How Can Stress Affect Metabolism
By: Lindsay Messina
Ever wondered what’s all the fuss about stress these days? When you are constantly stressed, the body’s fight or flight response is the result, and adrenal glands start secreting several types of hormones, including the stress hormone cortisol. The elevated levels of cortisol tend to dominate other hormones and gear you up for action.
Not only this, excess cortisol secretion slows down digestive functions and suppresses the immune system responses. In such situation of slowed down digestion, food stays in the stomach for too long. According to National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, stress affects metabolism of the body, which is essential for the proper conversion of caloric intake into energy. When digestion and metabolism are slowed, the body starts showing symptoms of ill health, which can be as serious as intestinal blockage.
Stress and Metabolism
When metabolism is stressed, the condition can potentially affect your body systems, disrupting their functioning. Constant elevated levels of stress are detrimental to health and can cause depression, sleeplessness, exhaustion, diarrhea, constipation, mood swings, eczema, weight gain, among other health conditions.
If you are exposed to prolonged and frequent stress periods, elevated cortisol
hormone levels can raise blood sugar. When there is spike in blood sugar levels, pancreas start releasing extra insulin. As a result, blood sugar levels are lowered instantly, causing a craving for carbohydrate rich foods. Research shows that negative self-talk is a kind of unnecessary stress that can negative affect how you digest and assimilate your food. By doing negative self-talk, you are impacting your overall well-being and hurting yourself in a physiological way. All of this can severely slow down your metabolism.
Metabolism encompasses a number of critical processes associated with living, including breathing, contracting muscles, eliminating waste, circulating blood, controlling body temperature, and operating brain and nerves. When metabolism is affected, it impacts all the bodily processes and your overall well-being. It is therefore essential to cope with stress.
Coping With Stress to Maintain Healthy Metabolism
Since stress and metabolism are related, it is critical to cope with stress to ensure
a normal metabolism functioning. In order to be stress free, you need to understand the importance of making your mental health a priority. Though some stress is natural, there is no place for stress in the lives of individuals with a positive mind-set.
The best way to reduce stress and raise your metabolism is through consistent exercise, which helps release endorphins that are crucial to fighting stress. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, 20 minutes of exercise every day can work help reduce stress and improve overall well-being and health. Yoga and meditation are quite effective in relieving stress.
• Your priority is to eat real, unprocessed food and a balanced diet, comprising right proportions of protein, fats, and carbs, to promote a nourished metabolism.
• Emotional stress may be due to plenty of reasons, including allergies, lack of adequate sleep, exposure to toxins, too much exercise, restrictive diet, and lack
of sunshine. It is crucial to take steps to identify what is causing too much stress in your life and find ways to eliminate them.
• A balance between rest and activity is important to keep stress at bay. It is important to find out how much exercise is appropriate for you, depending on the amount of energy in your food, your rest levels, and the type of activity.
Now that it is clear stress and metabolism rate are related, you must take extra care in ensuring stress does not affect your quality of life and overall health.
