The Cortisol Problem: Part 1 - Stress & Genes

Every day, we are all subjected to stress, and if we don't learn to handle it, we can quickly reach a point of general discomfort and burnout.

It is common knowledge that stress weakens the body and puts you at risk for certain diseases.

There are several different kinds of stress, and each one has a different degree of difficulty in coping with it.

Surely, everyone responds differently to the various stressors in our daily lives, but the end result is the same for everyone: Nervousness, anxiety, and overall discomfort.

All of these things contribute to worsened social dynamics/soft skills, and lower working efficiency.

Let's look at the most critical aspects of stress, how it functions, why it puts our wellbeing at risk in some situations, and what genes are linked to stress.

What Is Stress?

Any change that induces physical, mental, or physiological tension is generally referred to as “stress”.

When the present situation exceeds our ability to handle it, we become stressed.

Now, stress is often perceived to be that everyday tension we all feel, but the thing is, this type of stress can actually be categorized as “constructive stress”.

As a matter of fact, we need stress in order to perform at our best, BUT...

The issue arises when the stress becomes excessive.

This may be the product of a heavy emotional load, a significant loss, or a series of mild, consecutive headaches that we are unable to recover from because they occur much too often.

When we reach our physiological optimum, optimal stress leads to optimal efficiency.

After that, the stress grows, and our efficiency decreases proportionally.

The worst thing about this is that we can consciously intensify the stress levels and most people actually do that.