Stress breaks help maintain healthier cortisol level
Stress for Success
March 24, 2009

How’s your health? Is it:
* Excellent
* Very good
* Good
* Not good
* Poor

Your answer predicts your future regarding disease and longevity more accurately than a thorough review of your medical records, according to research in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine in 2006. It makes sense since you live with yourself 24/7. Just as when you drive the same car for a long time and know when something’s off, you also know when your body isn’t performing as well.

Fascinatingly, these researchers found that people who considered themselves healthier experienced a wider fluctuation of their fight/flight response. They aren’t normally stressed so when it kicks in, it's noticeable.

Those who felt less healthy didn't notice as much when their stress response kicked in because it wasn’t significantly different from how they typically felt. In other words, they had a higher level of the stress hormone cortisol all of the time, a symptom of chronic stress.

In both acute and chronic stress over 17 different hormones are released. Acute stress is generally a short-term response by the body to stress and lasts from a few minutes to a few weeks. Chronic stress occurs when stress is ongoing keeping the body on high alert month after month and is the main cause of stress-related health problems.

Stress hormones weaken your health over time when your body isn’t able to relax and recover from one stressful triggering event to the next. Those most vulnerable to the ravages of stress include:
* People with chronic stress
* Hotheads and those who are very impatient
* Those caught up in the runaway American lifestyle with entirely too much activity and not enough rest

If you belong to any one or more of these groups you may have too much cortisol in your system, which has been shown to have negative health effects from higher blood pressure to lowered immunity and inflammatory responses, from impaired cognitive performance to suppressed thyroid function to weight gain, and more.

To limit the damage of excess cortisol in your body include multiple stress breaks throughout your day. These pull you back from your Stress Cliff, where stress begins to damage you physically, mentally and emotionally. Stress breaks allow your physical body and your mind to seek an equilibrium. This can be difficult in today's runaway lifestyle when your fight/flight is triggered so frequently throughout each day without a chance to rest making it more essential to do so.

The most important stress breaks that help your body maintain healthier cortisol levels are:
* Exercise 30 – 45 minutes every other day; both anaerobic (resistance training) and aerobic (jogging or cycling);
* Deep relaxation 15 – 30 minutes daily;
* Deep breathe often throughout your day, especially when you notice that you’re stressed;

There are many more stress breaks. Next week we’ll look at some of them that can better balance your stress and relaxation responses, therefore your cortisol, which better protects you from the damage of stress.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., of InterAction Associates, is a trainer and a Stress Coach. E-mail her at www.jackieferguson.com or call 239-693-8111 for information about her workshops on this and other topics or to invite her to speak to your organization.