Episode Link: Dr. Sharon Horesh Bergquist

Book: Link

TRANSCRIPT:

Colleen: Welcome back to Hot Flashes and Cool

Topics Podcast. Today, we are gonna be talking about the stress paradox with

Dr.Sharon Bergquist. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Sharon: – Thank you so much for having me.

Colleen: –  When we were reading this book,

so much of what is told to us as we get older is that stress is bad. You have

to minimize your stress level. It’s not good for your health, but your book is

truly a paradox because you are talking about the fact that our

body is hardwired for stress and that there’s some good stress and bad stress. So I

thought we would start at the beginning explaining what you mean by what our body

is hardwired for stress, for good stress.

Dr. Sharon: Yeah. So, you know, everything that we’ve

been told about stress that it harms is certainly true. I’m not trying to discount

any of it. And there’s, you know, really about nine decades of research now showing

that, but in the last two decades, there’s also a lot of really good science

showing how certain types of stress, the types that we’re made for, which we can

get into, are really there to help us adapt and thrive and grow.

And when we use these types of good stress, it helps us build resilience against

the types of stress that are wearing us down. So it is counterintuitive because

we’re actually using stress to build stress resilience. Right.

Bridgett: And those two type of

stresses, can you share those with us? The chronic stress and hermetic, am I saying

that correctly, hermetic stress?

Dr. Sharon: Yeah, absolutely, Bridgett. So this is all from this

new science of good stress called Hormesis. It’s from the Greek word to excite.

And the good kinds, and these are the types that we’re adapted for, they’re brief,

they’re mild to moderate and they’re followed by recovery. And the chronic stressors

that we are very familiar with are kind of continuous, they’re beyond our control,

things like financial hardship, difficult relationships, job situations where we feel

stuck. And the common approach to stress management around chronic stress,

are things like mindfulness, meditation, which are, you know, so important.

And I think there are wonderful approaches, but they don’t always work for everybody.

You know, some people just have a very busy mind. And this is a different set of

tools because we’re approaching resilience by taking action.

So all of the good stressors, these hormetic stressors involve deliberate stress.

You are choosing to add stress. You are in control and taking action is really the

antidote to anxiety. And that’s like you said, sounds so counterintuitive to say,

“I’m going to implement stress into my life.”

Colleen:  But you’re saying it’s controlled

stress. It’s not from the outside world coming in where you don’t have any control

over what you see, what you hear, what you listen to. How is that beneficial for

our bodies?

Dr. Sharon: Yeah, so our bodies are, again,

we’re made for stress. We’re made to do hard things for two million years of our

human history. our ancestors were constantly faced with stress, but these brief types

of stressors, right? We’re talking about running away from a predator, et cetera, not

24 /7 media and news. And so when we’re exposed to these types of brief stressors,

we have receptors in our brain for the stress hormone cortisol.

When cortisol is at a mild to moderate amount when it’s building up in our brain,

it attaches to a different receptor in our brain on our neurons than when it is in

a very high level from when it’s chronic continuous or at a really high intense

level. When it attaches to the receptors, the mineraloid corticoid receptors that type

when it’s in a small amount. It enhances the communication between our neurons.

We actually grow synapses, which are these communications between brain cell to brain

cell. And when we have stress in a very high level and it attaches to the

glucocorticoid receptor, the other type of receptor, when there’s a higher amount of

cortisol, we prune those connections. So when we do these mild to moderate stressors

followed by recovery, we’re making our brain greater in connectivity and we can

actually stimulate the growth of new brain cells called neurogenesis. So we’re

essentially changing the structure and function of our brain As well as body because

this same process, you know, in the brain we call it neuroplasticity, which is

growth in our brain But in our body, it’s bioplasticity So we’re rewiring and

reconfiguring our brain to a more capable brain where it can make more complex

decisions. We can think with greater clarity. It helps with our mood because it’s all

controlled by the health of our neurons. So it’s really powerful medicine.

Colleen: With neurogenesis, is that actually creating additional healthy cells as opposed to

using what you have? Because I know a lot of times people think, well, I’m going

to be killing brain cells or as I get older brain cells are going to degenerate.

But is that actually creating new brain cells?

Dr. Sharon: Yeah, we have the ability to create

new brain cells throughout most of our adult life. We know we can do it at least

through our seventh decade, probably longer. And it’s really powerful because we all have some stem cells and we can differentiate them into neurons in

this whole process of giving our bodies a stimulus, it helps us remember how we

handled a particular stressful experience so that the next time we handle it,

we can be better at it. And part of the mechanism in our brain that leads to that

is differentiating these stem cells into these neurons that help us recall that

particular situation down the road. We have that modeled really in more animal

studies. It’s very hard to kind of trace that in human studies, but there’s a high

likelihood that this is the same process that happens in our brain.

