Short-term stress isn’t always bad. Various specialists have explained it several times in RAC1. In good doses, it prepares the mind and body for what we have to do at all times. However, chronic stress can cause many more problems, it is more extreme and if it remains constant for a long time, it has toxic effects on the body.
“As a longevity researcher, I’ve seen how toxic stress can wear down cells prematurely and increase the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, dementia and depression,” Elissa Epel, a health psychologist and researcher at the longevity, professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the Center for Aging, Metabolism and Emotion at this university.
This specialist has shared some tips and techniques to slow down the aging of the body. She calls it stress fitness, defining it as “a way of exercising the body with short bursts of stress. Studies show it can enhance the health and regenerative life of cells, rather than slowly wear them down.”
To understand how it works, she makes a comparison: she compares drinking coffee all day with enjoying just one sip of coffee. Constant consumption is not very healthy and many people can increase anxiety and nerves.
Instead, from a single coffee, health benefits can be extracted. According to Epel, the stress mechanism is the same. “You don’t want to be stressed all day, but perhaps you do want to take short, intense drinks that train the body to be more resistant to future stress.”
Complete one round of high-intensity interval training, which takes about seven minutes. You can choose as many options from the list below as you want, but keep it simple to start with:
– Do each exercise for 30 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat until the seven minutes are up.
– Find the intensity limit with the speed where you feel some discomfort.
– Welcome discomfort and difficulty as part of the experience; don’t fight against it.
– If you haven’t been active in a while, start with something accessible, such as walking from slow to fast.
Studies have found that taking a quick cold shower can decrease inflammation, increase longevity, and improve metabolism. At the end of a warm shower, turn the faucet to cold. Can you stay underwater for 15-30 seconds? One minute? Push yourself to the limit, just as you would with exercise, and then relax. This is key.
To increase resilience, combine the shock of the stress response with as relaxed a mind as possible. Exposure to cold generates positive stress, and so does exposure to heat, under the right circumstances. Although more research is needed, some studies have found links between sauna bathing and a lower risk of cardiovascular problems and inflammation.
The heart rate increases during the use of the sauna, as if you were doing moderate exercise. If you have access to a sauna at the gym, try sitting for a few minutes. These are general health tips, but be sure to check with your doctor first if you have serious health problems.
