Stress and Histamine Part 5

exercise relieves stressExercise relieves stress

Physical activity plays a vital part in relieving stress and protecting us from its harmful effects, such as problems with histamine. Use movement to relieve stress, instead of junk food.
As a bonus, exercise promotes muscles growth. The benefits are many, whether your exercise is intense or moderate.

Vigorous exercise

When you exercise vigorously your cortisol levels rise temporarily. (Your body is primed with cortisol to help you – for example, in case the reason you’re running is because you’re escaping from danger or chasing food.)
Despite this natural rise in cortisol, vigorous physical activity can protect the body from the harmful effects of chronic psychological and physical stress.

Intense exercise like running, fast bicycling or swimming, boxing, aerobics or vigorous dancing releases tension and stimulates the release of those “feel-good” chemicals in the body that not only lower stress levels but also help to curb excessive appetite.

Moderate exercise

When you exercise moderately, on the other hand, your cortisol levels drop.  Some examples of low-intensity exercise include gardening, walking, slow bicycling, housework, tai chi and yoga. Experts say we should aim to walk 10,000 steps per day. These days we can buy step-counting devices to wear on the body.

“Physical exercise is beneficial to mental health,” concluded the authors of a 2011 study involving more than 7,000 people. [J Psychosom Res. 2011 Nov;71(5):342-8. doi:  10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.04.001. Epub 2011 May 18. Physical exercise in adults and mental health status findings from the Netherlands mental health survey and incidence study (NEMESIS). Ten Have M1, de Graaf R, Monshouwer K.]

What’s the best exercise?

There are many different kinds of exercise to choose from, but by far the best are those that you ENJOY. If you don’t enjoy it, you are unlikely to keep doing it. Some people say there is no exercise they enjoy doing. Here are some tips:

  • join a group or exercise with a friend. Socializing makes exercising more fun.
  • Dance to music. Think you can’t dance? Who cares! Find yourself a private space and dance alone, where no-one else can see you. Play your favorite music. Turn up the volume and go wild. Dance is exercise that’s usually accompanied by music, so it combines the stress-relieving benefits of movement with the stress-relieving benefits of melody and rhythm.

What does exercising cost?

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on gym memberships to get exercise – your body is right with you all the time, and all you need to do is get up and move it. Exercise is free.

How often should I exercise?

We recommend that you move your body for at least 30 minutes, three times per week.

 

Stress and Histamine: Part 1

stress and histamineStress and Histamine

“When you’re all stressed out, your body releases hormones and other chemicals, including histamine, the powerful chemical that leads to allergy symptoms. While stress doesn’t actually cause allergies, it can make an allergic reaction worse by increasing the histamine in your bloodstream.”
Stress Relief Strategies to Ease Allergy Symptoms – WebMD

This is the first in our series of posts giving you strategies for dealing with stress.

Life comes with its own built-in stressors. We can try to avoid stressful situations, but:

  • It’s impossible to completely avoid all stress.
  • We actually need small amounts of stress now and then. A little bit of stress, for a short time, can be inspiring and motivating. It’s long-term, chronic stress that can cause health problems.

It’s not so much the stressfulness of a situation that determines how stressed an individual person will feel. It’s that person’s reaction to the situation. For example, two people could find themselves in identical situations, and one might react calmly while the other one panics.

Stress management – the first steps

Stressful situations will always come and go in our lives. There’s not much you can do to stop them happening, but there is a lot you can do to minimize stress and its effects.

Step 1:

Recognize that you are in  control of your own  emotions, thoughts, routines, and responses to stress. Studies show that simply knowing we have some control over our own lives is a major factor in minimizing the effects of stress!

Step 2:

Figure out what is causing the stress in your life.
We’re not always conscious of the real sources of stress. Many people suffer from low-level stress without really knowing why. Sometimes we think we know the reasons, but if we look closer, there may be other causes involved. Thoughts and feelings play a major role.
For example, maybe you feel you are rushed off your feet every day, and you have too much to do. You might blame a heavy work-load for your feelings of stress. But perhaps you are expecting too much of yourself – setting impossibly high standards for the amount of work you think you should get through. Allow yourself to be less of a perfectionist. Permit yourself to take a break and relax from time to time. Simply changing your expectations to make them more realistic could decrease your stress levels.
The point is, you might be blaming external forces for your stress, when in fact your own inner thoughts and feelings are largely contributing to it. If you go on telling yourself that all your stress is due to external factors beyond your control, you will always feel helpless. Work out how much of your stress is due to external factors such as your environment, or your health, or the people around you, and how much of your stress is your own responsibility. The great thing about being responsible for some of your own stress is that it means you can do something about it! You can control it!

In an article called “Stress Management”, the University of Southern California recommends keeping a simple daily “Stress Journal” so that you can  make a list of all the things that stress you out from day to day, and how you responded to them.
[“Stress Management” Be Well at USC. University of Southern California. ]
This is a good way to understand whether your stress responses are useful or counterproductive. For example, do you react to relationship problems by over-eating, smoking or  drinking? Or by talking to friends or counselors?

Step 3:

Work out how to deal with the sources of stress in your life.
If your stress journal shows a pattern of unhealthy, unproductive ways you react to stress, then swap them for better responses.

In our next post we will give you some helpful, proven strategies for doing this.