How To Stop Stress From Controlling Your Life

Coming up on this mini episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy.

The westernization of the global diet is threatening our behavior, threatening our decision making and fostering an us versus them mentality that is pervasive around the world.

Hi, I'm Kaya Perowne, one of the producers of the Doctor's Pharmacy podcast. It can sometimes feel like stress is everywhere we turn. We know well that stress can wreak havoc on our body. It turns out that it can also influence our behaviors and drive our decision making. Dr. Hyman discussed this in recent interviews with fellow functional medicine practitioner Dr. Rangan Chatterjee and with father and son Dr. David Perlmutter and Dr. Austin Perlmutter.

Here's Dr. Hyman with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. The truth is that you can't avoid stress. Stress is just a part of life. And the question is, you know, how do you define stress? How do you relate to stress? How do you interact with it in a way that doesn't control you or affect you in the way that it could? You know, I learned that the stress is defined as the perception of a real or imagined threat to your body or your ego. So it could be a lion chasing you, that's a real threat to your body, or it could be you think your spouse is having an affair, even if they're not, your body has the same response as if it's being chased by a tiger or a lion. And I think we don't in our society have mechanisms or systems for addressing that. And not only do we not have systems, but we are exposed to chronic unremitting stress day in, day out, minute to minute, from the minute we wake up to the minute we go to sleep. And we haven't any structures in our society for really managing that.

This is a story that I think many of your listeners will be able to relate to that. In fact, I tell a story in my book about this chap who I saw He was a busy business guy in his early 50s and what's really interesting about him is that we start to measure something called heart rate variability on him. So heart rate variability.

What is that?

It's basically a measure of how, what is the beat to beat variation between our heartbeats. Now, people will think it should be like a metronome, you know, tick tock.

70, 70, 70, 70.

Yeah, but that's actually incorrect. What we're looking for is a high degree of variability.

Complexity.

Yeah, complexity. And it shows that we're constantly adapting and able to adapt to this changing environment around us. And what was interesting about- I mean.

The worst heart rhythm is got no variability. It's a flat line. Yeah.

So a low heart rate variability is actually indicative that we've got high stress levels in our body. And this chap actually on a Wednesday evening, he would find that he was drinking a lot of alcohol. He wasn't sleeping well. He was having a lot of caffeine on Thursday, more alcohol on the Thursday. He was basically, he came in, he was really, really stressed. It was impacting his relationships, impacting his sleep, et cetera, et cetera, the very common story. But as we start to look at his life and actually use HRV, heart rate variability readings, we could see that everything changed for him on a Wednesday. So what happened on a Wednesday? Lunchtime, he had a team meeting, right? He found that incredibly stressful. He had to present to his team, you know, it was quite a high pressure meeting and that stress would last throughout the day. So what would happen is on a Wednesday, late afternoon, when he would leave work, he had to compensate with that stress. How would he do that? Alcohol.

Alcohol.

So he'd open a bottle of wine, he'd have a glass, that glass, one glass would turn into two, two would turn into three and by the end of the evening, he'd have the whole bottle of wine. So what happens then? He doesn't sleep well on the Wednesday nights. So Thursday morning he's feeling groggy. Lots of coffee. He needs coffee. Lots of coffee, lots of sugar to get him through. Coffee in the afternoon as well, which again impacts his ability to sleep on Thursday nights. He's not feeling good. And that cycle continues where he's having a bottle of wine on Thursday, two bottles of wine on Friday, and et cetera, et cetera. But what did we do? We identified his trigger point was a Wednesday lunchtime. So, I could show him that on the data, he could see it very clearly. So, we discussed about certain things he might be able to do on a Wednesday evening instead of alcohol. Now, there was a yoga- Get a massage, do a yoga class. well, there was a yoga class very near his office. So, before he went home, he went to the yoga class. So, what happens then? He goes to that yoga class, that helps him de-stress. When he gets home, he no longer feels the need to drink a bottle of wine.

Yeah.

So he might have a glass, but it's one glass and it stops there.

He sleeps well.

Thursday, he feels fresh. He doesn't get as stressed at work. He doesn't have as much coffee. And. And before you know it, all we had to do was give him a yoga class on a Wednesday afternoon, and suddenly that changed his whole week. And. And people who are listening to this, I'd really ask them to reflect on their own life and think, Actually, is there a trigger point in my week where things start to go downhill?

Yeah.

Because if you can identify that and change your behavior, it is incredible what you can achieve.

In all of its many forms, overworking, under sleeping, poor food choices, and so on, stress leads to inflammation. Inflammation actually kills the brain cells that help us make good decisions, and it keeps us in fight or flight mode. Doctors Austin and David Perlmutter's recent book, Brainwash, explains the science behind this and how stress influences our decision making and drive societal disconnection.

We all know chronic stress is a problem in our lives. No one's out there looking for more chronic stress. But now what we understand is that chronic stress disables the prefrontal cortex. When you look at these animal models, you see that the neurons in the prefrontal cortex shrivel up when they're exposed to chronic stress. On the other hand, in the amygdala, they expand. You get more dendritic branches. It creates more connection. So, in the amygdala where you don't want that. So, in essence, being exposed to chronic stress is rewiring brains to favor the types of activities that create chronic stress.

