More and more in today’s society we are understanding the effect the environment around us plays a role in our health and well-being. Now I’m not talking about the environment in a “save the planet” type context. I’m referring to the environment you live in. The physical, chemical & emotional stressors you are exposing yourself to on a daily basis. Every move you make, every single thing that touches or goes inside your body, and every thought you have put some degree of stress on your body.
Our body has this incredible ability to be in a cycling state of change. Every second of every day our body is reorganising itself to meet our needs, the demands of the stressors we expose it to. Most of the time you’re not even aware of it. A good example of this adaptive power in your body is noticing someone build muscle after regularly working out. This is evolution in action. The body is building stronger and larger muscles in adaptation to the stress placed on them through lifting weights. This is what we call adaptive change. This type of change in the body helps us grow and evolve. A productive change by the body to have you better prepared for that task in the future, resulting in better function and better health.
This change only happens however if the stress placed on the body is able to be integrated and adapted. If a stress on our body is unable to be adapted and integrated, then the body will go through what’s called maladaptive change. Maladaptive change is something the body will do that is non-productive and detrimental to the organism. Take smoking for example. The body is not designed or equipped to deal with the chemical stress smoking places on the body. In response to this, the body’s mucus glands (particularly in the respiratory tract) become larger and more productive, there is cell death of the cilia in the lungs which act as filters for dirt and dust, and there is abnormal cell proliferation which results in cancerous cells. These are all responses your body makes trying to adapt to the chemical stress of smoking. But they are maladaptive changes which result in poor heart/lung function and cancers. Maladaptive changes are changes your body makes in response to a stress that breed dysfunction, sickness & disease.
These are two extreme but glaringly obvious examples of our body’s response to stress, and it is either a productive or detrimental result. However, we often don’t realize the other stressors our bodies undergo daily that we may not be equipped to adapt to. Prolonged sitting/slouching whether in your car, on the couch or at your desk are all physical stressors that the body is making maladaptive change to. As a quick exercise to see the effect slouching has on our function, I want you to slouch down and drop your head forward, now try take a deep breath in. Very difficult isn’t it? Now sit up tall, head over your shoulders and try again. So much easier! Because that’s the position your body is supposed to function out of! Other areas of our lives are important to pay attention to as well. The number of chemical additives and excess sh*t in our foods is ridiculous. People are often surprised if they develop dairy, gluten or soy allergies later in life, but it’s because their body has been maladaptively changing over time to the point symptoms present themselves because the body can’t keep up with the demands. No one is surprised when a smoker gets lung cancer later in life are they? The same goes for emotional stress. Stress causes a Fight or Flight response in the body, which is perfect in the right situation. But if prolonged our body’s undergo maladaptive changes to that stress response and we end up with inflammation and sickness. There is plenty of research linking chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes and High Blood Pressure to chronic stress responses in the body.
It’s important we take a good look at what’s going on around us regularly in order to create and sustain health and growth. There is an analogy I like to refer to for this conversation. If you had a fish living in a filthy fish tank and it was clearly suffering and unhealthy, would you move it to another fish tank, or would you clean the one it’s in?
References:
Pickering, T. G. (n.d.). Role of Stress in Development of Hypertension. Hypertension Medicine, 55-87. doi:10.1385/1-59259-008-x:55
Wellen, K. E., & Hotamisligil, G. S. (2005, May 2). JCI -Inflammation, stress, and diabetes. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI25102