Stress is a silent epidemic that damages health and happiness, with over a quarter of US adults experiencing limiting stress. Dr. Rangan Chatterjee shares five practical, scientifically-backed strategies to cope with stress and regain mental well-being.
Stress is a response to feeling under attack or in danger, and its long-term effects can be damaging to physical, mental, and emotional health. Understanding the biological effects of stress is crucial to addressing it effectively.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee explains the body's stress response system when faced with a threat, highlighting the increase in blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood clotting as helpful short-term responses.
Chronic stress can lead to harmful long-term effects such as fatigue, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes, as well as severe life-threatening diseases.
He shares a patient's experience where stress was the driving factor for pre-diabetes and emphasizes the real biological effects of stress on the body.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee discusses the dosed response with stress, explaining that a little stress can help performance, but high stress levels can be harmful, impacting memory and causing chronic unrelenting stress, which is causative for dementia.
He emphasizes the link between chronic stress and anxiety, and the importance of understanding where stress lives in our lives to reduce it where possible.
The concept of micro stress doses is introduced, explaining how these small stressors can build up and push individuals closer to their personal stress threshold, leading to negative impacts on health and well-being.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee provides practical strategies to reduce micro stress doses, such as avoiding checking emails or social media first thing in the morning, and taking regular pauses throughout the day to lower the stress load on the body.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee agrees and emphasizes the importance of not romanticizing the past, highlighting the real life-threatening stress and dangers that existed.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee emphasizes the impact of stress on our modern lives, stating that stress is the number one cause of illness that he sees today.
He highlights that 60 to 90% of what a medical doctor sees in any given day is in some way related to stress, affecting every organ system in the body and increasing the risk of various health conditions.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee points out that stress not only affects physical health but also impacts digestion and libido, leading to an increase in patients experiencing problems with their sex drive.
He attributes the rise in stress levels to modern lifestyle changes, such as constant activation of the sympathetic nervous system and exposure to light at the wrong times of the day.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee emphasizes the impact of technology on stress levels, highlighting the blurring of boundaries between work and home life as a major problem.
He stresses the importance of acknowledging chronic stress and offers practical strategies for stress reduction, focusing on the power of breathwork.
He explains the science behind intentional breathing practices like the 3-4-5 breath and box breathing, emphasizing their ability to lower stress levels in real time.
Dr. Chatterjee also advocates for regular movement or exercise as a way to alleviate anxiety and chronic stress, citing research that shows exercise makes the body more resilient to stress.
Exercise makes you more resilient to stress and helps you burn off that stress. It is really powerful.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee emphasizes that different therapeutic interventions work for different people when it comes to stress. A 20 or 30 minute walk can lower stress levels, just like working out vigorously with a trainer in the gym.
He recommends using the walk as a switch off, avoiding phone usage to truly benefit from the stress reduction practice. Additionally, he shares his personal five-minute strength workout and mindfulness routine as a long-term habit for stress reduction.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee emphasizes the importance of making behavior change easy and attaching it to an existing habit.
He highlights the research by Professor B.J. Fogg, showing that motivation fluctuates and making behaviors easy is crucial for consistency.
Dr. Chatterjee exemplifies his own five-minute workout in pajamas, making it easy and attaching it to the existing habit of making coffee.
Human touch can affect stress by stimulating CT afferent nerve fibers, which sends a message to the limbic system in the brain and lowers cortisol levels.
There are two types of touch fibers - fast and slow. Fast fibers signal immediate physical sensation, while slow fibers deliver the emotional quality of touch.
The emotional quality of touch is what triggers the emotional response, such as crying after a few seconds of experiencing pain.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee explains the importance of human touch and its impact on lowering stress levels, heart rate, blood pressure, and increasing natural killer cells.
He emphasizes the significance of safe, consensual touch and suggests self-massage as an alternative for those living alone.
Journaling is highlighted as a powerful stress management tool, with the ability to reduce anxiety, improve sleep quality, and lower physical and emotional stress.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee also recommends nature exposure as a stress-reducing activity and emphasizes the importance of lowering stress levels for a kinder, more compassionate world.