86Thousand400: Stress and the science of burning it off

Hypercortilism (Scientific name for Cushing's syndrome)

It's symptoms are eerily similar to those of chronic stress: weight gain around the midsection; breaking down muscle tissue to produce unnecessary glucose and then fat; insulin resistance and possibly diabetes; panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and increased risk of heart disease.

While chronic stress is bullying the hippocampus - pruning its dendrites, killing its neurons and preventing neurogenesis - the amygdala is having a field day.

The stress overload creates more connections in the amygdala, which keeps firing and calling for cortisol, even though there's plenty of the hormone available, and the negative situation feeds on itself.

The more the amygdala fires the stronger it gets. Eventually the amygdala takes control of its partnership with the hippocampus, repressing the context - and thus the connection to reality - and branding the memory with fear.

The stress becomes generalised, and the feeling becomes a free-floating sense of fear that morphs into anxiety. It's as if everything is a stressor, and this colours perception and leads to even more stress.

"The animal becomes more anxious even while its cognitive skills are being eroded".

When you suffer from chronic stress, you lose the capacity to compare the situation to other memories.

The Science of burning it off

Function of the brain is to transmit information, from one synapse to the other, and this requires energy. Likewise, since exercise influences metabolism, it serves as a powerful way to influence synaptic function, and thus the way we think and feel. Throughout the body, exercise increases blood flow and the availability of glucose, the essentials for cell life.

It's what happens after exercise that optimises the brain.

Exercise increases the efficiency of intercellular energy production, allowing neurons to meet fuel demands without increasing toxic oxidative stress.

While exercise induces the stress response, if the activity level isn't extreme, it shouldn't flood the system with cortisol.

In the body, having more receptors means better use of blood glucose and stronger cells.

The stress of exercise is predictable and controllable because you're initiating the action, and these two variables are key to psychology.

With exercise, you gain a sense of mastery and self confidence. As you develop awareness of your own ability to manage stress and not rely on negative coping mechanisms, you increase your ability to "snap out of it", so to speak. You learn to trust that you can deal with it.

Exercise not only wards off the ill effects of chronic stress; it can also reverse them.