How stress is derailing your immune system

In the time of COVID-19, there has been endless talk about medications and fast-tracking vaccines, but I have heard virtually ZERO conversation about enhancing the body’s own immune function by so many things directly under our control.

The environment in which most Americans live SUPPRESSES immune function in so many ways. Chronic stress, nutrient-poor diets filled with inflammatory foods, zero engagement with the outdoors, chronic-sleep deprivation, lack of movement- it all takes a compounding toll on our body’s ability to defend itself.

In the next few blog posts, I’m going to unpack this for you and help make these concepts more accessible, as well as give you some real actions you can take to meaningfully support your immune system now and beyond the pandemic.

HOW OUR BODY REACTS TO STRESS

In order to understand how stress negatively affects immune function, we need a working understanding of some basic physiology. Allow me to introduce the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

This is the system of nerves that exists in the periphery, meaning outside of your spine and brain, which regulates bodily functions like digestion, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. The ANS is just as it sounds, automatic, involuntary, meaning you don’t control it.

The ANS is further broken down into 3 sub-systems:

sympathetic nervous system (SNS) or the “fight or flight” system
parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) or the “rest and digest “system
enteric nervous system (ENS) the nerves that line the digestive tract

We will focus on the SNS and PNS for today. Let’s use the bear in the woods analogy, well, because it just works.

Imagine yourself in the woods and that you’re confronted with a blood-thirsty bear that wants to eat you. Your body automatically goes into fight or flight mode, or sympathetic mode. It’s not a decision you make. All resources and energy are focused towards helping you escape that bear- vessels expand, blood flow to your muscles increases (so you can fight or flee), heart rate increases, glucose (blood sugar) is mobilized for energy.

With all of this prioritized, things like digestion, sexual function, and you guessed it, immune function are de-prioritized because, in this moment, they just aren’t important.

When the threat is removed your body returns to “rest and digest”, or parasympathetic mode, where basic bodily functions like immune function is restored.

THE PROBLEM

Now it’s absolutely true that some stress is beneficial. Think about exercise. You challenge and create micro tears in your muscles, but then you rest allowing healing and rebuilding to occur. You need stress to grow physically and psychologically.

The issue lies that within our modern world, so many of us spend more time in fight-or-flight mode. Our bodies can’t tell the difference between a bear attack and a stressful work situation that you obsess and agonize over.

Immune function can be suppressed when we spend too much time in fight-or-flight.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Managing stress will help your immune system do what it was built to do. Here are some of my favorite tools:

Practice 4-7-8 breathing
- This is a great in-the-moment tool to help reset the nervous system. Breathe in for 4, hold your breath for 7 and exhale for 8. Continue this for 3-5 minutes or until you feel blood pressure start to come down and calmness restored.
Meditation
- Developing a mindfulness practice helps us to not be so reactive to stress in our every day lives when it presents. It does take practice. Start with 5 minutes a day when you first wake up. Guided meditation apps like Headspace, Calm and Insight Timer are fantastic resources that make meditation more accessible.
Get outside!
- There’s been some very interesting research on how access to green spaces and nature decreases psychological stress and depression, but I know I don’t need to tell you that you convince you. You know how you feel when you experience nature and unplug from the modern world. You feel calm, connected, happy, and restored. NOTHING restores my soul like being at the ocean.
Move your body
- We all know it, but exercise is such a healthy way to deal with stress. What’s key is finding a physical activity you ENJOY and that doesn’t feel like a punishment. Yoga is my favorite way to move my body and calm my mind and the breath work helps so much in the rest of my day.
Affirmations
- in my own journey with this uncertain time of COVID-19, I’ve talked about how affirmations have really helped to shift my perspective. To me, affirmations are statements about how I want to react, think and see the world, that I speak or write over and over on a daily basis. Some of mine during this time have been:
  - I choose calm over panic.
  - I release control of the situation.
  - There is joy to be found in this time.
Gratitude
- When our minds are in chronic stress, we are often focused on lack and what’s wrong instead of ALLLLLL the things in our lives that are right and good. When you are feeling into negativity and stress, stop what you’re doing and write down or speak aloud 5 things you are TRULY grateful for and feel into it. SMILE while you are doing it. This is an incredible perspective and mood shifter.

On another note, this time, for me, has been an opportunity of reflection of what’s important to me and how I want to live. As things start to return to some sort of normalcy, I challenge you to be very intentional to what you let back in your life.

Some sources of stress are not under our control and that’s when we use our toolkit and choose how we will react, but we are not helpless!

SO MUCH of our stress comes from sources that we allow into our lives- toxic relationships, media consumption, excessive workloads, unnecessary commitments, negative thought narratives- all things within our control whether we admit it or not.

I truly hope that in this season you choose to empower yourself to support your immune system in these accessible ways. Thanks for reading. Stay well friends.

- Tara

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