And again- so wait, let me just break this down. So what you said was, when you're into chronic stress, it kills the brain cells in your adult brain that helps you make good decisions, and it makes the ones grow in the fight or flight part of your brain where you can be angry, divisive, and run or fight.

Right?

Exactly.

So that's not good.

I wish it wasn't that way, but you look at these long-term studies in humans who have undergone chronic stress, and you see that the prefrontal cortex is smaller. You can actually physically see that it is smaller in people who have had these life experiences, this chronic stress over time.

Is that like a frontal lobotomy by stress?

You know, it's actually, in a way, it's very similar because it is a disconnection. What we're offering in this book are the ways to counter this pervasive disconnection that is consciously created to take us away and to lock us in to impulsive bad decision making.

Around food, around exercise, around sex, and.

What is so concerning is that, you know, making bad food decisions increases, as you've written about, inflammation. and inflammation compromises our ability to access the prefrontal cortex. Tell us about this, because everything causes inflammation, right?

Right, we've talked about inflammation. What causes inflammation and what does it.

Do to the brain? Well, what causes inflammation? How long a list do we need? A long one, just go. Lack of restorative sleep, dietary indiscretion, sugar, well sure, sugar and other refined carbohydrates, ultra-processed foods, lack of exercise, sleep I mentioned, but very, very big, a lack of connection with nature, for example.

Or people or humans.

Yes, but even let's just talk about food. You know a little bit about food. We could probably mention this in this context. I heard about that. Food, the thing we eat. But when, you know, we talk about inflammation as a mechanism underlying our chronic degenerative conditions, the number one cause of death on planet Earth. It's called inflammaging, right? Inflammaging as well. It enhances that whole cascade dealing with aging. the number one cause of death on the planet are the chronic degenerative conditions, which are basically inflammatory conditions. Now in brainwash, we identify inflammation as threatening this connection between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, which means that this westernization of the global diet that you've written so much about, aside from its concerns with reference to increasing Alzheimer's, coronary artery disease, diabetes, you name it, The westernization of the global diet is threatening our behavior, threatening our decision making and fostering an us versus them mentality that is pervasive around the world.

This is headline news, guys. This is headline news, guys. I mean, you know, this is news for me and I feel like I'm in the know, but I didn't understand that inflammation disrupts the connection between your frontal lobe and your amygdala, which is your adult in the room. and your crazy uncle who doesn't stop drinking, smoking and yelling and fighting with everybody.

Wow.

We look around and see what's going on around our planet right now with respect to total disregard for the planet, total disregard for our neighbors, and certainly aggressive approaches to what goes on in other countries. And now we understand that this isn't the entire explanation, but it's factoring in.

So literally, you know, the inflammation of the brain and the body causes the inflammation of our emotions and our behavior.

Exactly. It really does. We use that terminology.

There's science behind this.

You bet. We use that terminology. I'm really feeling, oh, I'm just on fire right now. And we know it to be true. Let me give you an example.

He's a hothead, right?

Yeah, a hothead. I love it. You're up all night for whatever reason. You're traveling or you're a medical resident, whatever you may be. And how do you feel the next day? You darn well know.

Feel like crap.

You feel like crap and your decisions are impulsive. You eat crap because you just choose something quickly. You're not thinking about your future.

And you crave more carbs if you don't sleep.

You absolutely do. You crave carbs to the extent that the average increased caloric consumption in somebody who chronically deprives himself or herself of sleep is 380 kilocalories a day.

It's like a pound a week.

It's a pound about every week, that's right. And it doesn't take long. When you gain that weight and you increase your body fat, what does that do? It compromises your ability to get a good night's sleep. That creates yet another feed forward cycle. And we know that body fat is a prime source of inflammation in the body as well. So this becomes feed forward and things get worse and worse and worse. and what we offer in the new book are the off ramps. Now we have a 10 day plan, 10 different things to think about, but it doesn't matter which off ramp you start with. Each of those will in some way improve your momentary decision making. It might be just dedicate that tonight you're gonna get a good restorative night's sleep or finally get 20 minutes of exercise or learn how to meditate, whatever it may be, which will then pave the way for better decision making moving forward.

Stopping the cascade of stress responses in your life can sometimes be as simple as doing the next best thing you can do. Dr. Hyman often refers to this as making a gentle U-turn. There are many ways to do this, whether it be pausing to drink a glass of water, to breathe, to move your body, or to meditate. Connecting to nature can also be an incredibly effective way to lower your stress levels. By learning how to identify and respond to emotional, physical, and lifestyle imbalances that keep you from feeling your best, you can create a healthy you and contribute to a healthier us. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy. If you'd like to learn more, please check out Dr. Hyman's full-length interviews with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee and Dr. David and Austin Perlmutter.

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Until next time.

Hi, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit IFM.org and search their Find a Practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed.

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