Stress is part of the human experience. Since the evolution of early man, you’ve been hard-wired to encounter stressful situations. And though threats from predators may not be common in modern life, the fight-or-flight response has not been left behind. Evolutionary mechanisms for survival are useful tools for long-term health.

By harnessing the power of stress, you can empower your health. It’s true, a certain level of stress can be quite healthy. And given it is nearly impossible to escape stress in your daily life, this is good news. There are ways to utilize the benefits of short-term stress to create a calmer, more relaxed mindset. Purposeful stress—or good sources of stress—can activate cellular pathways that support greater resilience to other stresses.

Too Much Fight or Flight

Moments of crisis trigger complex physiological adaptations deeply engrained in your DNA. When you perceive your safety is in danger, these instincts prepare you to react. Short-term stress response spurs action through a flood of hormone responses. A sudden surge of cortisol and adrenaline produced in the adrenal glands prepares you to react quickly. But as the danger lessens, the parasympathetic nervous system presses the brakes on this excitatory response, helping to bring you back to baseline.

At optimal levels, stress hormones make you feel alive and activate better performance and focus. But when you are unable to return to a state of calm, or if your stress response is activated too often, the effects of chronic stress can take a physical and psychological toll. This negative impact can lead to a variety of health issues.

From Distress to Eustress

Your perception of negative circumstances ties directly to your behavior and the regulation of physiological responses. Adopting an optimistic outlook can change your mental and physical health for the good. By shifting your mindset in moments of stress, you can reframe how you handle these experiences.

Eustress is “good stress,” or normal-to-moderate psychological stress that’s actually beneficial. It helps activate genetically encoded pathways to help you deal with stress. The more you experience life with a positive attitude, new challenges will provide opportunities for growth, focused attention, and activation without expending all of your resources. In its best form, eustress can induce a state of flow—complete immersion and enjoyment in the process of an activity.

Some attributes of eustress include:

• lasts a short period of time
• energizes and motivates
• feels exciting
• increases focus and performance

Good sources of stress can include a job interview, riding a rollercoaster, the thrill of a scary movie, traveling, or even a first date. These experiences mobilize and stimulate you, making you anticipate what’s to come. Eustress is part of the joy of being human.

Find Your Edge with Short-Term Stress

Avoiding stress altogether isn’t the answer to better health. Many scientists believe building a resilience to environmental stress is the best way to fight back and live healthier.

Evolution has equipped you with an amazing system to handle daily stress. But your physiologic response—how hormones react to distress—is thrown off balance with too much stimulus. Short-term stress can amplify your life for the better, but raised levels of cortisol sustained over long periods can lead to poor health. Paradoxically, introducing voluntary bursts of controlled stress can help increase your stress tolerance.

A Life of Greater Resilience

The ability to cope with physiological stress depends on cellular-level adaptations mixed with your mental perception of difficult situations.

Of course, always consult with your physician before diving into a new routine. But if you’re healthy and excited to experiment with benefits from short-term, stress-inducing practices, give one of these five options a try. You may just open a new gateway for enhanced performance, better health, and a rewarding new adventure.

1. Eating to Adapt

Hormesis is a mild stress response that’s adaptive at a low dose and toxic in large amounts. A hormetic response can cause adaptations in cells and organisms to make them stronger and more robust. Foods you eat mimic this beneficial response to toxins and the transformative effect they can have on your health.

Toxic plant compounds are designed to affect the nervous system of insects and animals in the wild. But in humans, they have the possibility to make you stronger. Nutrient-dense plants have built-in defense mechanisms that can induce a healthy, manageable stress response. Phytonutrients from plants, despite being slightly stressful to the cells, precondition your body to respond to future stress by activating adaptive cellular stress-response pathways. Basically, a little poison can go a long way for improved health. See an example about liver detoxification here.

