Recap: Boost health by defeating stress | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
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Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health. Today we're discussing stress. Stress can come from any direction. Mounting deadlines at work, a romantic tiff at home, even something as simple as missing our bus can send our brain and body into a state of tension. We all experience this. It's nothing new. However, a failure to manage this stress could be harming our health.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is here to give us some strategies to combat stress, reduce tension and keep us healthy. This blurring of boundaries between home life and work life, I think is a huge problem, probably one of the biggest problems. And I think all we need to do is go, well, I tell you what, what would happen if each evening we just paid a bit of attention to recovery, a

a bit of attention to say, I'm going to switch off now. I'm going to let things reset so I'm ready for tomorrow. It would help our sleep. It would help our stress levels. It would help the quality of our lives. And it's not just me who is saying that stress is a massive problem. There's loads of research supporting that, Jonathan. The World Health Organization, I think back in 2018, put on their website that stress is the health epidemic that

off the 21st century. That's extraordinary. It is extraordinary. Isn't it? I'd love to talk about your strategies for actually coping with stress. Cause I know this is something that you said you read a book on, you're really focused on with your, your patients. And I think you also said, interestingly, at the beginning that there isn't just one strategy that works for everybody. So someone's listening to this and they're like, yeah, I'm way over the top with stress. I'm not really anxious about all the way that that's going to impact my health.

Can you give this listener something positive that they could actually do with real evidence that can help? Yeah. So I think the first thing anyone looking for advice on stress needs to really acknowledge to themselves is how much stress is in their life, right? We need to just go, you know what?

I've tried to put it to the side, but I do think that chronic stress is an issue. Fine. Then all you have to understand is that we all respond differently to stress reduction practices. I'm going to mention a few practical things now. See if one of those resonates that you can bring into your life. Don't try and do them all. That will be too much. So I think the most powerful thing anyone can do

to lower stress is to understand the power of their breath. - Okay. - Right? The way we breathe is information for our bodies. There was some research done at UCLA, which showed that 80% of office workers, when they look at their emails, change the way that they breathe. - That's amazing. - Right? So what happens?

We breathe a bit quicker, a bit more shallowly and a bit more from our chest than our diaphragm. And what does that do? Diaphragm is like where your guts are, is that? Exactly. And that sends a stress signal to the brain. It says to your brain, there is danger. It's not calm in my environment. Your brain then sends a message back down to encourage you to keep breathing in that manner. So it's a feed forward cycle. But that means...

you can actually hack that. Now, the word hack is overused, but breathing really is a hack because if you slow your breath down intentionally and consciously, you can start sending calm signals up to your brain rather than stress signals. And there's a lot of scientific evidence showing us that

intentional breathing practices can lower our stress levels. My favorite one is what I call the 3-4-5 breath. And this is based upon the scientific principle that

anytime your out-breath is longer than your in-breath, you help to switch off the stress part of your nervous system and activate the relaxation part. This is literally going to change what's going on inside. In real time. So if you think about those micro stress doses, even if someone can't change that, but they're at 2 p.m., they're feeling frazzled, they've got a meeting, they're feeling reactive,

Even one minute of 3-4-5 breathing will start to lower their stress levels and make them more engaged and focused for the afternoon, right? So the 3-4-5 breath is you breathe in for a count of three. Okay. You hold for four and you breathe out for five. So we know that with that longer out breath, you are changing your physiology. Now, the 3-4-5 breath takes 12 seconds. Five of them take one minute. So I've been teaching this for years to...

students who were nervous before exams. I remember some of my patients who were teachers who would find the afternoons really stressful. They would do it in their staff room at lunchtime. High-flying business executives before meetings. And all of them have reported back to me, well, pretty much all of them, not everyone, because we all respond differently, that it makes a massive difference. And also, maybe related to some of your listeners, Jonathan,

A lot of people feel that they are reacting to certain foods these days. And of course, there are intolerances, there are allergies. But one thing I've also found with my patients is that sometimes people aren't actually reacting to the foods, they're reacting to the fats, that they're in a stressed state when eating foods. So if you do the 3-4-5 breath for one minute before lunch or before dinner or before breakfast, you're

you will find that you're much more calm. Your rest and digest system is going to be working better. And you may just find that you're digesting food better. So the 3-4-5 breath is one breath that people can try. But there's another breath, right, called the box breathing. Okay. That apparently the US Navy SEALs use before they go into combat. You look at it like a box. So you breathe in for four, you hold for four, you breathe out for four,

and you hold for four again. Now, if some people find four too much, some of my patients do, I say, okay, go down to two. What you're trying to do is equalize everything. I think the key take home for people is there are a million breathwork practices out there. We've just mentioned two.

I would say for people, experiment with those two. Experiment with some others if you don't like those two. Find something that works for you and you have something in your back pocket that you can take around with you everywhere in your life. You know, you can do it first thing in the morning to really calm yourself and ground yourself like I do each morning. Or you can do it when you're feeling stressed in the day. But in terms of stress reduction strategies,

I think there's nothing more powerful than the breath. And what I love about it- And you have this built into your routine in the morning. So you think about this, you just do this once. I do it as soon as I get out of bed. I do one minute of that. I literally get out of bed. I sit on the side of my bed and I've conditioned myself now to do that before I do anything else. And what I love about breathwork practices, Jonathan, is that they're free.

and they're accessible. There's loads of studies now on breathing that's been growing for the last few years. I think Professor Andrew Huberman over the last couple of years has been testing a variety of different breaths. He tested something called a physiological sigh, which is two inhales and then a long exhale compared to some forms of other breathing and

From recollection, his research suggested that the physiological sigh might be the quickest and most effective way to calm our nervous system in real time. Now, you said that there isn't just one thing that works for everybody. So you've talked about breathing.

are there other things that people could... Yeah, I mean, look, we could do a whole hour on different strategies, but to make it really practical, breathwork is one of them. I would say, let's not neglect exercise, right? And I prefer the word movement really to exercise. Again, think about it on an evolutionary level. What is the stress response doing? It's priming your body to move in many ways, to run.

