Becoming Stress Proof with Dr Mithu Storoni #56
Neuroscientist Dr. Mithu Storoni discusses how stress, once a "ghost," is now quantifiable with real physical effects. She shares research findings and practical tips from her book, "Stress Proof," on how to buffer ourselves from its consequences.
Deep Dive Analysis
9 Topic Outline
Personal Motivation for Researching Stress and Its Solutions
Stress as a Quantifiable Factor in Health Conditions
Measuring Stress Through Autonomic Nervous System Indicators
Physical Impact of Emotional Stress on the Body
Modern Lifestyle Factors Contributing to Increased Stress
Nuances of Exercise Timing and Intensity for Stress Management
Yoga for Self-Control and Stress Regulation
The Importance of Personalized Stress Management Strategies
Dr. Storoni's Personal Stress Management Practices
7 Key Concepts
Autonomic Nervous System
This is an automatic nerve network constantly at work inside us, responsible for keeping us alive and modulating our response to the environment. It plays a key role in the stress response, and its flexibility in shifting between calm and stressed states is crucial for health.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
HRV monitors how responsive the heart is to changes in demand, reflecting the activity of the autonomic nervous system. A higher HRV indicates a healthier heart that can easily adapt between calm and stressed states.
Perceived Stress
Unlike cortisol levels, perceived stress is the subjective experience of stress that directly correlates with disease outcomes. It highlights that an individual's interpretation and feeling of stress are more impactful than just hormonal markers.
Brain as a Prediction Machine
The brain constantly creates a model of the world using incoming cues to reduce uncertainty and predict future events. This predictive function helps the brain feel in control, and a lack of predictability can trigger the stress response.
Melanopsin Containing Ganglion Cells
These are special receptors at the back of the eye that detect the fall in blue light, signaling to the brain that the day has ended. They are crucial for regulating circadian rhythms and melatonin production, which acts as a natural anxiolytic.
Glymphatic System
This is a specialized drainage system in the brain responsible for clearing waste products, often referred to as 'junk.' Aerobic exercise training has been suggested to increase the drainage efficiency of this system.
Self-Efficacy
This refers to an individual's belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments. Engaging in challenging activities like ultra-marathons can build a strong sense of self-efficacy, which significantly benefits mental well-being.
8 Questions Answered
Her interest stemmed from observing friends and family in Hong Kong suffering from stress with no effective solutions, despite her extensive neuroscience background. This motivated her to research academic papers to find science-backed strategies.
Stress is a quantifiable factor that can lead to difficulties in blood sugar management (e.g., type 2 diabetes), trigger relapses in autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis, and increase susceptibility to illnesses like the common cold, even through emotional stress.
Stress can now be measured through the dynamics of pupil movement (pupillometry) and heart rate variability (HRV) monitoring, both of which reflect the activity of the autonomic nervous system, the automatic nerve network responsible for the stress response.
Modern life has eroded natural stress buffers like consistent sunrise/sunset cues and intermittent low-to-moderate intensity movement, while introducing new stressors such as constant blue light exposure from screens and prolonged sedentary behavior.
Exercise can build brain resilience and self-efficacy. While intense exercise has benefits, daily low-to-moderate intensity movement acts as a buffer against daily stress. Exercising in the morning can improve REM sleep and increase evening melatonin levels compared to evening exercise.
Yoga teaches self-control and self-regulation by allowing individuals to discover and activate internal 'buttons' (mechanisms) to calm themselves. This enhanced control over one's own body and sensations reduces the perception of uncertainty, which is a core component of the stress response.
No, a universal prescription doesn't exist because each person's brain creates a unique model of the world based on individual experiences and cues. Effective stress management requires a personalized approach, focusing on the specific areas where an individual is most struggling (e.g., circadian rhythms, emotional regulation, inflammation).
She changed her exercise routine to focus on intermittent movement throughout the day to feel physically exhausted by bedtime, uses graded blue-blocking glasses from 8 PM onwards to regulate circadian rhythms, and incorporates hot baths to help with mood and relaxation.
13 Actionable Insights
1. Personalize Stress Solutions
Identify your biggest stressor or ‘gap’ (e.g., circadian rhythms, emotional regulation, inflammation) and focus your efforts there, as strategies are context-dependent and not all will apply to everyone. This approach maximizes impact and avoids frustration from ineffective strategies.
