Robert Ridpath, functional medicine specialist and author of TLC for the Body, Mind and Soul

Stress management starts from the inside with balancing your physiology. This happens by reducing your stress hormone (cortisol) levels through optimizing your blood sugar levels, movement patterns and sleep cycle! These are easily modifiable lifestyle factors directly under your control. Why just manage your stress when you can reduce it with straightforward de-stressing lifestyle choices?

Meditation, positive visualization and other relaxation techniques are helpful for relaxing and unwinding as they reduce the stress response and assist in clearing cortisol - the stress hormone - from the body. However, a more important question is “why is cortisol elevated in the first place and what can I do to prevent it from rising?” Why not set yourself up to win by controlling or optimizing your physiology and applying some core fundamental lifestyle strategies which prevent the elevation of cortisol in the first place? This puts you in a better state to buffer stress when it does happen. Stress management involves cortisol balancing, aka de-stressing.

Stress reduction (cortisol reduction) involves looking at the multiple factors which cause the body to produce and clear cortisol. Here’s a quick physiology lesson for you. Cortisol levels peak in the morning, drop quickly towards lunch, then there is a bit of a peak after work. Then, they fall to their lowest level at bedtime (when you don’t want to be in the fight or flight mode).

Cortisol is elevated in the morning to get us up to take on the day and to mobilize muscle to use the amino acids to product blood sugar. How could we slow this process? By providing an external source of energy so the body doesn’t need to make it and by providing a source of amino acids to prevent muscle wasting.

So, eat breakfast with carbs and protein. Protein is vital to reduce cortisol in the morning. So are low glycemic carbohydrates which change our physiology away from a muscle burning to a muscle sparing mode.

(As an aside, muscle is the primary tissue where we burn fat. If you lose muscle, you lose your ability to burn fat.)

The American Heart Association stated that eating breakfast reduces your risk to diabetes and cardiovascular disease by 37-55%. A study of over 2000 people who lost over 20 lbs and kept it off for 10 years reported that more than 90% ate breakfast. Of the over 500+ doctors I’ve consulted with, the most important strategy they recommend to patients to feel better, de-stress and lose weight is to eat a good breakfast with protein!!

Another dietary mistake which elevates cortisol (and promotes muscle loss) is skipping meals. The corresponding drop in blood sugar stimulates the release of multiple hormones, including cortisol, to increase blood sugar by burning amino acids. To prevent this, you really should try to eat every 3-4 hours to stabilize and thus optimize your physiology to produce less cortisol.

Eating foods which spike blood sugar (the high glycemic index - GI- foods) may also contribute to low blood sugar drops. This too may also initiate cortisol release. Eating meals that contain low GI carbs, quality protein, good fats, fibers and phytonutrients will make an incredible difference in your health and wellbeing. Consumption of the phytonutrient rich foods such as fruits, veggies, berries, herb and spices are also strongly associated with stable blood sugar and reduced stress. And they taste great!

When does your body need more food energy? Early in the day when you haven’t eaten for 10-12 hours and when you are busy and active? At night time when you are less active and winding down to rest? Most people eat like an upside down pyramid! That is, they eat little early in the day and most of their calories later in the day. It should be exactly the opposite. Eat most of your food early in the day (big breakfast) and less at dinner and evening time. Breakfast also sets you up to win by affecting your next two meal choices!

One more point on food. Chronic stress contributes to the loss of minerals (calcium, magnesium, etc) and the loss of B vitamins. Nutrient deficiencies (chromium, magnesium, B vitamins, essential fatty acids etc) are clearly associated with elevated cortisol, increased stress perception and elevated cortisol levels. My personal belief is that we all need to consume a good multi vitamin/mineral and an essential fatty acid supplement to optimize our health and to keep stress low.

Quality sleep is vital for stress management and de-stressing. Deep sleep helps the body clear cortisol from your system. Thus, anything which disrupts deep sleep will affect cortisol clearance and contributes to cortisol load. Alcohol, some medications or herbs, a snoring partner, chronic pain, inflammation and poor blood sugar management (snacking late, junk foods etc) with the associated drops in blood sugar can initiate the release of cortisol during sleep, thus preventing one from getting enough deep sleep.

How do you feel and function after a poor nights sleep? How is your mood, outlook on the day or your ability to handle and buffer stress? We innately know the answer. Lack of sleep (sleep debt) will drive up cortisol production, increase cravings for carbs, reduce our will power and set us up to gain weight and fail. Sleep debt also tends to give us a negative outlook on life and reduces our ability to buffer the next bout of stress.

(*Did you know fat cells can release cortisol? More fat = more cortisol.*)

Some simple tips for stress and to sleep better:

• Go to bed at the same time and wake at the same time

• Eat breakfast, eat more early in the day

• Light dinner and don’t eat much before bed

• Avoid stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, some drugs or herbs)

• Resist napping

• Don’t watch TV or use the computer right before bed-possibly read for 15 minutes

• Keep your room a bit cool (16-18C)

• Use ear plugs if there is excessive noise

• Keep your room very dark and use an eye mask if it isn’t

• If your partner snores, someone may have to move to a different room! No sense two people suffering.

Muscle tension (“stress”) is released with movement. Movement promotes the clearing of cortisol as it simultaneously releases endorphins which put us in a better state of mind. Having stated this, high intensity exercise may in fact actually increase cortisol and should be avoided if one is highly stressed and/or right before bed time. Thus lower intensity activity is best. Stretching, massage and other forms of gentle movement can be highly beneficial. Finally, movement also has the benefit of optimizing blood sugar levels, initiating sleep as well as promoting deeper sleep. Would it be possible for you to move more for fun, joy, purpose and socialization in your daily routine?

Cortisol reduction starts from the inside and involves eating right, moving right and sleeping right. I wrote about this extensively in my book entitled TLC for the Body, Mind and Soul- Addressing the underlying causes of chronic illness. I have also posted educational videos at www.healthsynergy.ca

This blog has a tremendous wealth of other great articles on de-stressing and stress management, so go forth and explore.

I hope this serves you well and allows you to live a happier, healthier and low stress life.

Best of health and spirits,

Robert Ridpath

Robert Ridpath - Functional Medicine Specialist, athlete, author, educator, sculptor, photographer. Roberts training is in Nutritional Biochemistry, Exercise Physiology and Nutritional Immunology. Over the last 20 years he has consulted with over 500 different clinics and doctors’ educating and sharing the concepts of Nutritional and Functional Medicine. Robert has achieved professional status in two sports (Motocross and triathlon) and is a top master’s cyclist (Mountain bike). He is an active cross country skier and lover of hockey, dogs , his two wonderful daughters and his wife Heather. His first book is entitled TLC for the Body, Mind and Soul – Addressing the underlying causes of chronic illness. He has co-founded Health Synergy Inc Canada which produces educational materials for clinicians and doctors. Robert is currently presenting a seminar series on addressing the underlying causes of chronic illness and “dis-eases” in southern Ontario Canada.

www.HealthSynergy.Ca

Related articles:

Food and Stress: Overcoming Stress Eating | Randy Gilchrist Psy.D.

Stress and Sugar Cravings

Mindful Eating: Digging Out the Roots of Compulsive Eating

Visit the above website for more of Robert Ridpath's info on stress and sleep, exercise, stress and eating, cortisol reduction or to read TLC for the Body, Mind and Soul. Remember also to keep visiting The Ultimate Stress Blog.

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