Elissa Epel, Ph.D. (@TelomereEffect), professor and vice chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the author of a new book entitled The Stress Prescription. Her research focuses on how psychosocial and behavioral factors, such as meditation and positive stress, can slow aging.
Andrew Huberman and Elissa Epel discuss how stress impacts mood, eating, mental and physical health, and aging. They also dive into stress interventions to optimize health, breathwork, positive and negative sides of stress, and much more.
Host: Andrew Huberman (@hubermanlab)
Stress can be beneficial and problematic depending on the type, context, etc.
Stress is broadly defined as anytime the demands are too much for our resources
We will never get rid of stress but we can control how we respond
“Our thoughts are the most common forms of stress.” – Dr. Elissa Epel
First of all, we need awareness of how our mind works – the majority of people feel overwhelmed by stress
Young adults feel stress more than people 65+
Recognize how you hold stress in your body – for example, do you clench your fists? Tense your shoulders?
Tips to manage stress and negative thinking patterns:
Top-down strategy: beliefs and mindsets can help us release stress and use stress more positively – what you tell yourself matters
“The mind doesn’t change the body, the body changes the mind.” – Dr. Elissa Epel
Change the scene: get away from stress triggers and go to a place that makes you calm (whether this is a physical space, pictures in the house, pet, etc.)
Our body is vigilant in scanning for stress cues – the stress response is exhausting to the body because we have to mount a big response but we aren’t good at turning it off without intervention
Tip: at any moment we can take control of our breathing (more on this later)
Acute stress response: every cell and hormone is undergoing a stress response to allow us to increase capacity and focus
Moderately stressful events take days or months – here it’s important to notice whether you are coping acutely with something or whether you can take time to restore
Chronic stressful situations go on for years and maybe can’t be changed, such as caregiving – here we want to use radical acceptance strategies to live well again without toll on the body
Toxic, chronically, unmitigated stress will accelerate aging – but – a life with no stress will also induce rapid aging and reduced cognitive health (because of lack of stimulation)
Having no stress means we’re not really engaging in life
Physical stressors (like exercise) promote aerobic fitness and stress fitness; people who exercise feel less rumination, less depression, less anxiety
Psychological stressors can also build stress resilience – you can tilt your body towards a “challenge-response” where you are in an excited but calmer state as opposed to a “threat response”
Trauma sensitizes emotional stress response
Remind yourself that stress response is empowering, the body is doing just what it should
Our opioid system (neurons in our brain and body) helps us feel less pain
People fall into two categories when it comes to stress and eating: overeaters or undereaters
Overeaters (more common): stress response drives cravings and insulin resistance state, people can’t control eating and think about food a lot
Under eaters: highly sympathetic, digestive system shuts down, more alertness and arousal
With repeated stress most people gain weight: the body stores stress fat and crave consuming foods high in fat, sugar, and processed – particularly in people with obesity
The more insulin resistant you are, the more your reward center lights up during stress
Compulsive eating: mindful eating won’t cause a lot of weight loss alone but people benefit from learning calm, self-regulation, checking in with hunger, slowing down
Naltrexone and Wellbutrin have been shown to clamp down on food cravings and obesity but we really need to address nutrition for long-term health
“We override effects of any drug with our diet.” – Dr. Elissa Epel
Tips if you binge eat to comfort or alleviate stress: change the scene, separate emotions from hunger and label emotions (is it hunger or boredom?), ride the craving wave and watch it pass (know it’s short-lived), take a walk, get away from food and create safe environments
The lowdown on sugary drinks: when you get the sugar, you get a feel-good response which triggers compulsivity because you want to get rid of feeling bad
Remember, drinking sugar is really the worst form for your body because liquid goes to your brain immediately
Dissonance: showing people how the food industry has been manipulative has changed behavior out of anti-establishment sentiment
When you start pregnancy with excess weight, you’re particularly vulnerable to gaining much more
Stress reduction training during pregnancy helped women improve insulin sensitivity during pregnancy and for years following
As a result, babies came out with less obesity, less illness in the first year, and improved stress response over the first year
8 years later babies and moms still faired better than a control group
Elements of mindfulness intervention: close eyes, feel body and label emotion, breathe, move the body, put hands on the belly to feel breathing
A body scan removed the stress, anxiety, and food cravings
Cravings hijack the prefrontal cortex – body scan draws attention inward toward interoception and away from external stimulus
Slower biological aging in meditation interventions and dampened inflammatory pathways
Boosts in telomerase activity
Improvement in gene expression pathways
Transcendental meditation retreats ranging from 2 days to 8 days have long-lasting effects – the most important message is short bouts every day are key
Nature is a strong stimulus for stress reduction
The window after the psychedelic journey is where the most rewiring and adjustments in the brain take place
Intolerance of uncertainty induces stress, anxiety, and a lack of resilience
Early research using the daily Wim Hof breathing method created positive internal emotions sustained over time
Some people look better under chronic stress than others
Caregiving moms who have dampened mitochondrial activity means they can’t produce as much energy and feel exhausted
Caregivers who have better mitochondrial activity produce greater ATP (energy), even at the end of the day which is a predictor of health trajectory
Our mitochondria are sensitive to thoughts and feelings on a daily basis
Radical acceptance strategies for mitigating non-negotiable stressors:
Mindset – ask yourself how much time you spend wishing things were different and recognize it won’t go away, releasing the space it’s taking
Measure where your mind is at night – ask yourself, (1) how many times you’ve wished things were different in the last five minutes; (2) how much have you been engaged and focused in what you’re doing?
Wishing things were different shortens telomeres
Tell yourself to drop the rope: instead of tugging on a rope attached to a brick wall you want to move and chafing your hands, just drop the rope and accept the wall won’t move
The stress system distorts our perception of time and we try to rewrite the story by re-engaging again and again
Why do we try to change the unchangeable: we want to control the future so we can relax
Articles
The geroscience agenda: Toxic stress, hormetic stress, and the rate of aging (Ageing Research Reviews)
THE IMPACT OF MEANINGFUL VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT IN AGING ADULTS: THE BALTIMORE EXPERIENCE CORPS TRIAL (Innovation in Aging)
Potential role for adult neurogenesis in the encoding of time in new memories (Nature Neuroscience)
The mindful moms training: development of a mindfulness-based intervention to reduce stress and overeating during pregnancy (BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth)
Can Meditation Slow Rate of Cellular Aging? Cognitive Stress, Mindfulness, and Telomeres (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)
A Mitochondrial Health Index Sensitive to Mood and Caregiving Stress (Biological Psychiatry)
Embodying Psychological Thriving: Physical Thriving in Response to Stress (Journal of Social Issues)
Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms (Ageing Research Reviews)
Neurogenesis in the adult human hippocampus (Nature Medicine)
Impact of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial on cortical and hippocampal volumes (Alzheimer’s & Dementia)
Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Distress, Weight Gain, and Glucose Control for Pregnant Low-Income Women: A Quasi-Experimental Trial Using the ORBIT Model (International Journal of Behavioral Medicine)
Books
The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer
The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease (The Seven Days Series)