Inspire Change SEASON 7-271 Cortisol Regulation. & Longevity

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, listeners, it's good to siboa here with some exciting news.
We're on the lookout for sponsors to join us on
our incredible journey with Inspired Change with Conta. If your
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(00:24):
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(00:47):
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please reach out to Miranda Spegner sap On, our showrunner
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(01:09):
work together to inspire change now. Thank you for your
continued support and let's keep inspiring change together.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
You are listening to Inspire Change, the broadcast that strives
to educate, motivate, and empower men to challenge traditions of
masculinity to guide us through the intricacies and intersections of emotions, relationships,
and male identity is renownced psychologists, author and speaker Gunter Swibota.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
This is Inspire Change.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Before I begin the actual podcast, I would like to
respectfully acknowledge the gategor people of the or nation who
are the traditional custodians of the lane on which I work.
I would also like to pay my respects to their
elders past and present. Come everybody to another episode of

(02:02):
Inspire Change with Gunter.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
I'm your host. Welcome to another episode of Inspire Change
with Gunter. Now, before I get going, I want to
point something out, and that is that my views in
this podcast are solely my own, and if I take
something from somewhere else, I'll usually reference it or I'll

(02:24):
make a comment about that. This podcast essentially is intended
for informational and educational purposes only. It's not to suggest
anything that you can do therapeutically. If that's the case,
you need to consult a therapist. However, if some of
the things that I suggest makes sense to you, then

(02:47):
by all means you know pursue that further. Now, the
other thing I want to talk about is that I
had some fantastic news this week, and we now have
a community that has downloaded over one hundred thousand episodes
a week.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I am so stoked.

Speaker 5 (03:08):
This is fantastic and it's growing, and it's growing in
places that I never thought would be even interested in this.
So yeah, fantastic news. Very encouraging. So in my previous discussions,
particularly in the last podcast, which focused on the breadwinner
model and the adverse effects it has on men's health,

(03:34):
I have explored a whole bunch of themes related to this.
But today what I want to do is I want
to take a bit of biology, a bit of psychology,
and a bit of in a sense of sociology and
integrate them. And so how am I going to do that? Well, basically,

(03:55):
I want to present very briefly what we know about
about the human biological, psychological, and social stress response. So
that means I'm going to look at a bit of biology,
a bit about psychology, and how society plays a role
in this. Now, if you've been paying attention, you may

(04:16):
have guessed where this is going. Yes, I'm talking about
cortisole stress longevity and a crucial role gender can play
in our experiences of both. Now, I'm going to throw
this out there. One of the big questions that comes
up in biology and medicine is why do women tend

(04:40):
to live longer than men? So, how do stress and
cortisol regulation differ between the two? And it must do
in some form or another. There has to be a difference. Now,
the obvious adjunct for me, as you know, someone who's

(05:01):
looking to help men achieve a better well being is
how can we redefine masculinity to foster a healthier, longer
lived life and a society that supports this. So let's
explore this through the lens of science, psychology, and a

(05:24):
bit about sociology or social structures to see what we
can learn and change, because we can change this. So
let me start off by talking about the role of
hormones and what's called the HPA axis now, and that's

(05:46):
particularly relevant to women, and I'll come I'll get to
this in a minute. So if we're going to talk
about stress, anxiety, and arousal in the human being, it
is fundamentally important to think about the role of cortisol,
which is recognized as the body's primary stress hormone. Cortisole

(06:09):
plays a crucial role in regulating our fight or flight
or freeze response. It's a physiological reaction that prepares us
to either confront or runaway or freeze from perceived threats.
This hormone is produced by the adrenal plans, and it's

(06:29):
released in response to stress. However, it's important to note
that men and women often have differing ways of regulating
cortisol levels in response to stress. Now, these differences can
be influenced by a variety of factors, including hormonal variations,

(06:49):
psychological responses, and social dynamics. Now, this highlights the complexity
of how stress impacts individuals.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Based on.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
Understanding these nuances is vital for developing effective stress management
strategies and tailoring each of those to the person's needs.
So let me kick it off. Testosterone versus estrogen. So testosterone,
which is the dominant male hormone, tends to amplify cortisole reactivity,

(07:26):
meaning men are biologically wired to have more intense but
short lived stress responses. Now, having said that, there's a
difference between an acute stress response where cortisol elevates but
then returns back to normal in a reasonable time, and
a chronically elevated cortisole reaction. Now, estrogen, on the other hand,

(07:51):
has a buffering effect, reducing chronic stress related damage at
least until menopause when estrogen levels. So I use this
funky word about the hp A axis differences. So what
we're talking about in terms of HPA, well, that's the
hypothalamic petuitary a dreamal axis, which in women stays activated

(08:19):
longer than men. Many again that their quartersole response lingers
after stressful events. This increases vulnerability to anxiety and depression. Now,
in normal conditions, men's cortersole level spiite quickly but return

(08:40):
to baseline faster. However, as I said, chronic stress leads
to blunted cortisole responses over time, increasing the risk for
metabolic and immune disorders. However, my clinical observation as well
has been that it is relatively straightforward to be able