Common Compounds Found in Plants

• Saponins—quinoa
• Lectins—soy and potatoes
• Gluten—wheat, rye, and barley
• Anthocyanins—berries
• Resveratrol—grape skins and red wine
• EGCG—green tea
• Sulforaphane—broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables
• Catechins—cacao

People sensitive to these compounds shouldn’t consume them. If you have existing gut issues, talk with your health-care provider or nutritionist about the best strategy to incorporate healthy, mild stressors into your diet. If consuming a plant-based diet is problematic, cooking with herbs and spices is a great alternative.

2. Born to Move

A difficult workout can scratch your ancestral itch to move. Long gone are the days of scavenging for food or hunting for game to simply survive—activities your body was designed to do.

Today’s more sedentary lifestyle suppresses the all-day-long movement you instinctually crave. Regular exercise is essential for mental and physical health. It gives you more energy for life and serves as a buffer against the effects of stress and mental health issues by enhancing your brain’s endorphins—it’s “feel-good” neurotransmitters.

Movement and exercise of your skeletal muscle also creates oxidative stress in the body, triggering your defense response system. As it repairs, your body becomes stronger, creating a greater level of endurance. However, too much exercise can lead to chronic stress, so it’s important to listen to your body and exercise in the way that’s right for you.

3. Turn Up the Heat

Have you ever wondered why fitness clubs and health spas offer dry and steam saunas? It may seem counterintuitive to crank up the heat and endure the discomfort of a profuse sweat session.

Heat stress is a hot topic in many fitness and health circles today, but it’s been a regular practice in countries like Finland for thousands of years. The ancient practice of purification and healing by heat bathing has taken on modern significance. This lifestyle addition can induce feelings of relaxation and pleasure—whether used after a workout or as its own activity. Heat bathing is also associated with a calming effect and enhanced mood.

But heat stress is no joke. Regular, short-term exposure to extreme heat can have several positive health effects, including making you more resilient to biological stress.

Here are a few of the benefits of exercise and a regular, healthy sweat:

• Triggers an increased release of growth hormone
• Increases blood flow to skeletal muscles (muscle profusion) to help recovery and restore glucose, amino acids, fatty acids, and oxygen more efficiently
• Enhances endurance and supports cardiovascular health
• Increases red-blood-cell count
• Improves thermoregulatory control
• Enhances efficiency of oxygen transport to the muscles
• Supports healthy insulin sensitivity

With these compelling benefits, regular hyperthermic conditioning (intentionally heating yourself up) may just be the new habit you need for added endurance, improved health, and greater well-being.

4. A Cooler Way to Be Healthy

If you’ve ever stepped outside on a frigid winter’s day, you know how quickly your body reacts. Shivering begins almost immediately. Extreme cold is another hormetic stressor that can do wonders for your body.

Cryotherapy—exposing the body to extremely cold temperatures for a short amount of time—triggers cellular responses that can build physiological resilience. In the right doses, cold can affect the brain, immune system, and metabolism in amazing ways that may be worth the initial shock to your system.

Cold exposure has been found to have a positive effect on the sympathetic nervous system, helping to improve mood and anxiety. It’s also a powerful antidote for the negative effects of chronic stress.

The metabolic response to cold therapy exists for one purpose, to warm the body. As you shiver, your muscles contract involuntarily in an attempt to produce heat. Another process, non-shivering thermogenesis, causes norepinephrine—a hormone and neurotransmitter—to ignite a bodily response to create more mitochondria. As your body heats back up, it converts adipose tissue (fat) into a more metabolically active form. So, a cold dip could even be an exhilarating way to support weight maintenance.

Here are some ways to experiment with cold exposure:

• Schedule an appointment to test a cryotherapy chamber
• Construct a cold-water plunge tub in your backyard
• Crank the temperature way down for the last 60 seconds of your morning shower
• Add ice to your bathtub and take the plunge
• Dip into a cold river or lake

5. Fast for Metabolic Flexibility

Fasting—abstaining or limiting your consumption of food and drink—can seem contrary to healthy behavior and stressful for your body. After all, you need nutrients to feed and energize your cells. But taking periodic breaks from feeding may be the healthy strategy you need to boost resilience, energize and rejuvenate your body, and create favorable metabolic health changes.

