Stress and Health Pt. 1: A delicate balance that's essential to our health

Stress isn’t necessarily good or bad.

It’s simply a cascade of hormones and activation of the sympathetic nervous system. How we interpret, manage and learn from those signals, as well as the magnitude, intensity, and rate of exposure, will dictate how and if we’re able to adapt and improve.

The biological stress we experience from cold, heat, or intense exercise, is known as hormesis (a healthy biological response to stress). How we perceive these experiences is essential - you must learn to view these experiences as positive and healthy. This is the psychological component stress, known as “eustress”.

In order to make the most out of difficult situations, like working out or improving your diet, you must understand both the biological and psychological components of stress adaptation.

This doesn’t mean that all stress is good for us. Over-training in the gym or chronic psychological stress, from an unhealthy relationship, for example, can be harmful to our minds, bodies, and overall health.

As someone with ADHD that’s predisposed to anxiety and depression, the only way I’ve found to learn my limits is to push them. Learning how to take small, repeatable risks or routinely expose myself to biological difficulty, helps me define my limits, expose my weaknesses, and ultimately, learn more about myself - all while improving my physical and mental health and overall skillset.

It does require some discipline (which can also be trained) but doesn’t have to be anything crazy. Keep it simple.

One of my favorite ways to build (and rebuild) the discipline muscle, and learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable, is a simple cold shower.

Here’s a challenge - for the last 2-5 minutes of your morning shower each day this week - get the water as cold as you can and stay in it. FEEL your body and mind panic just a bit - the fight, flight, or freeze response. Just relax and breathe into it.

This exercise has an awesome impact on both our psychology and biology - a heavy dose of hormesis and eustress all in a few minutes.

The Known Benefits of Cold are Kind of Staggering:

1. Metabolism and Fat Loss:

   • Cold exposure can increase metabolism and brown fat stores, which help the body stay warm and burn calories more efficiently.

   • It also promotes the conversion of white fat cells to thermogenic beige or brown fat cells, supporting fat loss.

2. Dopamine and Mood:

   • It boosts dopamine enhancing mood, focus, and overall mental acuity, for several hours.

     These dopamine increases are longer-lasting compared to other dopamine-inducing activities, offering substantial mood enhancement without addictive patterns.

3. Inflammation and Recovery:

   • Cold exposure helps reduce inflammation, which can be beneficial post-exercise as well as for general health.

   • Just don’t use cold right after a hypertrophy-oriented training session - it can blunt muscle growth.

4. Stress Resilience:

   • Regular cold exposure builds mental toughness and resilience. It helps the body and mind handle stress better, which is one reason why it's used in military training, such as Navy SEAL training.

   • By exposing oneself to controlled stress through cold, you can suppress the sympathetic nervous system (stress response), making you better equipped to handle real-world stress.

5. Hormonal Balance and Fertility:

   • Cold exposure can regulate cortisol levels, improving hormonal balance, which is beneficial for both male and female fertility.

   • It helps manage stress by timing cortisol release to earlier in the day, thereby reducing its negative impact later on.

6. Catecholamine Release:

   • Besides dopamine, it increases levels of norepinephrine and epinephrine, boosting alertness, energy, and focus. This catecholamine boost is linked to the positive health effects observed with cold exposure.

It should be noted the all of the research available focuses on cold plunges, not cold showers - that said, tell me you’re not more awake after standing in a cold shower for 5 minutes….

All of this should tell you that the body (and mind) can have an extremely healthy relationship with the right kinds of stress, in the right context, and with the right doses.

With all of the conveniences, demands, and distractions we’re presented with on a daily basis, the challenge of modern life is learning to understand the difference between the two and make the right choice.

Keep going,

Geoff