Bridgett: You know, when I was reading your book,

there was part of it too that said, and I probably am getting this wrong,

but that things change. Like you might not respond in the same way. Something on a

cellular level changes. Is that correct?

Dr. Sharon:  It is,

and it changes our resilience. So we know for a long time that childhood adversity

can impact our resilience throughout our life and of course there are many stressors

that find us throughout our life course that affect our resilience and that’s really

our passive resilience it’s kind of how life happens to us and our ability to

handle future stress and a lot of times it wears us down so that we can handle

less because it’s cumulative and we’re kind of an overload. What we’re talking about

here is building active resilience because we can choose certain types of stress that

shape shift our brain in a way we want where we are more capable,

where we are more resilient. And I think this is like this incredible science

because in neuroscience, the amount to which we can reshape that resilience is unlike

any we’ve ever imagined could be possible. And that’s really why this is so

profound.

Colleen: So can we talk a little bit about hermetic stress and the good stressors that we

should actually create for ourselves? And the first one in the book is food toxins

as medicine. And anytime you hear the word toxin, you’re not thinking that this is

a good thing. Let’s put it into our body. But you’re actually saying that there are

certain food toxins that can benefit and like you said, create the resilience that

we’re looking for.

Dr. Sharon: Yeah. So the common thread between all of the hermetic

stressors with the plant chemicals, the phytochemicals being one of them, is that

these were stressors that were inherent in the environment to which our ancestors

have adapted. So our genes have found mechanisms where we can handle these stressors,

and over two million years we’ve not only adapted to handling them,

but they are part of this ancient code of how we activate our body’s natural

ability to heal. So we had to develop strategies to become incredibly resilient and

thrive from these stressors for our human species to be able to continue and thrive.

And the way the plant toxins work in that kind of overarching approach is,

well I should start by saying “well why do plants make phytochemicals?” So when

plants are in their native environment, like a wild environment, they make

phytochemicals as a response to the stressors they face. Ultraviolet light,

pollutants, insects trying to eat them, us as humans trying to eat them, so plants

can’t flee. So their mechanism for deterring us and kind of surviving is they make

these plant chemicals called phytochemicals which are natural pesticides for the plant

and phytochemicals as we know them are beneficial right because phytochemicals are the

part in plant food we’re talking about fruits and vegetables they give them their

color right so the brighter the color of the blueberry, the more phytochemicals it

has. And the phytochemicals are the anti -inflammatories, they’re the antioxidants, they

have anti -cancer capability. So when we consume this part that the plant made in

response to stress, it activates our stress response. And what happens in our body

is that stress gets communicated to our cells. And our cells have these gene

programs that awaken our natural defenses. For example,

we ramp up our antioxidant level. We moderate inflammation. We have a DNA repair

response. We actually repair our DNA. We repair proteins.

We stimulate this process called autophagy where we can recycle damaged components in

ourselves, it stimulates energy by increasing our mitochondria.

It is so incredibly synergistic how we have adapted over time to benefit from plant

food. And part of that is because our ancestors survival really depended on how many

different edible foods could they eat. And the more they could adapt to eating

certain plants, which you know, some of course can be poisonous, but the more they

could adapt to the different, you know, quote, toxins in these natural pesticides and

plants, the more they would survive. And we have essentially been given this gift in

our DNA, handed down generations of thriving and becoming more resistant to our own

environment as a result of this relationship that has formed over human history.

Bridgett: Yeah I did I thought it was so amazing that part because you’re reading that about

the toxins and the man, was he German that that was treated badly for coming up

with this theory and people came out against him in his studies.

And I just thought that was amazing that you go to this level of toxins where I

guess you reach a threshold. Is that, yeah, and you talk a lot about the

Goldilocks, trying to find the Goldilocks spot. So can you talk about how our cells

and things respond when you try to find that Goldilocks spot?

