From youth restoration to brain health – here’s how your outlook can keep you younger, longer
How do you feel when you hear good news? How about bad news? Or scary news? Our bodies are constantly attempting to maintain equilibrium. However, your environment, or at least how we perceive it, constantly tries to alter your “feelings” depending upon your interpretation. So, the question is: How do we deal with unexpected hits?
What Happens During Stress
Your body releases certain hormones during times of stress. Stress hormones are chemical messengers that help the body respond to stress and other important functions. When the body senses stress, the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland to produce a hormone, which then signals the adrenal glands to release hormones. These hormones include:
Cortisol
The primary stress hormone, cortisol, increases blood sugar levels, helps the brain use glucose, and speeds up tissue repair. It also slows down nonessential or harmful functions during a fight-or-flight response. Chronic stress can lead to high cortisol levels, which can have negative effects like digestive issues, heart disease, and a suppressed immune system.
Adrenaline
Also known as epinephrine, adrenaline increases heart rate and blood pressure and gives the body more energy.
Growth Hormone
Also known as human growth hormone (HGH) or somatotropin, growth hormone increases blood sugar and free fatty acids.
Norepinephrine
Also known as noradrenaline, norepinephrine is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter.
Dopamine and Prolactin are also stress hormones.
Stress hormones are important in certain situations, such as when you may be in real danger, or when another driver nearly swerves into you. Quick thinking and rapid reactions are necessary under these circumstances. While these hormones are essential in these acute situations, overexposure can be harmful to your body.
It’s become clear throughout the medical community that chronic stress is a major contributor to disease. The National Library of Medicine summarizes it this way, “Chronic stress has a significant effect on the immune system that ultimately manifest [as] an illness. It raises catecholamine and suppressor T cells levels, which suppress the immune system. This suppression, in turn, raises the risk of viral infection. The correlation between stressful life events and psychiatric illness is stronger than the correlation with medical or physical illness.”
Stress Can Be Seen
Your body also has ways of showing you that it’s stressed. Chronic stress creates cellular damage and releases free radicals and inflammatory molecules, which leads to tissue damage and premature aging. This can cause breakouts, dry or dull skin, redness and inflammation, dark circles around the eyes, hair loss, greying hair, weight changes, poor sleep and many other signals that are directly related to the bodies stress response.
More severe issues like cognitive decline, telomere shortening, heart disease, arthritis and even cancer has been correlated to persistent stress. With that said, the evidence is clear: Stress is a leading contributor to premature aging and many of the classical conditions that follow. But with so much valuable information at our fingertips, and a desire to live healthier, longer lives, our goal is to offer solutions for the body and mind to reverse the signs of stress.
Harnessing The Power of Positivity
You have the power to decide your outlook. It can be as simple as “Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” or “Do I want to be happy or miserable?”. William James, MD, one of the founders of the discipline of psychology, is quoted as saying: “The art of wisdom is knowing what to overlook.” The practice of overlooking what would have previously bothered you can be life-changing, providing a path to freedom from negativity since negativity can result in the over-production of stress hormones.
A July 10th, 2024 article by Serafina Kenney of Business Insider listed the nine traits of supercentenarians who have lived past 110 years. Included in the traits were:
- Being resilient in the face of hard times
- Looking for a silver lining in the face of adversity
- Being spiritual, believing in a higher power greater than us
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Taking steps to avoid chronic disease, such as avoiding bad habits such as smoking and excess alcohol
- Having a strong support network
- Frequent socializing with friends, family, and peers
- Being female
- Having long-living relatives
- Being prudent about managing money, avoiding poverty
Obviously, long-living relatives and gender cannot be predicted in your family tree. But positivity seems to be a factor in most of these things. How you view a situation, and your positive plan to deal with it can relieve a world of stress.
Positivity Looks Good On You
Lowering stress has obvious and visible benefits. From a physiological standpoint, we know that lowering stress improves the functionality of the body, boosts cellular health, and contributes to better sleep, cognitive performance, higher energy levels and better psychological health. When coupled with restorative treatments, like a good skincare routine, regular facials, and anti-aging treatments, you can reverse years from your “visible” age.
Everyone Has The Power of Positivity
Victor Frankl, MD, a psychologist and holocaust survivor who lost his wife and parents in concentration camps, said this: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Dr. Frankl went on to help many people, remarried, and had a family.
Back to William James. “The greatest discovery of any human is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.”
Live Long and Prosper!
Bonnie Marting, DNP, APRN
Palm Beach Plastic Surgery, Dr. Fredric Barr