5 Ways Stress Can Affect Your Bone Health
We all understand that long term stress can be harmful to our body. But how exactly does chronic stress affects our bones, and what can we do to protect them?
What is Stress
Stress is a response from your body to collect energy to overcome a threat or massive obstacle.
This is done through release of a hormone called Cortisol, which is also known as the stress hormone.
During a stressful time, your body redirects all of your energy towards either fighting the threat or running away from it.
This can give superhuman strength to tackle challenges that are life-threatening, but at the same time this takes away energy form other body systems.
Stress can take nutrients away form your bones
With high amounts of Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus along with amino acids and proteins, your bones act as storage for nutrients within your body.
When you have high amounts of Cortisol released in your blood, it looks specifically towards these stored nutrients within your bones to provide energy for your survival.
Cortisol triggers a process called resorption, in which bones are slowly hollowed out to free the minerals and proteins as an energy source.
When you are stress, your body also stops calcium absorption. Thus there is a decrease in creating new bones which further creates an imbalance within your body where more bones are broken down than built up.
Stress can harm your digestion
Things like your digestive system are deprived of energy, which in turn makes it difficult for them to function optimally.
When your digestion does not function well, it creates a situation where minerals and nutrients from your food are not absorbed properly.
Long term stress can cause IBS, mess with gut health and lower nutrient absorption.
Not only does this affect your bone health, but you might experience other symptoms such as headaches, dehydration, fatigue to name a few.
Stress can limit your movement
When we are stressed, we want to avoid everything else and focus on the situation that is causing us the stress.
Be it work, your relationships, or financial situations. All that we want is to put an end to this stressful situation, and thus we end up putting other things like our health and exercise on the back burner.
This starts a damaging cycle where stress causes you to focus less on your health and in turn deteriorating health makes it hard to handle stressful situations.
Physical movement and exercise is very important to build and maintain strong bones and the muscles that support these bones.
Stress can cause hormonal imbalance
When you are stressed, your body is filled with Cortisol, the stress hormone. Cortisol is an unique hormone, as affects other hormones within your body.
High levels of cortisol can reduce testosterone (in women as well), thus decreasing the size and strength of your bones.
Along with thin, Cortisol makes us crave sugar and carbohydrates and increases fat storages around our body. Increased levels of fats can interfere with proper functioning of your organs, and can cause issues such as fatty liver.
Lack of movement and exercise also directly affects our hormonal balance, which in turn affect the health of our bones.
Stress can limit your time in the Sun
Along with exercise, another benefit that arise our of being out and moving around is the vitamin d that you generate when you are out in the sun.
Chronic stress can drag down your energy levels, which in turn may stop you from going out often.
A deficiency in Vitamin D is associated with numerous mental health disorders including depression, worse ability to handle emotions, and a lower overall well-being and quality of life.
What can I do to reduce stress
Remind yourself of the other parts of your life
It is a human survival mechanism that when you are stressed, your attention becomes hyper focused on a single threat.
But if you feel that you are not in any life threatening situation, you can actively try to spread this focus to not just one thing, but everything around you.
You should remember that your health is far more important than a work project or car insurance payment.
You can also seek escapes from stress through recreational activities, however this is not a permanent solution. Too much escapism can create its own set of problems, which is why it is better to deal with the root of stress.
Try Somatic Therapy
While majority of our stress is created by our minds, the solution doesn't lie with it. If you try to de-stress by thinking and working out how, you will end up stressing our more, even about the stress that you do experience.
It is therefore important to understand the role our body plays in centering ourselves and managing stress and emotional trauma.
If you are someone who stresses out easily and over trivial matters, Somatic therapy would be perfect for you! Click the link below to find out more about body based therapy for stress.