Dr. Sharon:  Yeah,

and thanks for asking, because this is such a critical part of it. So there’s a

long history behind how hormesis was discovered, and as you’re referring to Hugo

Schultz in the late 1880s, had done some experiments where he was trying to find

what dose of a disinfectant can kill certain yeast, and what he was observing is

that at a certain dose of the yeast were actually becoming stronger and they were

proliferating and growing and it was so counterintuitive because we’re made to think

that okay at a high dose something can be toxic it can kill us if we just get

below a certain threshold maybe we can just not get harmed but what he was seeing

is that if we come to a certain range, this Goldilocks zone that we thrive,

we actually benefit. So our relationship with these stressors is not linear,

right? So our goal isn’t just to kind of reduce stress to the point where we’re

not harmed from stress. What we’re realizing is that when we hit the sweet spot, we

take off, right? We actually thrive and benefit in the relationship is more like

parabolic, if you picture the St. Louis Arch, where too much stress can harm,

not enough, can actually be just as harmful as too much. They’re kind of the two

bottom portions of that arch. And right in that middle, that Goldilocks just right

amount is where we gain the highest growth and resilience. And we call that

Goldilocks zone, the Hermetic zone. That’s the optimal zone of stress.

Colleen: – That makes me think of two part question. One, how do you know when you reach

that level? And two, I know you also talk about diversity, that you have to kind

of change up. A lot of people will eat the same foods, have the same routine and

the importance of diversity in reaching that Goldilocks zone.

Dr. Sharon:  Yeah, both is so important.

So you know when you reach it versus say a harmful stress by how you feel. So a

lot of this is just tuning into your body and then I do think in the future of

medicine. We’re gonna have more objective ways to measure this but this really applies

as a general framework for any health habit if you do the habit and you feel worn

down and exhausted and just kind of burned out, okay, that was not a health

promoting habit. If you do it and you feel energized and, you know, you think more

creatively, you, you know, that is a good stress and you’re in that Goldilocks zone.

And that really applies to food as we’re talking about here. Like how did I feel

after I ate that food and within, you know days of food can impact your mood.

It can impact your creativity as well as physical function You know,

and we all know you can get a slump after eating sugar, etc. I mean, it’s pretty

short term It applies to exercise. Did you over train? Did you under train or do

you feel just great the day that you worked out? Right, you can apply this to

psychological stress, right? When you do something, does it leave you exhilarated,

right? Did you do something where you’re like, oh my God, I’m on cloud nine? I

said yes, I did it, and I’m so glad I did, but I was so nervous. Or do you walk

away just wanting to go straight to bed and put your head under the covers, right?

So this kind of framework of how do I feel afterwards is a really critical part of

tuning into how you relate to some of these stressors.

And the second part of what you asked, this variety part, the reason variety is so

important, and we’re talking about variety of plants here, different fruits,

vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, is because each plant has a different mix of

phytochemicals of these plant “toxins” and each toxin sets off a different set of

these stress responses in our cells. So when we consume a variety of different

plants, our stress responses are going off like fireworks in a very beneficial way,

where we’re repairing our protein, our DNA, ramping up our antioxidant defenses, We

are stimulating our mitochondria, autophagy. The more different plant food,

the more we set off different pathways and the stronger we become.

And the relevance here is when I talk to my patients, most of my patients who

consider themselves as ones who eat a healthy diet will describe to me, their

typical morning is I have smoothie. Um, and for lunch, I have a salad and for

dinner, I have some version of protein with some side vegetable, but that kind of,

I think trap we all fall into because we’re all creatures of habit is we’ll have

the same smoothie. You know, it’s like, I put three strawberries, four blueberries

and ginger, whatever the combination is. And okay, my lunch is always this salad

that I get from X place and they always put a side of whatever on it and we we

kind of get into these patterns where it’s the same healthy food and of course it’s

already hugely beneficial that it’s you know if it’s whole food and healthy but

we’re missing out on variety. There are 30 ,000 edible foods in the world.

We cultivate 50 and only about 30 of them make it to our plate each year.

And in that just isn’t the way we can optimize our body’s natural healing ability

and our natural defenses.

Colleen: Yeah, you know, you were looking at Bridgett’s breakfast every morning, weren’t you?

Bridgett:  I

am this Greek yogurt, the fruit, chia seeds,

pepitas, yeah, and it is, it is a habit, but you know, when I was

reading your book and like you said, you compare what our ancestors, how many plant

foods they ate, and then you look at it and it narrows down to what we eat. Now,

remember we spoke to a nutritionist at one time that I think she said to try to

get 30 different a week, and maybe we might get 11, You know,

and it really makes you think about any of the things that you’re putting in there

Even if she said if you’re putting an herb in there if you’re putting anything put

put some more plant foods in there and that stood out to

me. The importance of a plant -based diets is

to keep things simple because I really think anything that we want to

do long term has to be simple is keep the same template, right?

Dr. Sharon:  So if you like

the Greek yogurt and or if you like a smoothie, well, switch up the fruit each

morning, you know, and, and I’m a big believer in just getting big things of frozen

fruit, you know, it just, it’s always in your freezer. They’re flash frozen at the

peak of ripeness. And just have, you know, I think of it as templates, right?

