cover of episode Recap: Boost health by defeating stress | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

Recap: Boost health by defeating stress | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

2024/11/26
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
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专注于电动车和能源领域的播客主持人和内容创作者。
Topics
主持人:本期节目讨论压力对健康的影响,以及一些应对压力的策略。压力来自各个方面,例如工作压力、人际关系压力等,未能有效管理压力会损害健康。 Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:工作与生活界限模糊是导致压力的主要问题之一。每天晚上花些时间进行恢复,有助于改善睡眠、降低压力水平和提高生活质量。世界卫生组织认为压力是21世纪的健康流行病。应对压力需要首先承认自己生活中的压力程度。每个人对减压方法的反应不同,应尝试不同的方法,找到适合自己的方法。 Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:呼吸方式会影响身体状态,影响大脑对压力的感知。浅呼吸会向大脑发出压力信号,形成正反馈循环。通过有意识地放慢呼吸速度,可以向大脑发送平静信号,降低压力水平。3-4-5呼吸法是一种有效的减压方法,即使是短暂的练习也能降低压力水平,提高专注力。3-4-5呼吸法通过延长呼气时间来改变生理状态,对缓解考试焦虑、工作压力等都有效。压力状态下进食可能会影响食物消化,3-4-5呼吸法有助于改善消化。方盒呼吸法也是一种有效的减压方法。应尝试不同的呼吸练习方法,找到适合自己的方法。呼吸练习是一种简单易行且有效的减压方法,可以随时随地进行。生理性叹息(两次吸气,一次长呼气)可能是快速有效地平息神经系统的方法。运动(或活动)是另一种有效的减压方法,它能帮助身体释放压力。即使是短暂的运动,例如跳跃或跳绳,也能快速缓解压力。规律运动能增强对压力的抵抗力,研究表明,规律运动可以提高体内镇静神经递质GABA的水平。运动强度不必很大,散步等轻度运动也能有效缓解压力。在散步或其他减压活动中避免使用手机,以更好地放松身心。每天五分钟的简短力量训练可以有效地养成运动习惯。将新行为与现有习惯结合起来,并使新行为易于执行,是养成长期习惯的关键。人们往往依赖动力来坚持新习惯,而动力是波动变化的。为了养成长期习惯,新行为应该简单易行。将新行为与现有习惯结合起来,可以提高坚持新行为的可能性。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Why is stress considered a major health issue?

Stress is recognized as a significant health problem by the World Health Organization, which labeled it the health epidemic of the 21st century in 2018.

What is the 3-4-5 breath technique, and how does it help with stress?

The 3-4-5 breath involves inhaling for three seconds, holding for four, and exhaling for five. This technique helps reduce stress by signaling calmness to the brain, as a longer out-breath activates the relaxation response in the nervous system.

How does breathing affect our stress levels?

Breathing patterns influence our stress response; shallow chest breathing sends a stress signal to the brain, while slower, deeper breaths can calm the nervous system and reduce stress.

What role does exercise play in managing stress?

Regular movement or exercise helps alleviate stress by priming the body for action, balancing neurotransmitters like GABA, and making individuals more resilient to stress over time.

What is the 'box breathing' technique, and who uses it?

Box breathing involves inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding for four seconds each, creating a box-like pattern. It is used by the US Navy SEALs to manage stress and maintain focus before combat.

Why is it important to make stress-reduction practices easy?

Making practices easy ensures they are more likely to be maintained, as motivation fluctuates. By keeping practices simple, like a five-minute workout, they become habitual and sustainable.

How can attaching a new habit to an existing one help with stress management?

Attaching a new habit, such as a five-minute workout, to an existing routine (like making coffee) increases the likelihood of it becoming a long-term habit, making stress-reduction practices more consistent.

What research supports the benefits of exercise for stress?

Studies, including one from Princeton in 2013, show that exercise increases calming neurotransmitters like GABA and improves stress resilience, making individuals better equipped to handle stress.

What is the 'physiological sigh' and how does it work?

The physiological sigh involves two deep inhales followed by a long exhale. Research by Professor Andrew Huberman suggests it is one of the quickest ways to calm the nervous system in real time.

How can a simple walk help reduce stress?

A 20-30 minute walk can lower stress levels by providing a break from daily pressures and allowing the body to reset, especially if done without distractions like phones.

Chapters
This chapter explores the pervasive issue of stress and its impact on health, emphasizing the need for effective stress management strategies. Dr. Rangan Chatterjee discusses the importance of acknowledging stress levels and introduces the 3-4-5 breathing technique as a practical, evidence-based approach to stress reduction. The role of food and stress response is also discussed.
  • Stress is a significant health concern, impacting many individuals.
  • The 3-4-5 breathing technique (inhale for 3, hold for 4, exhale for 5) helps activate the relaxation response and lower stress levels.
  • Food reactions can be exacerbated by stress, highlighting the connection between diet and stress management.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

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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