Chronic Stress Response,Newtown,Conn.Tom Christofk and Conrad Dobler

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control. These three alone lead to sovereign power."– Alfred Tennyson

Did you know that your cortex-prefrontal cortex (which is the most complex object in the universe) plays a strong role in the regulation of thinking processes and complex reasoning, control over decision-making, communication and expression of emotions and personality, inhibition of impulse, regulation of attention and expression of social behavior shuts down and is affected   by stress, anxiety and the depression?  Did you know that most chronic stress in modern industrial and information age society is psychological stress caused by thinking about threats, not actual physical threats themselves? Further, chronic stress negatively affects brain function causing atrophy in the frontal lobes and hippo campus. Chronic stress is a major cause of anxiety disorders and excessive anger as well as depression.

In other words if your stress response is repeatedly turned on, your brain and body will be damaged. Second, if you can’t turn off the stress response for prolonged periods of time, your brain and body will be damaged. Third, stress increases the risk of disease and weakens the body’s immune defenses in the setting of pre-existing disease. It is believed that chronic stress may be the biggest killer of Americans because it is a risk factor for the top seven causes of death that kills three of every four Americans: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type II diabetes, accidents, pneumonia and flu.

Over 12,000 years ago in the Stone Age, our human stress response was designed to protect us from immediate physical threats that existed while we were the nomadic hunter-gatherer. This stress response helped us challenge or escape a lion attack where life or death was the outcome. Body systems that helped us survive were activated such as fast heart rate and systems that were necessary for immediate survival were shut down like digestion and sex. Our stress response hasn’t changed since the Stone Age. Civilization, industrialization and culture have changed. We are now exposed to threats never encountered in the Stone Age. Not only that  but our stress response is an anachronism  and was not designed to efficiently cope with the  constant bombardment of chronic stressors such as childhood trauma, death of a loved one, divorce, finances, job, health, personal relationships, caregiver for critically ill child or spouse, pregnancy  and danger. The result is our acute stress response (designed to activate occasionally and help us survive) has now become a chronic stress response and a threat to our mental and physical health.

Lately, we’ve had more than our share of murder- suicide, the most recent in Connecticut. Of course, much of the conversation focuses on guns and legislation regarding gun control. It seems to me that were missing the boat. Major problems in this country include poor physical and mental health and contribute to the tragedy. More than likely we are a nation of chronic stress.

Tom's 17th annual birthday run

 Our Congress has created “the fiscal cliff” and our daily news (TV, radio, newspaper- periodicals) bombards us with local, national and world problems. Further, pay attention to conversations by your friends or family. If they are talking about physical illness, financial worries or other unpleasant topics, this may be contributing to your stress. For me, one way to get respite is to do a trail run. Yesterday was a good example as I participated in the 17^th annual Tom Christofk’s birthday run. The group (Tevis, runners, ride & tiers) met at the Olmsted. The weather was terrific as well as the friends. Linda and I hosted a pot luck brunch afterwards.  It is clear to me that a trail run with younger people works to reduce stress in my life. How about you, what’s your secret? Reference: the Institute for Natural Resources.

I just received a signed book”The NFL’s Dirtiest Player Comes Clean -Pride and Perseverance from Conrad Dobler (with forward by Dan Dierdorf NFL announcer and teammate) in part he wrote “keep moving.” While I was in Kansas City this past September doing book signings, Ed Budde, Conrad and I talked about Ed’s reference to keep moving. Conrad’s cognitive functioning is still good as he remembered our conversation.