Two Holiday Stressors That Lower Our Immunity

We all know that the holidays can be a very stressful time.  There are family obligations that cause stress.  There are temptations to eat foods that we would normally avoid.  Cookies are being passed around the office every day.  Financial pressures of gift purchasing are evident.  The process of travelling has become more and more of a hassle. 

The two stressors that I want o focus on today are 1) emotional stress, and 2) sugar.

When we experience emotional stress the human body enters a state of adaptive physiology.  This is know as the ‘fight or flight’ response.  Our body’s were designed to handle emotional stress so that we could survive as a species.  The physiological changes that occur during stress allow the body to deal with the increased energy demands of the stressful environment.  Unfortunately, the human body was not designed to handle chronic stress.  Most of the illness we see today is directly linked to this stress physiology (lowered immunity, most cancers, type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, decreased bone density, attention deficit, etc). 

Lets go back several thousand years to the ‘cave people’.  Imagine the surprise (stress) when the sabre tooth tiger appeared from the woods.  Many systems turn off during this state of adaptive physiology.  The digestive system shuts down and so does our immune system.  You see, there is no real need to digest food or heal when the tiger is gnawing your leg off – healing comes later when the body is able to calm down.  If it weren’t for the fight or flight response we would not be here today.  Our species would have ceased!  Fast forward to today.  We no longer run from predators (just creditors).  Our stressors are less life threatening in the acute sense.  Todays stressors are significantly more life threatening in the long run.  

Sugar is the other stressor that runs rampant during the holidays.  Drinking a 12 ounce soda (14 teaspoons of sugar) will shut your immune system down for 4-6 hours.  The reason for this is that the molecular structure of glucose and vitamin C are nearly identical.  These two molecules even use the same receptor sites on our cells.  Vitamin C has obvious contributions to the immune system.  Flooding your system with sugar (soda, cookies, cake, etc) will reduce the amount of vitamin C that can be used by our cells. 

I wish you all a healthy and happy holiday season.  Remember to maintain a stress free perspective and avoid the overindulgence  of sugar! 

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