2. Practice Self-Experimentation
Actively try different strategies and observe their effects on your body and mind to figure out what works best for you within your unique life context. This is crucial for discovering effective long-term stress management and achieving overall health.
3. Regulate Evening Light Exposure
Reduce blue light and dim white light exposure in the evenings, ideally starting around 8 PM, by wearing blue-blocking glasses and avoiding bright screens. This helps the brain register sunset, promotes melatonin production, and supports winding down for better sleep and reduced anxiety.
4. Maximize Daytime Light Exposure
Spend time outdoors and expose yourself to natural daylight during the day. This reduces your susceptibility to evening light interference with melatonin production and helps regulate your circadian rhythm.
5. Integrate Intermittent Movement
Move frequently throughout the day with low to moderate intensity exercise, aiming to feel physically exhausted by bedtime. This buffers the effects of daily stressors, lowers cortisol levels, and prevents stress accumulation.
6. Exercise in the Morning
If you plan to do a significant amount of exercise, perform it in the morning rather than the evening. This can increase REM sleep by 10% and boost evening melatonin levels.
7. Practice Yoga for Self-Control
Engage in yoga to discover and learn how to activate internal ‘buttons’ for self-control and self-regulation over your body’s automatic functions. This practice helps you calm down and gain a sense of control in uncertain or stressful situations.
8. Establish Daily Routines
Create and adhere to consistent daily routines to provide predictability for your brain. A predictable environment reduces uncertainty and helps mitigate stress.
9. Take Regular Hot Baths
Incorporate hot baths into your routine whenever possible. Raising your core body temperature by just over half a degree can protect against depressive symptoms for several weeks.
10. Monitor Heart Rate Variability
Use HRV monitoring tools or apps to measure the responsiveness of your heart to changes in demand, which reflects the health and balance of your autonomic nervous system. This provides a measurable indicator of your body’s stress level.
11. Practice Focused Attention
Engage in focused attention exercises, such as meditating on an object like a coffee mug in the office. This practice helps regulate emotions and build self-control in challenging environments.
12. Read “The Stress Solution”
Read Dr. Rangan Chatterjee’s book, “The Stress Solution,” to learn about his philosophy and tools for reducing the impact of stress, which he believes are valuable for everyone.
13. Read “Stress Proof”
Read Dr. Mitu Steroni’s book, “Stress Proof,” to access hundreds of science-backed strategies for stress relief and identify which ones apply to your unique stressors.
6 Key Quotes
Stress is now a quantifiable, identifiable, solid thing, which we know happens. We can explain what is going on. And hence, we have the power to eliminate so many conditions and give so many people relief for what they've always assumed was just possibly in their heads or just something going on.
Dr. Mithu Storoni
If you are in a job where you're made to feel inferior, and you're given the cold virus through your nose, you are much more likely to catch a cold from it, than if you're in a job where you're not treated as inferior. How extraordinary is that?
Dr. Mithu Storoni
In medicine, unless you can measure something and follow it and turn that measurement into an entity that you can use to predict what's going to happen next, or that you can identify in other settings, that thing kind of, we don't say it doesn't exist, of course, but we just leave it to the side because it's much more dangerous to explain something wrongly than to try to, than to just ignore it.
Dr. Mithu Storoni
Even emotional stress makes you more inflamed, which is so exciting. So if you go and have a, you know, an encounter with your boss or with a colleague, and you feel emotionally negative after that, that in itself raises your inflammatory markers momentarily.
Dr. Mithu Storoni
William James, the eminent psychologist, American psychologist from 19th century, he said, my experience is what I choose to attend to.
Dr. Mithu Storoni
When our brains push the stress response button, it's really a kind of a full-blown recalibration system to prepare us for the immediate future, which the brain cannot predict and hence has no control over.
Dr. Mithu Storoni
1 Protocols
Dr. Storoni's Personal Stress Management Practices
Dr. Mithu Storoni- Aim to feel physically exhausted by the end of the day through gradual, intermittent movement. If intense exercise is done, do it in the morning.
- Wear graded blue-blocking glasses starting around 8 PM until bedtime to regulate circadian rhythms and block both blue and bright white light.
- Take a hot bath whenever possible to raise core body temperature, which can protect against depressive symptoms.