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**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah, I like that aspect too, because in the tech world, there's conferences all the time. So for me, I'm more on the fact that we didn't get to do OSCON this year, which is a big conference for us as Changelog media doing that. But then it's also time for Jerod and I to get to reconnect and hang ou... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yes, yes. So a couple of things to help establish the framework as we talk today is that both behavior and cognition, or both behavior and what we think play a role in determining what we find stressful. And that as individuals, we're varied, but there's three principal ways in how we respond ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** "You picked the wrong guy." |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Totally. And so if I perceive a situation as threatening, then my brain is going to initiate behaviors that avoid the threat. Or alternatively, it can produce behaviors that can increase danger. I mean, like, I can't stop; I've started this ball in motion, and it's like you can see the acciden... |
Secondly, it involves the condition of our bodies. People, generally speaking, those who are in good physical condition, handle strenuous exercise far better than those not in shape. Thus, our behaviors around exercise are important, because exercise can have this rapid effect to increase muscle glucose utilization, li... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Right, right. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** So the sum of that is - our bodies are different, but the behaviors we engage in and what's going on internally make a difference in terms of how we respond externally. Elaborating on that, or adding additional clarification, then certain personal behaviors like "What's my diet? What do I eat?... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Well, yeah. It would make sense to do that, but it's definitely around choices. If you're stressed, move a little, or find a way. And it doesn't have to be like, "Oh, exercise freak." Or you don't have to be crazy about going to the gym, or I guess your home gym now... What they call pain caves. I d... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Pain caves. I love it. \[laughs\] |
**Adam Stacoviak:** You make them in your houses. They're not men or women caves, they're pain caves. Or they're not theater caves, or hangout caves; they're pain caves. It's where you go to impact pain. But it takes a specific choice to do that, as opposed to, say, the Easy button, which might be like, go to the store... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Or the chips. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Or the chips... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Or the pizza, you name it. Correct. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So let me caveat that. There's nothing wrong with that for a time. If you need to do that, I mean, you can probably disagree with me if you want, but I think for a time, that might be okay, but that's not a forever thing. That's not a long-term coping mechanism that's, that's healthy. So maybe for a... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** So that's why this is really important, because we're talking about stress that can be situationally based, that's like, "Oh, there's a surge or a crescendo, and then a decrescendo." Or there's stress that's prolonged, repeated that results in a chronic stress or strain on our brains and our b... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I have not. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah, I love it. I geek out hard with this, because I discovered this a couple of years ago when I was reading Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Sounds good, huh? |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. I wonder why. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** \[laughs\] So what they talk about is differentiating homeostasis from allostasis. Homeostasis is defined as the stability of our physiological systems that maintain life. So pH, body temperature, glucose and oxygen levels... There's a narrow range of their respective setpoints. So when an ani... |
Allostasis is totally different. This is really what's at the heart of stress for humans, and that stability is achieved through change. So the mediators of allostasis include, but are not totally limited to hormones of the HPA access, which I think we've talked about in some prior episodes... But HPA stands for hypo-p... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So you could either be really good at it or really bad at it. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Right. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So high or low. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Right. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** And a better version of that would be homeostasis, which everything is just equaled out, normalized all the time. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Right. So just like you were talking about, Adam, in saying some of these things aren't bad, we're not calling these out and saying they're bad... However, what happens is our body reacts to some of the over-activity that prolonged choices can impact, and that contributes to diseases. I would ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. Well, I think if you gotta manage traffic, or input-output... We're humans, we're individual bodies with brains, we're physical beings, we require food, we require oxygen even. So I think about all the ways that things from the outside of my body enter in to fuel me. So it's relationships, tha... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. So we're going to be talking about some different, more sciency terms to help you guys understand a little bit more of what happens. And so one of the things is glucocorticoids. These are named that for their ability to promote the conversion of proteins and fats to usable carbohydrates.... |
