A protective mechanism that evolved when most threats to survival were physical has unintended consequences in an environment in which stress is usually mental or emotional.
Read the video transcript
Today, we're exploring the ways our body handles stress and the role of a hormone called cortisol in energy management.
While we sleep, energy demand is very low, but as we wake up, there's a need for energy to kickstart the body, increase our heart rate, activate muscles, and enhance brain activity. And during physical activities like exercise or sports, the amount of energy needed and consumed is even greater.
All of that requires constant adjustment to provide energy as it’s needed, either from the food we each or energy that we have stored. This constant adjustment is a routine function of the body. But what is not routine, is the body's response to danger.
In prehistoric times, having the energy to respond to threats was often a matter of life and death. Whether an animal attacks or an environmental challenge, a perceived threat prompts the body to release stored energy rapidly, enabling us to fight or escape.
When we perceive danger, an alert goes to the part of the brain that directly controls that body, a part called the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus then releases a hormone which and travels through the bloodstream to the pituitary gland, which then releases another hormone that triggers the adrenal glands to produce a third hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol in turn triggers the liver to convert energy stored in the form of glycogen into glucose. It also triggers fat cells to release energy in the form of fatty acids, and it triggers the conversion of proteins into their component amino acids. These three substances—glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids, can all be used as fuels.
That extra fuel is a very good thing to have if you need to run from a hungry animal. But in today's world, physical threats have largely been replaced by psychological and emotional threats, such as job interviews, financial worries, or daily commutes in traffic. But even though those dangers are not physical, and having a surge extra energy won’t help us deal with them., our body's response mechanism remains the same.
For instance, when we’re stuck in a traffic jam and late to an important meeting, the body's physical demand is very low, yet the energy release triggered by cortisol still occurs. This leads to an excess of unused glucose and fatty acids in the bloodstream.
Ideally, those substances can be converted back into the form they came from. But for reasons we don’t entirely understand, that’s not exactly what happens—some of them are converted into additional fat around our internal organs, which we call visceral fat. And visceral fat is associated with an increased risk of serious health conditions including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The bottom line is that people who experience chronic stress are prone to having chronically high cortisol levels, which can exacerbate the accumulation of this type of visceral fat, and the risk of serious diseases.
What’s the solution? Unless you can find a way to live without frequent emotional stress, which would probably require being alone in a cabin in Alaska, you’ll want to find a way to reduce its effect on your body. Three habits will help: regular physical activity, adequate sleep, and having some time every day when you release your mind from worries about the past or the future. There’s also another strategy: when you feel stressed out is a great time to take a brisk walk to burn off that extra fuel.
Here’s what you want to remember: Cortisol is an essential hormone, but in the context of the non-physical dangers and stresses of modern life, it can lead to significant health challenges. Since our body’s response to such stress can be unhealthy, you need to take charge.
Thank you for joining us for this for this short lesson about cortisol and energy management. If you’ve found this video helpful, please like, and subscribe for more informative content.