This is my salad template. This is my smoothie template. And, you know, in the

book, that’s really why I did the recipes more in templates, because once you can

make one smoothie, you really can make 20 varieties of them and just start to make

small swaps. And that way you’re not going through that whole inertia of I have to

learn an entirely new recipe. And that’s how we keep it really simple.

Colleen:  – One of the

things when we’re talking about the food is you do talk about fasting and the

importance of fasting. Can we talk about that portion of good stress?

Dr. Sharon: – Yeah,

so it’s, you know, we’re talking about what we’re eating and then the timing of our

meals is just as important as what we’re eating. In the book,

I talk about what I call circadian fasting. So it’s a form of time restricted

eating, where we are limiting our calorie consumption to 12 hours or less and trying

to have most of those calories earlier in the day. And, you know,

the reason behind that is, and I should, you know, kind of mention that this is

really normal eating. I almost don’t like the term fasting applied to this because,

and I know it is a now considered a form of fasting, but this is how our bodies

are really wired because when we go more than 12 hours without calorie

intake, that’s roughly the time period where our body does this metabolic switch from

using glucose or stores of glucose called glycogen to using fat for energy.

And our body converts the fat to ketones. And the importance here is that we wanna

balance build up and growth, which is what we do when we eat. We kind of raise

our insulin level, insulin storage hormone, and we start storing energy with

balancing, breaking down that energy. So using the glucose, using the fats.

And when we’re out of that balance, um, well, we, we net growth, um,

which, you know, on some level sounds good, but if you, um, kind of look at the

trends, it’s also contributing to a lot of metabolic disease, to a lot of,

um, you know, challenges with weight management because we’re kind of out of whack

right now. The average American eats over or consumes calories over a 15 -hour time

period. So we’re spending more time in this build -up phase than the breakdown phase,

and we can only be in one or the other. And what’s even more important is at the

level of our cells. When our cells are in growth mode, they’re proliferating,

but when they are in this kind of breakdown mode, they’re actually in a repair

mode. So when you go more than 12 hours without food, ketone is a signaling

molecule, meaning that it signals or communicates with every part of our body. And

it’s sending the signal of food scarcity, and that triggers a stress response.

And within our cells, it starts to activate all of these housekeeping functions that

we’re talking about. And the cell learns to become more efficient, like it becomes

more insulin sensitive because it wants to uptake energy more efficiently. The cells

starts to do these repair processes to the protein, the DNA, et cetera. It starts

to recycle the damaged components in addition to the repair that’s going on so that

when we resume eating, we are proliferating healthier cells.

And this back and fourth, if we do this daily of kind of housekeeping, repair,

and then healthier cells get, you know, multiplied in our body, is really the way

our bodies were designed to deal with the daily damage that we all deal with.

Like throughout the day, for example, the average person gets 10 ,000 places of

injury to the DNA. And, you know, our bodies are just incredible machines constantly

trying to heal and repair, but we do this work generally overnight and our bodies

have to be prepared and be in this fasted state because if we’re eating close to

bedtime. We are telling one part of our body. Hey, you know, open up the shop.

We got to this food, um, don’t turn out the lights yet yet. Another part of our

body is like winding down and trying to get ready for bed. And we’re, we’re

interfering with these repair processes and we’re interfering with the efficiency of

our circadian biology, this natural rhythm that we’ve really developed between growth

and repair and build up and breakdown. And when we’re out of balance, we simply

can’t repair all these things that we’re incurring,

you know, when you think about our food environment, all the pollutants, these

potential harmful toxins, the man -made toxins, not the not the healthy plant toxins.

Our bodies are out of balance with now we’re getting more damage than we’re spending

time repairing And that accelerates the timeline to disease,

because at the end of the day, disease and all these symptoms that we’re feeling

are all stemming from cellular dysfunction. I mean, that’s the most upstream factor

that, you know, if we try and get to root cause, you just can’t go further

upstream because the most fundamental smallest unit in our body is our cells. So the

health of ourselves is really the backbone of every symptom, whether it’s

bloating, digestion, mental fog, fatigue. It’s the backbone of disease like diabetes,

heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer. It’s just the backbone of longevity and how well

we age. So it’s really critical that we focus on repairing and allowing our body to

do what it’s made to do.

Bridgett: You know, you hit on so many of the things that the

good, the four R’s of good stress. I mean, you talked about repair.

And then, you know, can you talk about like the resist and the repair? And I was

looking at the rest of the Rs on their recycle recharge. Can you talk about the

four Rs?