As you fast, liver glycogen stores (carbohydrates held for later use) are depleted. This forces your body to flip a metabolic switch to shift your energy balance and mobilize fatty acids. In a fasted state, your body liberates fat stores and produces ketones as an alternative energy source to its preferred one—glucose.

Over time, metabolic stress from switching from a fed to a fasted state causes adaptations to improve metabolic and homeostasis function, enhance autophagy (the cells’ clean-up process), and support healthy weight management.

Common types of fasting include:

• Time-restricted feeding or intermittent fasting—limits food intake to certain designated times of day without reducing the number of calories you consume. The popular 16:8 fast limits food for 16 hours each day with an eight-hour feeding window.
• Alternate-day fasting—fasting every other day or consuming a small amount of food on “fasted” days.
• Prolonged fasting—a longer fast that usually exceeds 48 hours. This method should only be practiced with supervision from your healthcare provider.

Reconsider Your Healthy Routine with Stress Benefits in Mind

How humans experience stress has changed throughout history, but your evolutionary biology remains. You have the power to leverage stress-response to transform your health, enhance your performance, and change your mind about discomfort. Experiment with stress tolerance by adding purposeful stress into your health routine today. It’s a great way to help you experience the lasting benefits of short-term stress.

Your body may be about 60 percent water, but you’re 100-percent cells. They make up your whole body, but still act—and react—individually. That’s very apparent when it comes to stress. Individual cellular stress responses are very different than the way your whole body responds to a stressor.

You’re likely all too familiar with those bodily responses to psychological stress. Many people have an intimate knowledge of the tension, increased heart rate, and possible gastric gymnastics. But you might not be full acquainted with how your cells respond to stress—or even how cellular stress differs from everyday stress.

It’s time to better understand what your cells go through and how they react. And also come to grips with the role your decisions have and how you can use selective cellular stress to help support your overall health.

What Stresses Cells Out

One way to look at stress of any kind, is as something that upsets a delicate balance. In daily life, that means frustrating delays impacting your deadline or unexpected expenses upending the budget.

Your cells crave balance so much that maintaining homeostasis is their operating principle. A cellular stress response is triggered whenever cellular balance is thrown a bit out of whack or when the serenity of homeostasis is even threatened.

That’s why many cellular stressors are best described as environmental changes in or directly around the cell. And your cells are hard-wired to react to their environments. Some changes are good and necessary. It’s actually an essential part of how your body runs—from nutrient distribution to energy production and more. But some environmental changes are more worrisome to the cell than others.

Take the following list of most common cellular stressors, for instance:

• Temperature Increase: There’s a good reason your body sweats. It’s kicking on the evaporative cooler (your skin) to maintain a good operating temperature. Your cells thrive in a certain temperature range. Throw off that thermal balance with a little extra heat, and your cells start the stress-response processes you’ll read about momentarily.
• Exposure to Toxins: Cells are tiny pouches containing many chemical reactions. Any interruption to this chemistry—especially by toxins, but even by nutrients that may act like a toxin—throws a wrench into normal operation. That’s enough to trip the stress-response wire.
• Lack of Energy Resources: Your cells contain the machinery to manufacture energy from your diet. But if you fast or limit calories, cellular environmental conditions change enough to trigger a stress-response process called autophagy—more on that later.
• Oxidative Stress Accumulation: A certain amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are common in cells. They’re a byproduct of energy production in the cellular mitochondria. Too many of these particles floating around tips the balance and creates oxidative stress—and accompanying reactions—in your cells.

You are also a source of stress for your cells. Your lifestyle decisions determine a lot about the cellular environment. So, when you make a thousand different decisions—exposing yourself to toxins, deciding to adopt intermittent fasting, failing to stay hydrated, or consuming a high-fat diet—your cells may pay a stressful price.

And your daily and chronic stresses can impact your cells. That makes stress management and healthy habits key to keeping your cells calm and happy.

