How Does Stress Affect Our Health?

A few months ago I was talking to a friend about the health problems related to stress. He told me that aside from losing sleep and raising our blood pressure, he didn’t see how stress could affect our health.

Yet many studies show that stress may be related to 80% to 90% of the health problems we face today. Even cancer is believed to be stress related. Some problems are a direct result of stress and sometimes stress weakens an already existing condition.

How can this be? How can a simple feeling cause so many health problems? Let me explain by comparing it to something you’re probably familiar with.

You are probably familiar with adrenaline. Our bodies produce adrenaline in tense situations, like emergencies. People have been known to do some amazing things because of adrenaline.

Our bodies produce various types of chemicals under different types of emotions. Under stress our bodies produce a chemical called cortisol.

Small amounts of cortisol can actually be good for us. When we exercise, for example, our bodies produce cortisol as a result of the physical stress of exercise. Cortisol breaks down muscle tissue. Our immune system goes to work to heal the cells damaged by cortisol and makes the tissue stronger and more resistant than before.

Today we face higher levels of stress than our ancestors did. Our bodies produce excessive amounts of cortisol. The damage done by cortisol is extensive. It even damages the cells of our immune system making it harder for our bodies to heal themselves.

Can you see now why stress causes so many health problems? The good news is there are ways to combat stress. I listed some of these ways in my previous post. Click here to see that post.

In my next few postings I will cover these in more detail.

Stress: Why Should We Be Concerned?

When most of us think of stress, we think of stress from the job, stress from paying the bills, or the stress from personal relationships.

We don’t often think of the other things in our day that cause stress. Getting up to an alarm clock, the drive to work, or the stress of an improper diet.

Stress is most often thought of as the body’s response to an unknown or dangerous situation. The “fight or flight” response. The heart quickens and the senses become heightened. In a dangerous situation this may be helpful, but long term stress can be very detrimental to our health and may even be deadly.

There are many different types of stress:

• Acute stress: A sudden and short response to an unknown or dangerous situation. For example: A traffic accident.
  
  
• Episodic acute stress: Many episodes of acute stress, one right after another.
  
  
• Physical stress: Although physical activity can be stressful to the body, physical stress can also include exposure to toxins (pollutants in the air or additives to our food) or an improper diet. Obesity can also cause physical stress.
  
  
• Chronic stress: Ongoing, stressful situation, often with no end in sight. Some examples: Being in debt or being in an abusive relationship.
  
  
• Traumatic stress: Brought on by a catastrophic event, such as the death of a loved one.

According to the AMA (American Medical Association) 80% of all illness is related to stress. Sometimes stress is the direct cause of the illness. Sometimes it worsens an already existing condition. 2/3 of the prescriptions written in the United States are to combat stress.

To give you just a short list of problems brought on by stress: depression, heart disease, stroke, obesity and cancer. These conditions could eventually lead to premature death.

So what can we do about it? I will cover that in more detail in future articles, but for now here are some suggestions:

• Write about it: Sometimes writing about what you’re stressed about can release some frustrations.
  
  
• Physical activity: Exercise can help release a lot of tension. Walking, jogging, bicycling are great forms of exercise. Dancing can also help. You don’t have to go out to do it. Put on some of your favorite music and enjoy yourself. I’m a practitioner of the martial arts. I found I could release a lot of frustration pounding away on a heavy bag.
  
  
• Medication or supplements: As I stated earlier, 2/3 of the prescriptions written in the U.S. are to combat stress. But medication can also be toxic to the body, which means physical stress. In this case the risks must be weighed against the advantages. There are, however, natural supplements that can help combat stress. I will discuss those in future articles.

In my next article I will discuss how stress affects the immune system and ultimately, your health.

How To Calculate Your Caloric Needs

To lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume. But most people don’t even know how many calories they burn to begin with.

The number of calories you need each day to maintain a healthy body weight will very greatly depending on your current weight and activity level.

I’ve seen a number of different formulas to calculate individual caloric needs. Some are complex. I like things that are simple.

Here is a simple formula:

Step 1: Calculate a base number.

• If you are a man: Multiply your body weight by 11.
  
• If you are a woman: Multiply your body weight by 10.

Step 2: Calculate the calories required for your activity level.

• Low activity: Base number times .2
  
• Moderate activity: Base number times .3
  
• Active: Base number times .4
  
• High activity: Base number times .5

Step 3: Digesting food will also burn calories. To calculate this, take the result in Step 2 and multiply by .1.

Step 4: Add the results from Steps 1, 2 and 3 together.

Here’s an example: A man of moderate activity level wants to know his caloric needs. He weighs 237 pounds and would like to get down to about 175.

Step 1: Body weight times 11.

237 X 11 = 2607

Step 2: Base number times .3

2607 X .3 = 782

Step 3: The result in Step 2 times .1

782 X .1 = 78

Step 4: Add the results together:

2607 + 782 + 78 = 3467

To lose weight he should consume just under 3000 calories per day. He should also increase his physical activity.

