What doesn't kill you...

How stress can enhance our health & how much exercise is good for us

We all know that chronic stress negatively affects our health. In fact, according to an article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in 2017, ‘stress is the common risk factor of 75%–90% diseases’. However, stress can also enhance health. This topic has become really popular over the last 20 years and gave rise to a lot of research. Hence the number of papers I cite below…

Mother Nature’s Mechanism

According to an article, this time in Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology,

the short-term (fight-or-flight) stress response (lasting for minutes to hours) is nature’s fundamental survival mechanism that enhances protection and performance under conditions involving threat/challenge/opportunity.

The following graphic describes the physiological and biochemical responses of plants to stressors. It shows that small doses of stress actually stimulate the growth of plants. However, as the stress level increases, the same stress inhibits their growth.

Source: Ecotoxicology & Environmental Safety (2021)

As is often the case, what is true for plants is also true for us. Short-term stress can stimulate and help our body adapt and strengthen. In this sense, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

A Way to Manage our Health?

As I was talking to my husband about the topic of this newsletter, he told me straight away ‘that’s exactly what you do all the time!’ He is right, I rely a lot of hormesis to improve my health, including exercising, intermittent fasting, taking cold baths, breath retention, High Intensity Interval Training… In all these situations, I put my body under short-lived stress to trigger a positive adaptive response.

Source: Image by Daniel Reche @ Pixabay

The fact that stress should be short-lived is crucial. So is the intensity. We need to find the right dose of stress, to avoid burnout. When it comes to exercising, I believe that both extremes have negative effects. Not doing enough (ie inactivity) is bad. But so is doing too much (ie exertion).

I really believe that yoga & breathwork offer great opportunities to challenge yourself enough to trigger positive adaptive responses, without overdoing it. But I’m 100% biased ;-)

See you on the mat

Véronique