From microbes to attitude adjustment: alternative approaches to stress management

Introduction

Stress is an integral component of modern life.  Hans Selye, the father of modern stress theory once said that “everyone knows what stress is, but nobody really knows” because it is difficult to define in tangible terms.  In general, stress may be described as a state of mental, physical and emotional strain resulting from adverse and challenging circumstances.

In recent years huge advancements have been made in understanding the nature of stress, its impact on our general wellbeing and most importantly what can be done to manage it.   From “psychobiotics” to Emotional Freedom Techniques and mindfulness to attitude adjustment, this article explains in brief that although stress is unavoidable it can be managed in creative and surprising ways.

What is Stress?

Stress has been defined as the “trash of modern life – we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly it will pile up and overtake your life” – Danzae Pace.  The body’s defences kick into high gear via the “fight-or-flight” response – a complex reaction of neurologic and endocrinologic systems known as the ‘General Adaptive Response’.

A stressor is any disturbance that can trigger the stress response and may be categorised as:

1. Physiological – puts strain on the body (injury, chronic illness, poor diet).
2. Psychological – situations, individuals, comments, or anything we interpret as threatening.

The body, however, was never designed to be in a state of emergency for long periods of time.  In the past, a physical threat to our ancestors would pass quickly – a sabre tooth tiger would either kill them or they would manage to flee!  Either way the event usually resolved expeditiously.  In today’s world, however, modern stressors such as financial insecurity or employment difficulties may not pass for a very long time.  The consequence is that the stress response is being triggered too often leading to chronic stress and contributing to 70-80% of chronic diseases worldwide.  Diseases whose development has been linked to chronic stress include cardiovascular dysfunctions, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disorders, depression and anxiety (Mariotti, 2015).

Physiology of Stress – in a nutshell

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) controls body functions necessary for survival: heart rate, breathing, digestion and blood pressure.  The ANS has two branches – Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).  Perceived stress triggers ANS to SNS arousal – ‘fight or flight’ where the body is flooded with stress hormones cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline.  In SNS arousal blood pressure increases, pupils dilate, bronchia dilate, peristalsis in the GI tract is inhibited and blood is directed from viscera to brain, arms, legs and heart. When in SNS arousal the body gets to work restoring ‘homeostasis’ – the PNS or ‘rest and digest’ state.  Chronic stress leads to elevated cortisol levels, adrenal fatigue and sleep disorders. It has detrimental effects on physical health, including the progression of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and disturbances in gut microbiota (Gao et al, 2018).  However, the good news is that recent research suggests that much can be done to manage our stress levels and a new area of study in particular – ‘psychobiotics’ – shows significant promise.

‘Psychobiotics’: can gut microbiota influence emotions?

In 2014 researchers at UCC discovered that people who are clinically depressed have less diversity in the bacteria in their gut than people who are not depressed and described specific bacteria that when consumed have a beneficial impact on cognition and mood (Anderson et al, 2017).  The vagus nerve terminates in the brain stem but has specific neural links to regions of the brain that are associated with mood and stress responses.  One animal study found that the microbe Bifidobacteria infantis was shown to significantly increase tryptophan levels – a precursor to the neurotransmitter serotonin which contributes to wellbeing and feeling good (Desbonneta et al, 2008). Another study discovered that mice fed with L. rhamnosus exhibited less cortisol secretion in response to stressors as well as an increase in Gamma Amino Butyric Acid (GABA) – a neurotransmitter that calms the nerves and increases gamma brain waves which are associated with balanced brain activity and coherent thought (Bravo et al, 2011).

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

EFT or Tapping is a form of energy psychology – a modern fusion of Chinese Acupressure and Modern Psychology that works to physically alter the brain, energy system and body simultaneously.  It is becoming widely regarded as one of the most natural ways to recover from emotional and physical trauma.  The practice consists of tapping on specific meridian points while talking through traumatic emotions. Excellent results have been observed with phobias and PTSD.   Studies at Harvard Medical School show that EFT increases GABA and calms the amygdala – part of the limbic system in the brain that processes emotions and initiates the stress response. Another study published in the prestigious Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, the oldest peer-reviewed psychology journal in the United States, found that EFT lowered the major stress hormone cortisol significantly more than other interventions tested (Church, 2012).

Altering Attitudes and Perceptions

Not all stress is created equal and positive stress or ‘eustress’ actually primes the body and mind to tackle challenging situations.  Eustress is the stress we feel when we challenge ourselves or extend our boundaries and in the short term can be very positive.  Changing our attitudes and beliefs about stress can also be very liberating.  Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked almost 29,000 people to rate their level of stress as well as how much they believed this stress influenced their health. Those who believed stress had a large impact on their health had a whopping 43% increased risk of death! Those that experienced a lot of stress but did not perceive its effects as negative had lower mortality rates. The conclusion is that our beliefs about stress affect our biology (see Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Belief or Kelly McGonigal’s TED Talk How to Make Stress Your Friend).  Interpreting stress as a helpful reminder that we are out of balance and need to take affirmative action has a less detrimental effect on the body than believing that it is something that will ultimately kill us.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment, the NOW, and is developed through meditation.  MRI scans show that after an eight-week course of mindfulness practice, the brain’s “fight or flight” centre, the amygdala – which initiates the stress response, appears to shrink.

Mindfulness practice increases one’s ability to recruit pre-frontal cortex regions of the brain and subdues lower-order brain activity. In other words, our more primal responses to stress can be superseded by conscious self-regulation (Ireland, 2014).

Conclusion

Stress is an unavoidable by-product of modern life.  However, it can be managed by changes in diet, lifestyle, behaviours and attitudes.  Developments in both the scientific and complementary fields offer new hope that although stress is pervasive in modern society it no longer need be debilitating.

References

Anderson, S.C., Cryan, J.F. and Dinan, T. (2017) The Psychobiotic Revolution, National Geographic.

Bravo, J.A. et al (2011) Ingestion of Lactobacillus strain regulates emotional behavior and central GABA receptor expression in a mouse via the vagus nerve, PNAS September 20, 108 (38), pp. 16050-16055.

Church, D. and Young, G. (2012) The Effect of Emotional Freedom techniques on Stress Biochemistry: A Randomized Controlled Trial, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 200(10), pp. 891–896.

Desbonneta, L. et al (2008) The probiotic Bifidobacteria infantis: an assessment of potential antidepressant properties in the rat, Journal of Psychiatric Research 43(2),  pp 164-174.

Gao, X. et al (2018) Chronic stress promotes colitis by disturbing the gut microbiota and triggering immune system response, Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA, March 27, 2018 115 (13) pp. E2960-E2969.

Ireland, T (2014) What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain?, Scientific American, Guest Blog, June 12, 2014.

Mariotti, A. (2015) The effects of chronic stress on health: new insights into the molecular mechanisms of brain–body communication, Future Science OA, 2015 (Nov), 1(3).