Remember, this is not an exact science. I’ve known people to worry because they had five more calories today than they did yesterday. That’s no big deal. You need to know approximately how much you need daily. And you should know approximately how much you consume each day. Then, to lose weight consume less than you need (about 500 less per day).

You, of course, will need to make adjustments as your body changes and as you change your level of physical activity.

Let’s take one more example: A woman who is 180 pounds, is active and would like to get down to 150 or 160.

Step 1:

180 X 10 = 1800

Step 2:

1800 X .4 = 720

Step 3:

720 X .1 = 72

Step 4:

1800 + 720 + 72 = 2592

To lose weight, she should consume about 2000 calories per day. She could also maintain her activity level or step it up to a higher level.

I hope this formula helps you.

“How can I eat more and lose weight?”

I was talking to a friend once who complained that she kept cutting back on calories to a point where she felt she was hardly eating anything, yet she was still gaining weight.

I told her the first thing she would need to do is eat more. This didn’t make sense to her and she rejected my advice.

Later she joined a well known weight loss program. Guess what they told her. She would need to eat more. She followed their advice and was surprised to find she lost weight.

“It doesn’t make sense,” she said to me. “How can I eat more and lose weight?” To understand this we must first understand why we gain weight in the first place.

You may have heard it said that to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you consume. Most people take that to mean they must cut back on calories. For some that may be the case, but for others it may backfire.

The real secret to maintaining a healthy weight lies in your metabolism. You metabolism is the rate at which your body burns energy. The more energy you burn, the more fat you will burn. Anything that causes your metabolism to slow down can cause your to gain weight.

At the end of the day, any unused energy must be stored. Your body will produce fat cells in order to store the unused energy. The only way to burn this fat is to burn the energy.

You only need to cut back on calories if you consume too many in the first place. If you cut back too far, it can cause your metabolism to slow down. If your metabolism slows too much, you will have unused energy and you will gain weight.

Let’s say you need 2500 calories of energy per day. You can lose weight by cutting back to 2000 calories per day.

If you cut back too far, you are cutting back on energy that your body needs. Let’s say you cut back to 1600 calories. Your metabolism must slow down to compensate. But since your body doesn’t know when you’re going to feed it again, it will slow your metabolism down far enough to conserve energy. It will slow it down below the amount you’re consuming. Let’s say it slows down to 1200 calories. That leaves 400 calories per day that must be stored. The body will produce fat cells to store this unused energy.

To maintain a healthy weight, you must consume enough calories to keep your energy levels up, but burn a little more than what you consume. Everybody’s nutritional needs are different. In my next post I will give you a simple formula to determine how many calories you need every day so you can adjust your caloric intake accordingly.

What is a Calorie?

If someone were to ask you to define the word calorie do you think you could?

I asked my wife one day, “Do you know what a calorie is?”

She said, “The only thing I know about calories is that they’re not my friends.”

I find that most people think they know what a calorie is, but when you ask them to define it, they can’t. Calorie is a word that is so often used that people think they know what it is even though no one has ever defined it for them. They only know they count calories when dieting.

I’ll give you the dictionary definition, then I’ll explain it so you can understand it.

A calorie is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius.

Huh? What does that have to do with dieting?

Simply put, a calorie is a unit of measurement for energy. Just like we can talk about gallons of water, we can talk about calories of energy. Food does not actually contain calories. The calories on the food labels are the approximate amount of energy your body will get from that food when your body digests it.

If you know you need 2,000 calories a day, and what you are eating will give you 200 calories, you know that it provides 1/10th of the energy you need for the day.
I’ve known people who keep cutting back on calories and wonder why they are so tired. They believe that to lose weight they must cut back on calories.

But cutting back on calories means cutting back on energy. Calories are the fuel for your body. It’s like planning a trip in your car, but not putting enough gas in it to get to your destination.

The fact is, cutting back on calories may even cause you to gain weight. In my next post, I’ll explain why that happens.

Understanding Your Health

Have you ever wondered how it is you can eat less and still gain weight? Or have you ever wondered how stress can affect you health in so many ways? How can some people get up every morning and workout, while others (maybe even you) can't get the motivation to do so? Where does that motivation come from?

It is my intention to answer those questions here as best I can. I believe that most of the health problems in our world today stem from misinformation and false beliefs about proper diet and exercise. I’ve seen people virtually starving themselves to death and wondering why they can’t lose weight. I’ve seen people avoid carbohydrates because some doctor said we should and then can’t understand why they are tired all the time. I’ve seen people buy the latest weight loss product or piece of fitness equipment only to see them later, not taking the product or the machine sits in the corner collecting dust.

I have studied fitness and nutrition most of my adult life (I am now 46) and I wish to write, in simple terms, what I’ve learned about fitness, nutrition and good health. I will cover such topics as:

• Healthy eating
• Stress and stress management
• Weight loss (what it actually takes)
• Supplements (what they will and will not do)
• Exercise

It is my wish that you will find the information here helpful to you and your understanding of your health. Please feel free to ask questions about general health issues. Send questions to me at: jwashburnceo@yahoo.com. I am not a doctor, so please do not take my advice as medical advice. If you have a specific condition you want to know more about, please ask your physician.

Sincerely,
Joe Washburn