Steinmetz Medical Associates :: Integrative Medicine :: Northern Virginia

by Rosemarie D. Rose, MD, DABFM

In our busy lives, in this vibrant, powerful, crowded, noisy, and fast-moving place we call home, there is simply no way to avoid all the stress that surrounds us.  Demands of home and job, spouses, children, chattering phones, beeping horns, and omnipresent media intrusions overload our senses and tax our abilities to manage and prioritize.  Most of us are so accustomed to this high level of stress that we take it for granted and don’t recognize the toll it takes on our bodies and minds.

Actually, we weren’t made to live this way.  Humans evolved to respond to the short-lived stresses of running from predators or defending our children from hazards. The situation would pass, and we would go back to hunting and gathering; lives full of movement, time outdoors, and community, and the steady pace of seasonal change. Our bodies could relax from the stress, reset to a non-alarmed state, and continue, without long-term effects from the periodic excitement. This is not to say that the lives of our distant ancestors were easy; far from it. But, they were free from the constant hyper-arousal of our current environment.

When we experience a stressor, be it a real threat to our safety, like a car accident, or an artificial threat, like the jarring sounds from the morning alarm clock, our bodies have only one way to respond.  First, the adrenal glands secrete adrenalin to pump us up and get us ready to fight or flee (or, throw the alarm clock against the wall). The adrenalin raises blood pressure and heart rate, putting a strain on the cardiovascular system. Within another minute or two, the adrenal glands begin secreting cortisol, which increases blood sugar and suppresses the immune system, thereby producing more energy to respond to the threat. But, in doing so, this also shuts down long-term processes (like fighting infection) that aren’t important when you are running away from a lion. Finally, when the immediate threat has passed, the adrenal glands secrete DHEA.  This important hormone helps reverse the effects of the adrenalin and cortisol, resets to normal heart rate and blood pressure, restores the normal immune response, and allows blood sugar to fall to normal levels.

Sadly, this one-size-fits-all emergency response system doesn’t work well in our modern environment. First, there are exponentially higher numbers of “threats” in our lives; some real, but most not.  And second, because of the incessant barrage of these threats, our bodies never get the chance to complete the cycle of stressor/response/reset that is necessary to maintain the non-stressed healthy balance in our bodies. The end results of the unending stress/response/stress cycle include hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancers (from a compromised immune system), fatigue, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Since none of us are likely to return to caveman living, how can we deal with our type of modern-day stress?

First, avoid the stressors you can. Don’t overschedule or overcommit. Turn off the radio, TV, iPad, and computer, and read a book—or just sit in silence. Turn the cell phone off when you can; no one has to be available all the time.

Second, get regular exercise, eat a healthy diet, and get restful sleep.  These are 3 of the 4 pillars of health; and, no matter how few stressors you have, if you don’t have these fundamentals in place, you won’t be as able to compensate for the stress.

And the 4^th pillar? Practice some kind of “stress response modification” to help your body get back to a normal, un-aroused state, every day.  There are many beneficial and restorative practices, including meditation, deep breathing techniques, Chi Gong, and types of yoga  that emphasize relaxation techniques. There are numerous books, DVDs, and classes available for these stress-resetting methods.

And, it doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment. Significant health benefits can occur with spending as little as 20 minutes a day– it doesn’t even have to be all at the same time.  Still, some people have trouble finding the time, or feel they aren’t able to perform the techniques correctly. They feel unsure of their practice, and whether or not they are getting the benefits from it  that they need.

One technique, called HeartMath®, addresses these concerns by using real-time feedback, to let you know when you are “doing it right”. With HeartMath®, you learn specific breathing and emotion-generating techniques to control the heart rate variability, or HRV.  HRV measures the change in heart rate, from beat to beat.  When the heart is beating with a smooth, normal pattern of HRV, called “coherence”, several things happen.

Physiologically, within minutes your body can reset itself to a non-aroused, non-stressed state; thus cutting short the time it must bear the strain of a stress response.  And, when practiced regularly, you can decrease cortisol levels and increase DHEA levels which can reduce and reverse the longer-term effects of constant hyper-arousal.

Mentally, when you generate a coherent HRV pattern, you will also generate a coherent brain wave pattern.  How does that happen? In the last 10 years, the emerging field of neurocardiology has established that the heart has its own system of nerve cells which send large numbers of fibers to the brain. Under stress, the brain is subjected to a barrage of incoherent patterns from the heart which stimulates the brain stem centers to respond reflexively, without thinking, to the situation at hand.  When, instead, the heart sends smooth, normal, coherent patterns of input, the brain responds with coherent brain function.  As the brain functions under this coherent influence, it can bypass reflexive, brain stem, and non-thinking centers of the brain;  instead, it uses neural pathways which allow evaluation and reflection before choosing a response to a situation. Over time, these more beneficial pathways become the default ones that the brain uses, resulting in more cognitive clarity, decreased anxiety, and improved mood.

HeartMath® can be practiced with a handheld unit or computer program that uses an ear sensor to track your pulse and then calculate your HRV. The system lets you know when you are generating a coherent HRV pattern, thus, providing your body and brain with the stress resetting input that it needs.  These technological aids can help you learn to quickly establish and maintain a coherent HRV and reap the benefits, immediately, and over time.

As a Certified HeartMath® Practitioner, I have helped patients with hypertension, anxiety, and insomnia learn and use the HeartMath® techniques to their benefit.  If you need a way to reset your response to stress, consider learning HeartMath® to help you break your vicious cycle.