(09:01):
to pick when men have been experiencing elevations in cortisol
for a long time, they have issues with inflammatory responses
in their system, their sleep's affected, cognition is affected. Okay,
so we've got to be a bit careful here when
we wear blanket statements. So one of the things that

(09:28):
helps reduce cortisol levels relatively quickly and effectively is actually
human touch, which increases oxytocin. So if you're feeling a
little stressy, one way of getting that down and getting
comfortable back to being comfortable in yourself is get a hug,

(09:52):
or hold hands with your partner, or in some cases
get a massage. So while biology plays a role, we
have to look at how social situations, context, and expectations
shape our ability to cope with stress. So in this

(10:17):
particular section of the podcast, what I'm trying to do
is to create a connection between psychological and behavioral difference
in stress coping. One of the biggest contributors to early
mortality in men isn't just biology, it's how we're socialized

(10:38):
to deal with stress. Women on average rely on emotional
expression and social support, while most of us men tend
to turn to avoidance, sometimes risk taking, or unhealthy coping mechanisms. Now,
again I'm using over generalizations, but you know it helps

(10:58):
to get a bit of a picture around this, So
let's talk about socialization and coping mechanisms. The literature tends
to identify that women tend to seek support and emotional regulation,
which mitigates stress and promotes longevity. As men, we condition

(11:20):
to suppress emotions and in doing so look for ways
in which we can maintain the lead on what we're feeling,
which means either turning to alcohol drugs some of us
increase our risk tagging behavior, or a common one which

(11:41):
is essentially to throw ourselves into work and activities. You know,
even chronically going to the gym is one of those issues.
So the argument in the literature is that women have
a higher rate of internalizing disorders anxiety and depression, but

(12:02):
I'm more likely to seek treatment. From the literature, the
picture seems to suggest that men experience externalizing disorders aggression,
substance abuse, which often go undiagnosed and untreated, increasing the
risk of heart disease, addiction, and suicide. My clinical experience,

(12:27):
and I'm going to rely on forty years essentially plus
working with boys, teenage boys and men, is that certainly
anxiety is often not recognized in men very well, and
a lot of stuff is diagnosed as depression when actually

(12:50):
the primary issue is anxiety, from which the person eventually
begins to feel depressed depressive symptoms. So what's the link
here then to society? In the part of society that
I want to talk about, which is where does workplace,

(13:12):
culture and economic pressure come into play here. As I
said in a previous episode, I explored the bread winner
model and how it pressures men into unsustainable roles. So
let's revisit parts of that. So we're talking about the
economic and social dimensions of stress and its impact on longevity.

(13:38):
Masculinity as traditionally defined has always been tied to work
and financial accumulational stability and all stability. For generations, men
have been conditioned to see their worth in terms of productivity,
success and providing for their families. But it comes at

(14:00):
a serious cost. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying
that women don't work. In fact, when we look at
what women actually do culturally and historically is they work
a lot. But in the male sphere that work is
not seen as financially.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Value.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
What's valued is when we go out into the world
and we have a job. So the whole domestic aspect
is completely devalue and so women have often been sort
of you know, see as someone who doesn't work. Now
I don't know about you, but having spent twelve months

(14:45):
at home with a young baby and trying to do
housework and stuff. I can tell you it's a heavy
gig and hand on heart, there were aspects of it
that I was not very good at. I was absolutely
brilliant and taking care of the baby, but actually running
the household I wasn't very good at. So there were

(15:08):
things that you know, I would neglect, like the laundry.
I won't go into details at that point, but you'll
get the picture. So coming back to the bread with
a model and chronic stress, right, we have a situation
where men are into high stress work roles, leaving them

(15:32):
with little room for emotional expression or work life balance. Okay,
one of the big problems in most workplaces is that
people are expected to take a great deal of responsibility
but have little autonomy or agency in what they do
within the context of what they're doing, which is bad news.

(15:56):
So this leads to chronic cortisoli elevation, increasing rates of
heart disease, high blood pressure, and premature death. But along
the way, it also impacts poorly negatively on our emotional
psychological well being. So there's even you know, cognitive deficits

(16:20):
that arise from that, things like impact on short term memory,
problem solving, decision making, concentration focus. And it's interesting that
at a time where these pressures are particularly pronounced, we
have a significant increase in conditions that are related to arousal,

(16:44):
like ADHD, And one of the characteristics that I see
in ADHD is the struggle to regulate both emotions and cognitions. Now,
one of the things that's come out essentially in Australia
over the last a couple of years is that there

(17:07):
was a policy release which is that organizations are now
responsible for a psychosocial wellbeing policy. Now, the question is
is this going to be a game changer. Well, I'd
like to think it would be, but I'm not convinced.

(17:31):
You know, I'll get exposed to lots of people from
different industries and different professions and in a twelvemonth period
of not seeing a great change in that. However, having
said that, if it was implemented well, this could shift
workplace culture away from burnout and towards sustainability, which is

(17:52):
a critical step in improving men's longevity. So now I
thought i'd give you a little quick history tour to
put this all in context. So I'll go into different
phases of history. So let's talk about the pre industrial societies.