Equal and Opposite Reaction—Your Four Cellular Stress Responses

Most of the negatives of stress—at a cellular or macro level—come from the way your body responds. Consistently high levels of cortisol are correlated with chronic stress and account for some of the ways stress hampers your health. Your cellular stress responses can be just as harmful.

Let’s start with the worst news first: sometimes your cells’ response to stress is just to say “enough is enough” and die off in a process called apoptosis. This, obviously, is not always ideal. But it’s could actually be worse—after all, it’s a natural process and part of human development.

Apoptosis could even be described as a type of sacrifice. The process acts to hopefully avoid the more devastating cell death eventually caused by a stressful stimulus. That’s because it has less of an impact on surrounding cells. But stressing your cells to the point where they opt for apoptosis or succumb to the stress is still the worst-case-cellular-stress scenario.

Cell death may be necessary to destroy damaged cells. The good news, though, is there are other signals telling cells they should continue living.

One of the better signaling outcomes involves cell repair mechanisms. Stress can damage proteins by making them unfold—and DNA can even be harmed. The answer to impaired proteins? Signaling cells to release a different set of proteins. These helpers repair or contain the damage to help return the cell to normal.

Autophagy was mentioned above, specifically in connection to fasting. This important cellular stress response is used more for cleaning and recycling than repair. When proteins degrade, autophagy further disassembles them into component amino acids the cell can use again. Even though it translates literally to “self-eating,” autophagy is a natural and important part of maintaining optimal health. (Want to dive deeper into autophagy? Read more about cellular renewal processes.)

Adaptation is the final approach your cells typically takes to stress. Adapting, which start in the DNA, involves complex processes with several cellular pathways. It’s a lot to digest, but the end result is pretty simple and very positive—resistance and resilience.

Using Cellular Stress to Your Advantage

Your cells’ ability to adapt to or spark cellular-cleaning processes in response to low-level stressors creates an exciting opportunity. And it’s one you can capitalize on to support your cellular and overall health.

The most common way to take advantage of cellular stress resides in the realm of nutrition.

Intermittent fasting evangelists advocate longer periods of zero-calorie consumption partly due to ties with autophagy. Here’s how the logic for this conclusion flows: Research supports the connection between the cellular recycling process and caloric restriction or abstention. The benefits of autophagy for supporting and maintaining optimal cellular health are also well established. And, since cellular health plays a big role in overall wellness, that intentional stress becomes a boon instead of a burden.

Nutritional science has also uncovered the role some nutrients can play in strengthening your cells through stress. These molecules—mostly falling under the phytonutrient label—originate from plants, where they have protective effects. These same abilities help the phytonutrients act as a mild toxin, which activates beneficial cellular stress responses.

So, don’t just fear stress—use it to your advantage. Think of all this as exercise for your cells. Overcoming a small, controlled amount of stress strengthens and promotes resilience. And that’s another important way to help support your health.

Your brain is hard-wired to protect you from harm—especially in the face of real (or even imagined) stress. The initial response to a stressful situation provides a burst of energy to help you respond to the perceived threat. That’s partially why occasional stress and anxiety can help provide the motivation you need to tackle a big work project, study for a test, or start a new job.

Stress is caused by external stimuli (also called a trigger), while anxiety is part of the internal response to stress. And even though stress is an unavoidable part of life, humans aren’t well-equipped to endure prolonged periods of stress and anxiety. So, unmanaged stress or chronic anxiety can wreak havoc on emotions, memory, and overall health.

COVID-19—the disease caused by the novel coronavirus—and the information overload it has caused, has increased worldwide levels of stress and anxiety. The human brain is complex and provides the unique ability to imagine threats to your health, including how this virus could cause harm. The majority of people with COVID-19 recover and only experience mild-to-moderate symptoms—body aches, fever, and cough. But the uncertainty of how it will impact physical, financial, and social health (and that of loved ones) has led to unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety.