But often we're getting stressed now by looking at our laptops on our email inboxes. Your body's getting primed to move, but we're not moving. We're sat on our bums all day, right? And I think many cases of anxiety and chronic stress would be hugely alleviated by regular movement. In the moment, that could be, you know what, I'm feeling really, really stressed. I

I'm gonna do one minute of jumping jacks or skipping. I will often do this between patients when I'm feeling my stress load going. I find it's a very quick way of burning off that stress. What does the research show us? The research shows us that people who exercise regularly, they are more resilient to stress.

And I think it's because exercise really works out your stress response system. By practicing that stress response in your body, you get better at it. There was some really interesting mice research done at Princeton in 2013, where they showed that mice who exercise vigorously had higher levels of

the calming neurotransmitter GABA. And I think that starts to be replicated in human studies. So it's really, really fascinating. Again, it doesn't mean you have to become a marathon runner, but just regular bits of movement. And so that's interesting. I'd never thought about this. You know, I think people listen to the podcast regularly know that I do go to the gym regularly because I believe it's really important for my long-term health. And people who know me well will know that I get stressed quite a lot. There's a lot going on. I'm busy. And I have

I often felt actually that I go into the gym, I tell my trainer I'm feeling really stressed about whatever it is right now. And at the end of the session, I am less stressed. Partly I feel because I'm just like I'm tired. And you're saying there's real evidence in fact. Absolutely. I actually am reducing my stress. I'm not just helping my health, but I am actually reducing my stress.

by doing exercise. You absolutely are. And as I say, exercise, regularly exercising makes you more resilient to stress, but it also helps you burn off and work off that stress. So I think that is really powerful. And does it have to be like intense exercise? Because I sometimes, I'm thinking back also back to like COVID and just the extraordinary joy there was of going for a walk.

You know, if you're in the UK, there was this period when you could just go out for a walk like once a day. And I do remember that it was amazing. And I definitely wasn't like, you know, it was not like hard exercise. Is that. Look again, this comes back to that overarching principle, which is we all respond differently to different therapeutic interventions, particularly when it comes to stress. A 20 or 30 minute walk around your block will lower your stress levels, right? You will feel better.

working out vigorously with your trainer in the gym, Jonathan, will also help you do that. And presumably you have to not be using your phone while you're on the walk. I would say for sure, because you really want to use it as a switch off. Look, I'll go for a walk and listen to podcasts for sure, but I'll try my best to not look at the phone, keep it in my pocket or wherever it is or my backpack and not get it out. I don't want to be checking emails whilst I'm

you know, having that stress reduction practice. And to make this super, super simple for people, this is something I recommend as a patience for years. It's what I do every year. I have a five minute strength workout every morning, Jonathan. And I've rarely missed a day in maybe three years. And it's got nothing to do with motivation.

It's because I understand the principles of human behavior change. How do you turn new behaviors into long-term habits? In the morning, I'll do some sort of mindfulness, some breath work, maybe some meditation just for a few minutes. And then I like a cup of coffee, right? So in my pajamas, I'm in my kitchen, I make my coffee.

In the cafeteria, I put all the water. French press, I think they call that in the States, don't they? Yeah. So I weigh the coffee out. I'm pretty particular with how I like it. I pour the water in and then I put a timer on for five minutes because that's how I like my coffee brewed. In those five minutes, I don't go on Instagram. I don't go on email. I basically, in my pajamas, do a strength workout. Either body weight or there's a kettlebell in my kitchen. I'll do something.

And for those of you who are on audio, Rangan's looking in very good shape. So clearly he's doing something right. No, the point is, I think there are lots of rules of behavior change that we should follow. The two most important rules, in my experience, as evidenced by the research as well, on number one, you've got to make something easy. And number two, you've got to stick it on to an existing habit. So why have you got to make it easy?

A lot of this comes from Professor BJ Fogslab at Stanford, where he did a lot of research on this. He has shown that we overly rely on motivation. There's something in the research called the motivation wave. Motivation goes up and motivation comes down. Now, here's the thing, Jonathan. Often, people might hear what we say about exercise and go, right, I need to do one hour five times a week in the gym.

The problem with that is if you can do it, great. But for many people, they can't manage that. And so we will do something hard when our motivation is high. But when our motivation drops, as it always does, we'll only do that behavior if it's easy. That's why my workout is five minutes, right? Because I can never say I don't have five minutes. It's easy. I don't need to get changed. I'm literally in my pajamas doing it. So I've ticked off box number one. I made it easy.

Number two is the best research shows us that where you put that behavior into your day will determine whether it becomes a long-term habit. And the very best way to convert new behaviors into habits is to stick it onto an existing habit. Making coffee each morning is a habit. I don't need a Google calendar notification to say, Rangan, remember to make your coffee. It's going to happen automatically. So by sticking on my workout there, it

it means I very rarely miss it. It's really clever. So you put it, attach it to this thing that you're going to do because you love your coffees. Of course, you're going to do that. Yeah, but you could bring whatever is breathing or journaling, which is great for reducing stress or, you know, whatever activity you want to bring in. Why don't you think about applying those two principles? You don't have to do it just with a workout. That's all for this week's recap episode. You can find a link to the full conversation in the episode description.

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