(18:14):
Before the eighteen hundreds, stress was episodic and survival based
was usually to do with wall famine disease. Longevity was
fundamentally limited by infectious diseases and to some degree accidents,
especially if you were into if you were working class,

(18:34):
then you know it was hard work, hard physical over
so it wasn't chronic stress related illnesses that took people
out as much as it was other factors. We can
then come into the Industrial Revolution the eighteen hundreds to
the early nineteen hundreds, and work is now becoming more

(18:56):
chronic and more demanding, leading to long term stress related diseases.
The bread winner model is now being consolidated, and so
the stress levels that men are experiencing jumped significantly. We
then move into the post World War II economic boom

(19:22):
nineteen fifties to the nineteen seventies. Economic stability reduced acute stress,
but rigid gender roles kept chronic stress high. And in
this period, high stress corporate jobs led to higher rates
of mail, heart disease, and hypertension. Okay, so we had

(19:47):
during that period a lot of job security. Remuneration for
what it did was relatively solid, but we're starting to
see environments like corporations where jobs are under the pump.
It's highly hierarchical, it's highly political, and in a lot

(20:11):
of cases, it's not the work that's stressing people out,
it's the politics in the in the workplace. So what
about the twenty first century? My view is that we've
created a burnout culture and a massive level of work stress.
We have a significant shift in job in security. I'll

(20:36):
refer to it for what it is, it's job insecurity.
There's a massive increase of automation. So for financial security
is challenged. And you know, the biggest issue is economic inequality,
and this has made stress, chronic stress worse than ever.

(20:57):
Men in high pressure industries have some of the highest
mortality rates. Now women are experiencing rising rates of order
immune diseases and anxiety due to trying to balance professional
and caregiving roles. Because the division of labor still puts

(21:18):
the domestic stuff into the basket for women to carry.
So you know, we've got to ask ourselves, are we're
going to let this continue? Are we actually going to
do something about it? And so there are little bits
that are already in place, like the psychosocial well doing policy,
but is it being enacted on properly? And my argument

(21:42):
is there is still a total resistance to changing not
just workplace culture, but society as a whole to make
it work better for the individual, families and communities. So
this podcast I do bring in women, but on secondary level,

(22:03):
is focused on the idea that if we want men
to live longer, healthier lives, we need to rethink how
traditional masculinity is actually throwing a spanner in the works.
If we want to improve longevity for men, we need
to focus on moving away from the sort of stoic

(22:28):
work driven identity and embrace emotional expression and emotional support networks.
We need to challenge economic structures. You know, we need
to advocate for work life balance policies like the Psychosocial
Well Being Initiative, but actually see it put to practice.

(22:51):
It needs to get traction at a grassroots level. We
also need to look at developing gender specific health indventures
targeting early intervention for stress related illnesses in men. And
unfortunately the balance here that's emerged is rather than having

(23:12):
people engage with talk therapies, we're giving them essentially more
stuff to suppress their feelings with and again it's a spectrum. Okay,
So we go from feelings to symptoms the disorder, to
distress to disorders. So you know what I'm talking about

(23:34):
talking about medicating our experience so that we can continue
to do what we've been doing that is in fact
off and killing us. Now, let me stress that what
I'm looking at is that we need to break free
from outdated ideals of what to be as a man.

(23:58):
You know, strong, dooic, top dog, you know, socially successful
and highly competitive. All these things create elevations in cortisole
levels that, if not dealt with, lead to poor health

(24:18):
overall health, physical, mental, and social health. Why is it
that people are often very very angry in crowds. There's
a good reason for that, but I won't go into
that in this episode.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
So this is.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
A podcast I want everyone to seriously think about. Most
of the time, A large amount of what I see
in my practice has to do with chronic stress and
chronic cortisol elevation. And if we begin to regulate that

(25:01):
the person actually has the opportunity to think clearer, to
fill more grounded. So on that note, this has been
another episode of inspired change with Gunta. I hope this
has been useful. I'd like to think that all of
my podcasts are useful. Please, if you're in a subscribed

(25:25):
or downloading please leave a response. Be happy to have
a read. Obviously I can't return everybody's messages, but there
may be some way in which we can set that up. Now,
if this episode has really resonated with you, share it,

(25:47):
discuss it, throw it into your community, and most importantly,
look at how you can take action. Until next time,
stay inspired the norm and this is me signing off.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Love to hear from you, and if you're interested, please
check out.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
My work on www Dot Gonta Savoda dot com or
www Dot Goodman Grade dot com.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Thank you for listening to inspire change. A broadcast is
for us to educate, motivate, and empowerment to challenge traditions
of masculinity. For more information on the Making good Men
Great movement, or for individual or group coaching centships with Gunter,
visit Goodman Grade dot com

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Inspire Change SEASON 7-271 Cortisol Regulation. & Longevity

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