Video summary
The physical toll of chronic stress begins with the overactivity of the body's stress response, which depletes essential neurochemical reserves like norepinephrine and dopamine in brain areas responsible for energy and motivation. Norepinephrine acts as our attention chemical, and when it is depleted, we struggle to focus; meanwhile, dopamine serves as our motivation chemical, driving us to want to engage in activities again. Without sufficient levels of these neurotransmitters, individuals experience not only an inability to concentrate but also a profound lack of desire to do so, leading directly to fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. This depletion contributes significantly to chronic fatigue syndrome, where the autonomic nervous system directs excessive energy toward managing systemic inflammation caused by rising stress levels, leaving little energy available for basic functions like getting out of bed.
Stress impacts cardiovascular health and sleep quality through complex physiological mechanisms that worsen with age and sustained pressure. As we age, natural reductions in hormones like testosterone and estrogen, combined with a shift toward sympathetic dominance in the nervous system, increase vulnerability to cardiovascular issues and disease progression. Furthermore, chronic stress keeps airway muscles tight, which elevates the risk of sleep apnea regardless of body weight or trauma history. The cycle becomes vicious as oxygen drops during apnea events trigger further stress and sleep fragmentation, leading to even more inflammation. Additionally, stress-induced vasoconstriction releases inflammatory cytokines that alter mood-regulating neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, creating a feedback loop where stress alters brain chemistry in ways that perpetuate both physical and mental health struggles.
The relationship between stress and pain is equally intricate, involving the sensitization of pain pathways and deficits in serotonin that heighten pain perception. When under stress, the body experiences elevated levels of glutamate over long periods, which irritates nerve endings much like rubbing an arm until it becomes tender; this makes individuals more aware of existing pain and lowers their pain threshold. It is crucial to understand that this heightened sensitivity is a real physiological response rather than something imagined or exaggerated by the mind. By engaging in stress reduction activities, individuals can lower glutamate levels and allow these overstimulated nerve endings time to recover and desensitize, thereby reducing the intensity of chronic pain and breaking the cycle where pain causes stress, which in turn amplifies pain.
Ultimately, addressing the root causes of these physical symptoms requires balancing the autonomic nervous system through activities that promote both sympathetic and parasympathetic regulation. Such interventions help reduce inflammation, clear brain fog, and slow the progression of various diseases by preventing the constant state of alertness that stress induces. Whether dealing with tooth grinding caused by clenching jaw muscles during sleep or managing chronic pain exacerbated by inflammatory responses, the common thread is the need to down-regulate stress when resting. By slowing down or eliminating stressors, the body gains the opportunity to heal, allowing nerve pathways to breathe and become less sensitive, which is essential for restoring energy, improving sleep, and alleviating the physical burdens of a stressed lifestyle.
Read the full video transcript
Overactivity of the stress response
depletes norepinephrine and dopamine
reserves in brain areas controlling
energy and motivation promoting fatigue
and cognitive dysfunction. When
norepinephrine is our focus
neurochemical, it's our attention
neurochemical. When that gets depleted,
guess what? We're going to have a hard
time focusing.
Dopamine is our motivation chemical.
It's the I want to do that again
chemical. When we don't have that, guess
what? Not only can we not focus, but we
don't want to focus. We have no
motivation.
It also adds to
um
fatigue. And hence chronic fatigue
syndrome. Remember I said the autonomic
nervous system controls our energy
utilization. And in people with um
CFS, a lot of times they've got a lot of
systemic inflammation. And as stress
goes up, inflammation goes up. What's
the body going to do? It's going to
direct a lot of energy to try to figure
out how to deal with that inflammation.
So, you don't have as much energy to
like get out of bed.
Cardiovascular issues can also be caused
by an imbalance in the autonomic nervous
system.
>> [snorts]
>> And I will say that as we age, we see a
lot more people
we see people develop a lot more
cardiovascular issues. As we age, we
also see naturally because of the
reduction of testosterone and estrogen
as well as other physiological changes
that represent stress on the body,
most older adults
are sympathetic dominant. And most older
adults benefit from even the ones that
don't have mood symptoms. Most older
adults benefit from activities that can
help balance their autonomic their
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous
system.
It'll help reduce inflammation. It slows
the progression of a lot of diseases.
Um and it also they've shown can help
with helping to clear brain fog, but I
digress.
When sustained
uh increased stress and increased
vasoconstriction caused by stress
triggers the release of inflammatory
cytokines leading to changes in
neurotransmitters like serotonin and
dopamine that regulate mood and
thinking. So, the common thread here,
stress
one way or another alters our
neurotransmitters and we need to take a
look at that. That sympathetic nervous
system, when it's engaged, then it
alters the availability
of of um
our neurotransmitters.
Sleep apnea is another one that a lot of
people have irrespective of weight, um
trauma history, and chronic stress are
super strong indicators or correlate
things that are
strongly correlated with sleep apnea.
They believe that chronic stress keeps
airway muscles tight increasing apnea
risk.
Apnea-related oxygen drops throughout
the night cause more stress and sleep
fragmentation, which causes even more
stress and more inflammation.
If they snore,
have them have it evaluated encourage
them to have it evaluated.
And finally, bruxism, tooth grinding.
How many of you out there wear um I call
it a bite plate. I think my my dentist
calls it a splint, but I wear a splint
at night cuz I grind my teeth like
nobody's business.
Chronic stress disrupts dopamine
pathways that control motor activity and
amygdala fear processing function
causing increased jaw muscle clenching,
jaw muscle tone, and anxiety-related
muscle activity. So, people when they're
stressed often will clench their teeth
or grind their teeth a lot more if they
are going to sleep and not
down-regulating their stress when
they're sleeping, guess what? They're
going to be grinding.
Pain.
A lot of people that we work with have
chronic pain and you're like, "Okay,
well, that causes stress." Yes, it does.
Uh but pain itself actually sensitizes
or stress itself actually sensitizes
pain pathways in the brain and serotonin
deficits increase pain sensitivity,
which
can worsen pain perception. So, not only
do our pain pathways become more
sensitive, more raw, if you will,
but the reduction in serotonin makes us
more sensitive makes us more aware of
the rawness. So, it's a double whammy
when we're under stress, when we've got
a lot of glutamates coursing through our
system over a long period of time.
Helping people with chronic pain
understand the connection between stress
and
increased pain perception
can also be helpful. It We're not saying
it's in your head. We're not saying
you're imagining it or you're just
overreacting. That's not what we're
saying. We're saying you actually are
feeling more pain and you're actually
more aware of that pain when you're
under stress, which is why it's
important to engage in some of these
stress reduction activities to lower
glutamate, which takes off which helps
um desensitize some of those pain
receptors.
Think about it, you know, if you've ever
rubbed your arm for a long enough time
or you've had a little kid just sit
there and mommy mommy mommy eventually
it starts to get a little irritated. You
know, and that's the glutamate. That's
the stress that's being added. When we
reduce our stress either slowing down or
eliminating the agitator completely then
those nerve endings, those pain pathways
aren't being stimulated and they get a
chance to kind of breathe and become
less sensitive. If you come back 2
seconds later, it's still tender. It's
still sensitized. So, it's going to
become irritated more quickly. If you
give it a complete chance to
um
recover
then when you come back and if you start
doing it again, it will take a while.
And I'm not sure if you followed that
metaphor.