So like you were mentioning, Adam, with the choices we make, it's super helpful if I'm trying to run a few miles, but not as helpful if I'm trying to grab a box of Oreos, or while I'm trying to write or do some work. That inactivity or lack of energy expenditure creates this situation where these chronically elevated g... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So it's too much fuel. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah, yeah. Yep. So interestingly enough, one of the results of this interaction is that insulin levels increase. And so together, insulin with glucocorticoid elevation promote the deposition of body fat and that combination promotes the forming of the plaques in our coronary arteries. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Well, and weight gain is directly linked to insulin levels. So insulin level spike, fat deposits, obesity, weight, all that is related to high insulin levels and spikes. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Right. This is why-- I'm sure you've heard it said or people comment about trying to manage their weight or lose weight, but they've got a lot of stress going on, and they really struggle to lose weight. Well, this is why. Because it's stuck in your brain, and your body is repeating this cycle... |
When we look at this a little bit further or broader, we can talk about allostasis in the brain, and so that involves the secretion of adrenaline and cortisol in response to a stressful event and promotes memory consolidation so that you stay out of trouble. We've talked about this with learning. The higher the emotion... |
But now moving to where it's maladaptive - it's when the stress is continued over a significant period of time. Our neurons can atrophy, which impairs our memory, whereas other neurons grow, which tends to enhance fear. Not what we want. And I think that's what a lot of people are struggling with right now, of going, "... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. Not to mention, though, that whenever something does happen, it could be small or large, in terms of, say, you can stub your toe. It's like, "Oh, I'm gonna go to a hospital." So now things are super-- people tend to avoid or want to avoid hospitals because hey, you're exposed to more people. S... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah, and we've talked about the memory system with our brain with the amygdala and the hippocampus. So our hippocampus is responsible for memory. Amygdala is part of our emotional seat of our brain. And what happens is that our brains actually-- we can have overactivity with those adrenals an... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Is that right? |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. So this is why being in charge of what we think and being deliberate about what we focus on is so, so, so important... Because look, to some degree-- I mean, I'm not in charge of a fair amount of things in life, but what I am in charge of is my response to it. So there is a lot of uncert... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** In particular to energy and stress that relates to your energy, getting to that root cause is the key... Because for some, if you identify what that root cause might be that's causing you stress or draining you of your energy... I have my own example which I can share... But once you find that root ... |
So for me, for example, I get stressed out, I just start thinking differently, I would say, based upon my diet. My diet, my sleep, the way I think, obviously, things we're talking about here... But diet for me is huge. Cutting out sugars, cutting out gluten, those things alone... And then just timing when I eat. They c... |
So once I understood that and figured that out, I was able to get back into typical Adam, normal Adam, great attitude, all this good stuff, energy. Whereas before I was lower energy, and just down and out and not happy as much as I had been in prior months or weeks. So the root cause is important; whatever your root ca... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. It's so interesting how the way in which we process information changes when we're stressed versus not. I mean, I can remember two times where it was just so many different things coming at me and seemingly, I thought some tasks felt really hard or overwhelming like, "Gosh, I just don't ... |
Like we talked about in that episode on Step Away to Get Unstuck, and how it seems counterintuitive to be like, "I'm going to walk away from this problem." But part of managing stress is going like. "My brain can't take in more information in that way at this moment. So what other things can I do to buffer it or allevi... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Right. Well, in some cases too, it's a detox of sorts. Like strip out the things that are inhibiting you and just defer them, even for a week or two weeks, some period of time so that you can have a reset. And this is part of that whole be your own scientist idea. It's like, this gives you a chance ... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** It's so interesting you mentioned that, because I found this awesome podcast done by The Happiness Lab. She had Catherine Price, who's the author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, on and talked about good screens and bad screens, and that especially in our current climate, so to speak, or en... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah, yeah. It's an unfortunate thing, honestly, it really is, that we're just so connected. And when we find more things to get that are interesting, we can get lost in that. And we get disconnected from the "What am I optimizing for?" Or if I'm optimizing for good sleep patterns, taking that phone... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yes. Yeah. So I think it's so important too-- just a reminder, as we talk today, some of the deleterious effects we're talking about that can occur are prolonged and severe. Just because you do some of these things, some of the time, don't panic. There's always an opportunity for change. And r... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Because you're always in defense. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. Yeah. It's like-- I mean, they're just worn out. It can't mediate. It can't do anything to support in the same way, which is why sleep makes such a difference, foods make a difference, and why we're always talking about the role of inflammation. |
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