In this week’s podcast, we discuss the metabolic effects of chronic psychological stress. Our body’s stress response system has been honed and refined for over millions of years to deal with physical stress in an extremely effective manner. However, our body handles the stress we feel sitting in traffic the same as if a tiger was chasing us through the jungle. We have a sudden urge of cortisol and adrenaline designed to provide our body with the best chance of surviving this stressful event. Again, if a tiger is chasing us, we want and need this to happen. However, having the same response while sitting in a car in the middle of traffic can be damaging to our hearts.

This response to stress is often referred to as the HPA – Axis, which stand for hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenals. This is the order in which the signal from our brain leaves and eventually produces stress hormones from our adrenals. Chronic stress disrupts this system and leads to HPA – Axis dysfunction which will eventually lead to heart disease.

In order – exposure to various stressors causes HPA-axis dysfunction, leading to abnormal cortisol levels, and then heart disease. 

This is independent of diet and one of the main reasons why adopting effective stress management techniques is so important. You can exercise frequently and eat healthy but if you continually expose your body to extreme stress, you are creating an environment for heart disease to appear, completely negating all the hard work you do in the gym and kitchen.

To learn more about the precise mechanism on how stress causes heart disease, listen to this week’s podcast.