How YOU can beat the stress
It’s a modern-day epidemic, and for many people stress is now more of an everyday problem than an occasional menace. So what can we do to tackle it? SUSAN GRIFFIN investigates...
HIT TV show Trust Me, I’m A Doctor is returning to our screens with a programme dedicated to mental health.
In conjunction with the Mental Health Special episode, a survey of over 2,000 people was conducted to find out which mental health questions the public most wanted answered.
The number one question was: How do I combat stress?
This wasn’t a surprise to Dr Michael Mosley, who co-presents the series. He says: “Perhaps back in the 1980s stress was seen as a good thing – you know, ‘Hey, I’m a yuppie, I’m stressed’ – whereas now it’s seen as pernicious, and we’re aware of the long-term and damaging side-effects that come from being continuously stressed.
“Some of us are so permanently stressed we think it’s normal to feel palpitations or to wake at 3am every day.”
The long-term effects
Stress can lead to sleep deprivation and weight gain because who doesn’t reach for a quick sugary fix to help get over a slump?
Dr Mosley says: “Over time, it actually leads often to anxiety and depression, which in turn can lead to chemical and physical changes in the body.”
The stress response hormone
Cortisol is a hormone which plays many roles in the body and brain, and it’s also known as the stress response hormone because it revs everything up for a fight-or-flight response.
“Once upon a time, cortisol would’ve been there to pump up the body, get the heart going and make you hyper-alert so you could escape from danger when hunting and at risk of being eaten by something,” says Dr Mosley. It continues to play a positive role in helping people cope in potentially dangerous situations, but he adds: “Being hyper-alert in that sort of way all the time is absolutely not
what we were designed for.”
Rev the CAR
As shown in the programme, there’s a pattern of cortisol you’re looking to achieve throughout the day. It is also an energising hormone, so a surge is needed to get you out of bed in the morning. This is called cortisol awakening response – or CAR for short. Dr Mosley explains: “Your cortisol levels will start rising before you wake up so your body’s prepared for that awful moment when the alarm goes off. Then it should rev up a bit and drop off fairly rapidly over the course of the morning. “It’s preparing you for the challenges of the day, but you don’t want that all the time otherwi se you’re constantly twitching and on the alert.” If someone is stressed, they’re likely to see less of a peak of cortisol in the morning. This sluggish start usually leaves someone less able to cope with daily activities.
Stress management
In the show, 68 volunteers were divided into three groups and given eight weeks to try three different forms of stress management – yoga, mindfulness and gardening – alongside a control group. At the beginning and end of the experiment, the participants were asked to give a sample of saliva so their levels of cortisol could be measured. All the activities were found to have a positive impact, helping to raise the group’s CAR and enable a healthy reduction of cortisol during the day.