How Stress and Anxiety Work—A Refresher

Human ancestors needed the fight-or-flight response to survive their harsh world. When fearful or stressed, a rush of adrenalin prepared them to flee dangerous situations or fight to defend their ground and survive. In a modern society it’s rarely needed for actual survival.

Stress causes a chain reaction that begins in your protective brain. When you experience an event perceived as fearful, the amygdala—an almond-shaped mass located in each brain hemisphere—kicks into gear. This complex mass of cells helps regulate survival instincts (fight-or-flight responses), emotions, hormonal secretions, and memory.

Research suggests that the amygdala is also involved in the anxiety process. People with anxiety disorders are thought to have over-reactive amygdalae. The amygdalae are part of a larger network within the central nervous system that regulates the physiological effects of stress and anxiety.

The body’s stress response system is designed to engage when needed and disengage when the threat has passed. Feeling anxious and stressed is part of this temporary process to help keep us alert for signs of danger. But persistent stress and anxiety can become problematic and interfere with physical and mental health.

An ongoing global pandemic creates conditions for persistent stress. So, it’s important to understand how the COVID-19 crisis could potentially affect your mental and physical health and find ways to manage the stress and anxiety you’re feeling.

How Information Overload Contributes to Stress and Anxiety

The world has evolved from just using the internet for work or school. Now it’s a conduit for entertainment, a way to meet and connect with people, and an outlet for world-wide news. And it’s all at your fingertips, 24 hours a day.

For many, a good morning routine starts with reading a newspaper, scrolling through social media posts and news feeds, watching the news, or listening to the radio. But is this a healthy way to start the day?

A 2014 survey conducted by National Public Radio (NPR), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health found that 40 percent of those surveyed reported feeling stressed during the previous month. These respondents also mentioned reading or hearing news reports as a contributing factor.

Most people haven’t lived through a global pandemic as deadly as COVID-19. Almost everyone’s way of life has abruptly changed due to a tiny little virus—not visible to the human eye—that has caused a global health and financial crisis. And it’s made many fearful of the unknown.

The modern, 24-hour news cycle provides a continuous flow of rapidly evolving information from around the globe. News about COVID-19 is everywhere and not limited to credible information sources. Blogs, websites, and social media accounts are filled with opinions and information that may or may not be accurate.

This relentless flood of information makes it difficult to distinguish between what’s reliable and useful, sensationalized, full of half-truths, or blatantly false. When you factor in the mandated social distancing that keeps loved ones apart, financial struggles, and the fear of the unknown, it’s no wonder that people feel overwhelmed and powerless. And this contributes to more stress, anxiety, fatigue, and feelings of helplessness.

It’s normal to feel frightened and anxious in stressful situations that you can’t control. And the good news is there are aspects of life you can control and strategies you that can try to help you manage and alleviate stress and anxiety.

Stress is a cycle with many phases and symptoms. You can change the way you manage stress and that can help improve the way you feel. It’s important to pay attention to your physical and mental health, and recognize the signs and symptoms of stress in your loved ones. That way you’ll know when to seek help.

 Identifying Signs of Stress

Everyone experiences occasional stress, but it’s the response to stress and anxiety that makes the difference. The symptoms of persistent, unmanaged psychological and physical stress are many. Here are a few noteworthy examples:

• An increase or decrease in activity or typical energy levels
• Difficulty sleeping or relaxing
• Rapid heartbeat
• Frequent headaches
• Gastrointestinal upset
• Changes in appetite
• Heightened alertness
• Feeling more irritable or angry
• Excessive worrying
• Feeling depressed or unusually sad
• Feeling tired
• Inability to have fun or experience pleasure
• Preferring to be alone
• Feeling anxious, fearful, or confused
• Difficulty making decisions and thinking clearly
• An increase or decrease in the use of alcohol, tobacco, or in the misuse of legal and illegal drugs

Long-term activation of your body’s stress-response system can increase the risk of developing serious health problems. That’s why it’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress and take appropriate action to manage them before they spiral out of control.

