through that stress?
And I always like to start looking at sleep first,
because if you're not sleeping properly, you can't regulate during
the day. So if we can address the sleep is

(03:31):
like the first thing to help you manage your chronic stress,
whether it's getting to sleep or staying asleep, and whether
that's finding some sort of support with maybe starting with
just some nice herbal teas, sleepy teas or some magnesium
before bed. Feeling's one of my favorite that I also
use for sleep as well as during the day. Really
quietens the mind. I like to call it meditation and

(03:53):
a tablet. So when people are really chronically stressed, sometimes
meditation is not accessible to them. Is because sitting and
doing meditation just makes them feel even more stress, more overwhelmed,
and more anxious. It's not a very good tool for
someone who is feeling stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed, and that
might be where you need that little bit of extra

(04:14):
support with some supplements, So using something to help you
get to sleep, maybe even some sleepy herbs. So some
of my favorites for sleep is passion, flower, hops, valerian
or skull caps that are all herbs that are calming
the nervous system. Helping with gabba production really calms the
nervous system down so you can drift off to sleep

(04:36):
and then you can get that good quality sleep, and
then during the day addressing it as giving the support
for the body so it can adapt to stress, which
in herbal medicine will call adaptogen so they help us
adapt to the stresses of the day. And some of
my favorite herbs for helping to adapt to stress are
things like withanian or you know might know it as

(04:57):
ashwagandha the same herb, but it's a really good herb
for helping with adapting to stress, also helping with cognitive
function without making you feel as anxious, so it just
helps to sort of level out that stress making it
more manageable. Also, jingsing really good one for cognition focus
adapting to stress as well, or maybe even some calming

(05:20):
herbs that you use during the day like go to
Kola is a really good one for managing that ongoing
stress and helping to just calm the nervous system a
little bit as well. And then looking at also whether
you get support network around you, like chronic stress is
something that you need support, whether it's friends, family, like

(05:40):
being like, hey, life is overwhelming at the moment, I
need some support around me, and actually letting people know
that you're struggling and know that you kind of need
that support to help you get through the chronic stress.
And then the more stress comes more manageable, the more
the brain comes back into balance. And that's what we
really just want, is like to be able to kind
of soften the stress and the load so then the

(06:02):
brain can start functioning better and then we can feel
back into our normal every time balance again.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Eron, thank you so much for your time this morning,
Love you to catch up. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio