Don’t ever search #stressed on Twitter.
Just don’t.
You’ll read about new moms trying to fly with small children, recent graduates struggling to find jobs, people with two jobs unable to pay their bills, and spoilers about every show that you’ve saved in your Netflix queue but you haven’t gotten around to watching yet…
…and you’ll probably start getting #stressed yourself.
As a culture, we celebrate stress – wearing our it as a badge of honor. 
But beyond making us feel socially acceptable, anxious, frustrated, and worn-out, what does stress do to our health?
Well, new studies show that stress makes you sexy, happy, and rich. (I’M KIDDING!)
Here’s the truth: we need to break up with our addiction to stress. Because it’s not good for any of us.
And here are a few reasons why:
- Stress makes you age faster. It’s the number one cause of telomere shortening which has been shown to significantly advance premature aging.
- Stress makes you gain weight. Forget beer-bellies… let’s talk about stress-bellies. Because stress triggers the releases of the fat-storing hormone cortisol, causing us to gain weight as we complain, worry, and compare.
- Stress makes you sick. The negative emotions that come along with stress, like anxiety and depression, activate something called the conserved transcriptional response to adversity. Which is a fancy way of saying that your stress turns on a set of genes that increases inflammation and decreases immunity. And that release of cortisol we just talked about? It also inflames the immune system, also lowering immunity. Bummer…
So please, repeat after me. Stress isn’t sexy.
And it’s not a badge of honor.
And it doesn’t have to be normal.
Stress is tough on your body all the way down to a cellular level and it can even shave years off of your life.
But you have the power to control your health, even if you’re ill now or you’ve been ill in the past. The field of epigenetics has shown us that our lifestyle choices and even the thoughts we choose to focus on can impact the way our DNA functions. (Get your free Epigenetics e-book here if you don’t have it already).
So the next time you want to tell someone about something stressful that got you worked up, think about what you’re doing to your health (and theirs!).
Then take a deep breath and remember, you are health. You have the power to choose absolute wellness in each moment.
Then… choose health.
Because you are health,
Dr. Kien
PS — Do you know someone who’s stressed all of the time? Will you do them a favor and send them this article right now? It might help them make a change that helps them improve their health!
