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by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath In the honor of the upcoming Labor Day we started a conversation about work stress last week. Within this article we discussed work stress and provided some helpful tips to help shift this for you, ultimately leading to more happiness in your life. If you missed last week’s article, you can catch this here. This week I want to address the health aspect of how you pay for work stress. Stress in itself impacts every aspect of your being but I’ll walk you down the routine pathways in which this will impact your body. Autonomic Nervous System The autonomic nervous system has two branches: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is often considered the “fight or flee” system, while the parasympathetic nervous system is often considered the “rest and digest” system. In many cases, both of these systems have “opposite” actions where one system activates a physiological response and the other inhibits it. Your parasympathetic nervous system or “rest and digest” as referred above is the branch of the nervous system that simply carries out natural function of your body. You obviously do not have to put any conscious thought into your heart beating, digesting your food, breathing and every other “automatic” process in your body. The sympathetic nervous system is your reactive or “fight or flee” branch of your nervous system. This will be the reactive side of your nervous system to stress in your life, or as we are discussing, your work stress. To understand how your work stress is effecting your nervous system, it is first important to understand that when you are under stress, this will be activating your sympathetic nervous system. When you have a sympathetic nervous system that is overactive, long term this will effect your parasympathetic nervous system function. One area that is majorly impacted is your digestive system. Digestive System Your digestive system as you may have guessed by the “rest and digest” reference above, is a parasympathetic nervous system response. When you nervous system is balanced you will enjoy optimal blood flow to your gastrointestinal system, this leading to the proper absorption and assimilation of the nutrients from the food that you eat. When you are dealing with stress though, your body is a heightened sympathetic nervous system state which is the “fight or flee” state. When you are in this state your body feels as if it is in danger and will redirect the blood flow from your gastrointestinal system to your muscular system to “save your life.” While of course our work stress is truly not a life or death situation, your body will be perceiving it in this way. So the longer you are stuck in your work stress, the longer you are stuck in a sympathetic nervous system response which ultimately will lead to poor absorption and assimilation of your nutrients, with the end result of nutritional deficiencies. Adrenal Function Your work stress also has a major impact on your adrenal function. Understand that when you are under stress, your body will increase cortisol production. Cortisol is your body’s primary stress response hormone which is also tied into the “fight or flee” response. The challenge here is that when cortisol is elevated for long periods of time, as would be the case for those with chronic work stress, this will effect other hormones as well. Long term elevated cortisol will eventually deplete DHEA and other end result hormones such as testosterone and estrogen hormones as an example. When these hormones are depleted, the body is out of balance, thus effecting so many functional areas of your body as listed below.
- Thyroid
- Ovaries
- Pancreas
- Mucosal lining
- Metabolism of fat and protein
- Regulation of body weight and fat
- Detoxification
- Immune regulation
- Pro and anti-inflammatory states
- Cellular energy
- Blood sugar stability
- Bone and connective tissue turnover
- Muscular integrity
- Quality of sleep and mood
- Ability to memorize and learn
- Overall neural connectivity
