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Practice Safe Stress

Women and the Candy Calm

Permission to Chill Sir

If You Only Do One Thing This Month….

Bleeding Edge Science

Ask the Doc

Exciting Developments from Dr. Peeke

Raise your hand if you think that the increased stress of your daily life is at the core of your problems. Now raise your hand if you think your goal is to lead a stress-free life. Yep, that’s what I thought. If you raised your hand to either or both of those questions, you’re wrong. Stress is an integral piece of life. Without stress, we would never grow.

Stress is not the problem. Distress is. Distress happens when we aren’t managing stress well, when we perceive any stress as associated with feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and defeat. When our response to stress is to choose to become distressed, we go to the Dark Place and regress into our self and health destructive behaviors. Distress is Toxic Stress.

Toxic Stress is dangerous. As I explain in Fight Fat After Forty, Toxic Stress leads to overeating which leads to Toxic Belly Fat. Harboring chronic Toxic Stress can also lead to heart disease, poor immune function, hair loss, poor memory and diabetes, and, for women, vaginal infections, and female infertility. Toxic Stress literally takes years off our lives by shortening the little caps called telomeres at the end of our chromosomes. When telomeres are shortened, cells die. The result is a rapidly advanced aging process. Ground-breaking research has discovered that women with the highest levels of perceived stress--Toxic Stress--from care giving children with chronic illness have shorter telomeres compared to low stress women. The end result is accelerating the aging process by a factor of 10 years.

Stress overeating affects both genders, but women are hardest hit. Men tend to hit the bottle under stress, while women tear through Girl Scout cookies and ice cream. Even one stressful event, like a blown deadline or important meeting, was linked for women to greater snacking on unhealthy food and fewer portions of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.

How come women go for the Candy Calm? Women produce less of the feel-good hormone serotonin than men, and high fat, high sugar foods actually drive the stress hormones down. So when women end high sugar or high fat comfort food, they feel less stressed—at least temporarily until the stress over all those gobbled French fries and Snicker’s bars kicks in.

  Permission to Chill, Sir!

So what’s a body to do? Life provides each and every one of us with an endless number of opportunities to practice Safe Stress. No one can do this perfectly. But, with practice, you can get better and better. My top tips:

Let’s get this straight. There are two basic kinds of stress: 1) life threatening; and 2) annoying but livable stress. You need to address both but don’t get them confused. Are you someone who keeps kicking in your big time stress response--true life threatening stresses like medical emergencies--for what should be annoying but livable stress--someone cut you off in traffic? True emergencies require a serious withdrawal from the Body Dollar Bank to save your life. Annoying but livable stresses should require a much smaller withdrawal. Don’t bankrupt your Body Dollar Bank.

Whip out a pen and quickly and without over-thinking, write down the stresses in your life that you have a tendency to turn into Toxic Stress. These are the challenges that really bug you. Don’t censor, even if you think they’re “silly” or “stupid.” If you keep turning it into Toxic Stress, trust me, it’s not silly or stupid. It’s life threatening. Now read the list. You’ve named them and now it’s time to embrace them. That’s correct. You need to see these stresses as an integral piece of your life and prepare to deal with them effectively. Face off with them. Come up with a plan of action to deal with them and tell yourself to Bring Them On! That way you won’t find yourself “coping” by burying your head in the fridge.

Go back to what you consider to be some of the roughest times in your life, and look at what the stress was. Most if not all of the time, it’s attached to some expectation. He never asked you to marry him. Your kid doesn’t reciprocate with the same level of love you have for him/her. You never expected to have a heart attack at the age of 45.

Clinging to expectations takes you to the “this isn’t fair” place. News flash: in life, fairness is a moot point. Replace expect with hope. Hope leaves open the option that anything is possible. Go down your list of stresses from #3. Start with the neighbor who ploughed through your prize bushes. “I hope, after his apology, he doesn’t do it again.” “I hope my kid one day appreciates all I have done.” Starting “hoping” rather than “expecting.”

If You Only Do One Thing This Month

Mind: When you see that cement ball of stress swingin’ your way, take a slow deep breath. Just one breath. Try it right now. Feels pretty good doesn’t it? When you breathe that way, you actually alter the levels and ratios of brain chemicals that calm you. Inhale for a count of three and exhale for a count of four. Enjoy that exhalation. In with the good, out with the bad. You’re just a breath away from less stress!

Mouth: Track what goes into your mouth. Study after study shows that the key to reducing what goes in is to write down what you’re consuming. Otherwise, especially if you are a stress overeater, you will eat more than you realize.

Muscle: Commit to 30 minutes of movement on a daily basis—you can find ½ hour. Just do it! Think of it as a crucial stress strategy.

Bleeding Edge Science

Yet another large long-range study has come out showing that any “diet” works—low fat, low carb, high protein, etc.--as long as   you cut calories and keep them lower. The best one, said the researchers, is the one “where you will not be hungry and have cravings, that is the one that will work for you.” A big caveat—all the diets were low in saturated and transfats, which are linked to heart disease and found in fried and many processed foods.

Ask the Doc

Dear Dr. Peeke,

How can I continue to practice my “gratitudes” when my whole world is changing for the worse? I had to take a 25% decrease in salary, cancel my health club membership, and stop eating out. Help!

 --RC, Savannah

Dear RC,

It may sound strange, but when times are tough, we need to count our blessings even more! That’s because the positive emotions like gratitude and optimism work like antidotes to the stress response, lightening our spirits and turning off fight and flight. So you’re right to ask the question. The trick is to think of gratitude as a both/and experience. You have a right to feel angry, sad, or upset about the changes in your life. And what can you enjoy and appreciate about your life right now? Despite what else is going on, there’s always good too—perhaps you have good health or a loving family. The more you focus on what is still positive and whole in your life, the more you’ll get the uplift, if only a little. Keep doing it!  

--Dr. Peeke

Exciting Developments from Dr. P

Watch for my upcoming March Parade magazine HealthyStyle article answering the question, “If I have time to do just one exercise, what should it be?” I will show you my favorite exercise to do when you have only 5 minutes and you want to spend those body dollars optimally. I’ll be writing as a regular contributor for Parade and will keep you updated on future articles.

Start your healthy, mindful living today. If not now, when?

Pam Peeke MD, MPH, FACP