A few days back, I outlined a few key systems in our body with a deep dive into a few areas of the nervous system. Today, I’m going again into another topic relating to how our body works – the HPA Axis.
What is the HPA Axis? Simply stated – it is our stress response system. HPA stands for hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal interactions. This is where our endocrine and our nervous systems truly link up. The endocrine system in particular fuels our hormonal production within our bodies.
If you are constantly hitting the gas pedal, while running the brakes – you will burn out your car as well as your HPA. Many of us are doing this to varying degrees, and this degrades our ability to handle stress in a healthy way. My goal is by sharing some basic info that I’ve learned in the past few years on this system is that you will be more mindful of how you are handling any stress in your life.
When we encounter stress, the hypothalamus triggers chemicals to be released from the pituitary glands down to the adrenals to release cortisol. Cortisol will be released for hours until the body senses that the stress has been eliminated to a point where the cortisol production is turned off. One of the goals of the human body is to maintain homeostasis or balance. This tendency to maintain equilibrium is another reason why it is hard to lose weight, as the body will naturally counteract our attempts by preserving the current body conditions.
If you are living in a constantly stressed mode, perhaps due to work, family situations, financials, or a combination of reasons – the body will adapt to a seemingly permanently elevated level of stress combating chemicals such as cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. This is when you fatigue of the system can begin to raise up.
Another factor is that as we age, our cortisol levels are naturally elevating over time. Also, older women produce more cortisol than older men when they experience stress. Conversely, younger men produce more cortisol when they encounter stress as compared to younger women when they encounter stress.
Cortisol is not a bad thing, however elevated cortisol levels have been linked to a number of health related issues – many of which can be summarized in a single word – burnout. Ongoing stress can also trigger insomnia and a variety of fatigue related disorders. I have mentioned previously that there was a span of about 6 months where I did not sleep more than 4 hours a night. During that same timeframe a couple years back, my waking hours were bombarded with stress. No wonder nearly a year later I was told that my adrenals were fried!
Cortisol typically peaks 45 minutes after waking for the day, and then gradually diminishes over the course of the day – bottoming out in the middle of the night. This ties out to the typical rhythm of most people in terms of schedules and activity loads. If you are working an overnight shift or do shift work – this will wreak havoc on your cortisol and stress response. If you work a stressful job and do shift work, this is a double whammy.
The negative effects of HPA stressors are wide ranging as the HPA axis has a central role in regulating many homeostatic systems in the body, including the metabolic system, cardiovascular system, immune system, reproductive system and central nervous system. Typically, when your HPA is triggered – the immune system is deprioritized to give the stress response more chemicals to fight/flight. This can result in overactive immune systems and underactive immune systems – depending upon the individual.
Complicated stuff, right?
Mood disorders can also be triggered by an HPA axis that is overstimulated. Antidepressants aim to regulate the HPA response, and I’d argue that those prescriptions are only treating symptoms – not the underlying causes for the stress. There is a whole rant I owe on this topic of symptomatic vs underlying root cause treatment of medical issues.
Fundamentally, we need to pre-empt stress.
When we do encounter stress that we have been unable to pre-empt – we really owe it to ourselves to be mindful of our bodily stress response. The mindfulness of these interactive systems is the first step. The second step is ensuring we have appropriate stress response strategies – such as deep breathing or physical exercise.
I can say in the past, my responses were horribly inadequate. They ranged from drinking alcohol, to overeating, to overindulging in my work, among a number of things all aiming to deaden the pain/stress.
Today, I have done a fantastic job of destroying drama and stress in my life. Stress does still occur from time to time, and when it does I really have been effective at managing it right on the spot. I am not perfect however, and I do still have the occasional flare up of a reaction that can show up as anxiety, a sharp tongue, a bad night of sleep, or a late night candy binge. However, I do not beat myself up anymore for the weakness.
Instead, I take a fresh look at it the next day when the stress has subsided, and ask myself how I can either avoid this completely (this requires much less willpower) or if I am unsure how to avoid this on a permanent basis – how could I handle it more effectively next time. For example, I increasingly do not have any candy in my home that I know I will eat by the handful – thus I pre-empt my negative response by not having any Kit Kats or Twix laying around…
Iterative improvements and reducing variability are the long range strategies rather than the short term self judgement.
Now the type of stress also affects the pouring out of cortisol into the blood stream. If it is truly an uncontrollable type of stress – the cortisol is flatly delivered over time – which results in a lower cortisol level in the morning and higher level at night. You likely feel more tired in the morning and more active at night.
If the stress you feel is of the controllable type, such as situations at work or at home – the cortisol pumping is different than the uncontrollable type of stress triggered cortisol release. The controllable stressors trigger elevated levels right off the bat in the morning. Couple that with a high caffeine intake, and you have the makings of some intense morning hours for your mental outlook and for your body… This was my life for the longest time…
I’ll get into the effects of chronic stress and the HPA axis interplay for early childhood development. The effects on development and long term health are truly shocking.