Tips for Managing Information-Related Stress During COVID-19

You may not be able to control the world to remove stress, but it’s possible to change the way you respond to stress. And that can make all the difference in how you feel. Reducing stress often provides immediate relief and can provide long-term benefits for your health. Learning to cope with stressful situations now can even help make future ones easier to manage.

Like you read about above, information is important, but also can become overwhelming. Find a balance between staying informed about the COVID-19 outbreak while maintaining sanity and lower stress levels. Spending too much time watching and worrying can lead to increased levels of stress and anxiety.

Start by setting limits on how much time you spend online or watching the news. Also, identifying the “why” behind unhealthy media habits is the first step toward breaking the habit.

Don’t just limit your time stewing in the news of the day. Limit the sources of information to quality, credible outlets. Information can change rapidly as more is discovered about this virus. That’s why it’s vital to find accurate and trustworthy sources. Knowing the facts can help you protect you and your loved ones, and bring a sense of calm to help you mentally manage through trying times.

Good sources of for information about outbreaks from infectious diseases include:

• Your physician
• State or local health departments
• Government health agencies
• International health organizations (like the World Health Organization) are good sources

Take a Calming Deep Breath and Learn Strategies to Cope

Instead of disappearing down the rabbit hole of information overload, there are activities you can do and habits you can adopt to help fight the extra stress of the pandemic.

1. Socialize, share, and safely see others: Most people are social. That’s why it’s been so difficult to quarantine or social distance from friends and family. Social support is a critical component of healthy relationships and resilient psychological health. Your network of family and friends play a key role in your daily life and you play a role in theirs. This emotional support system is there for you in times of stress to bolster you and help push through hard times.

Talk with family, friends, or loved ones who may be experiencing similar stress and anxiety. A study in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy found that individuals who were able to successfully write or verbally express their stress-related feelings experienced significant improvements in their own physical health.

Connecting with others to share reliable information, express feelings, and voice concerns may help you develop healthy strategies to better cope during stressful times. If you can’t safely be with family and friends physically, find ways to connect virtually. FaceTime, ZOOM, Google Hangouts, and many other video chatting options are available for virtual visits. Or do it the old-fashioned way, through a phone call, a text, email, or letter—whatever works best. You could also consider joining an online coronavirus support group.

2. Designate periods of time each day to unplug from devices: Turn off the TV, smart phones, and other connected devices. The information will still be there when you’re ready to reconnect.
3. Schedule regular times to relax your body and mind: You have many options: Meditate, do yoga, breathe deeply, practice mindfulness, take a bath, read a book, enjoy a hobby, listen to soothing music, gently stretch, or go for a walk or run. Exercise is especially helpful to relieve built-up stress and reduce the accompanying muscle tension.
4. Dose up on nature: Research shows that spending time outdoors relieves stress and lowers stress hormones. When you’re outside enjoying nature, blood pressure and heart rate decrease, mood improves, feelings of anxiety and stress diminish, and mental clarity improves. During the COVID-19 pandemic, enjoying the outdoors also provides a good way to socially distance.
5. Focus on healthy choices: Making healthier choices to care for your body will have a positive impact on your overall health and well-being. Skip the fast food line and strive to prepare and eat regular, healthy meals with plenty of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean protein sources. And don’t forget to stay hydrated. Ensure you’re tucking in for the recommended amount of sleep (7-9 hours) each night. Also, wash your hands regularly.

If you just can’t seem to control the stress and anxiety you’re feeling, and it’s impacting your health and daily life, please seek help from a professional healthcare provider. A health professional can help bring clarity to what you may be feeling, and provide you additional coping tools.

Take Care of Yourself

Learning new ways to decompress and find stress-free moments in everyday life is important for long-term health anytime. But this is especially important during a global pandemic.

It’s understandable to feel anxious and worried about what’s happening in the world, and what could happen to many aspects of life. The most important thing to remember is to listen to what your body is telling you—know what you’re feeling inside—and give yourself what you need, when you need it. Strive to remain hopeful, celebrate successes even if they are small ones, express gratitude and love, and don’t be afraid to seek professional help if you need it.