Dr. Sharon: Yeah, absolutely. So the way I kind of condense the benefit of all these

different cellular stress responses is down to the four Rs, which as you started to

mention is, you know, resisting damage to repair the damage that’s already happened

to recycle different parts of ourselves and to recharge them by building their

energy. So we resist antioxidant damage and oxidative stress and we resist

inflammatory damage through these cellular stress responses. We repair protein,

and this is what’s really just phenomenal. Our proteins are the workhorse in

ourselves. We have 20 ,000 to 100 ,000 different proteins, and they’re doing the bulk

of the work. And proteins are so important that one of our cellular stress responses

are heat shock proteins. And they’re essentially what we call molecular chaperones.

And when protein is damaged, this chaperone finds that protein and literally escorts

it to get out. And that’s the importance of activating these stress responses.

And we also repair DNA. And like I mentioned, I mean, we’re getting just incredible

amounts of DNA damage on a daily basis. The recycling, so our cells have a recycle

bin called a lysosome, and when we trigger autophagy, this recycling process,

we take the damaged cells, or even old cells that are kind of just senescent cells,

and we shuttle them to the lysosome, and the lysosome, it’s like a junkyard. It

tries to take the scrap parts that can be salvaged and use them for, you know,

different components, and if it’s beyond salvageable, it converts the components to

energy. And probably the most critical part is the final R recharge,

because it’s improving the health of our mitochondria, which are really probably

becoming the focal point of so much of our health. Our mitochondria produce energy

for our body. When we eat food, our body has to convert that chemical energy into

cellular energy. So the energy currency in our body’s ATP and our mitochondria are

the part that are converting that. So they are kind of the power plants,

the cellular engines in our body. And if your mitochondria are impaired or you don’t

have enough mitochondria, So we call this mitochondrial dysfunction, your body can’t

do any of its critical functions, any of the repair, even down to like your energy

level, you know, so often my patients that come in, they ask me, you know, oh, I’m

just tired all the time, but I eat a really clean diet. You know, why am I so

tired? Like what, what do I need food allergy testing or what do I need to do and

the reality is no matter how healthy or how much good food or high -octane fuel you

give your car, if the cellular engine is not there to support,

you can’t convert it to energy. That’s the rate limiting step and we have to focus

on improving our mitochondrial health if we want our bodies to really do all the

essential work that happens at every level and every body system.

Colleen: How do we do

that?

Dr. Sharon: Yeah,

so, you know, right now, you know, the really, we’ll start by asking, why are our

mitochondria getting harmed? And the world that we’re living in, you know,

these processed foods being sedentary, chronic stress, loneliness, they’re all harming

or mitochondria and the aging process alone is gonna impair and make us lose some

mitochondria. So we know that this is happening really in a way that’s unprecedented

in human history and the way we repair it is through the five good stressors.

So we talked about plant toxins, The most potent way to improve your mitochondria

and trigger what’s called mito -hormesis. It’s a particular form of hormesis where

you’re generating more mitochondria and removing the damaged mitochondria.

So you’re essentially improving your ability to make clean energy in your body. So

exercise is the most potent Um, but all the good stressors with the other three

being using temperature like heat and cold. Um, we talked about the circadian

fasting. So the fasted state improves on mitochondria because just like exercise,

it sends this signal to your body of energy depletion and that triggers a stress

response. And, um, even mental challenges to have a role in stimulating mitochondria.

So it’s all kind of interrelated and this is just so key because what’s really

fascinating to me is our stress hormones like the catecholamines, norepinephrine,

and even serotonin that are actually made in our mitochondria. So when you exercise

to improve your mitochondrial health, you’re actually improving your ability to handle

stress, right? Like this is like the beautiful connection between our mind and body

that’s happening at the level of ourselves and why our body is just so

interconnected, why you can’t really just view psychological stress as purely a

psychological phenomena or eating healthy as purely something that benefits you in

some physical way. like there’s such a beautiful interrelationship. And I think

investing in improving our mitochondria, I mean, there’s so many layers to this

because our mitochondria are this incredible communication hub. They’re communicating

with our gut bacteria. They’re communicating with our circadian rhythm. So when our

mitochondria are healthy, every body system starts to function in a more effective

way.

Bridgett:  – Yeah, you hit so many of important things and I want to talk forever about

that. One of them, you talked about the heat and the cold extremities. And you’re

reading that, but can you talk about—

Colleen: – So we have to take a cold plunge, is that

what you’re saying?

Bridgett: – Well, the heat and the cold, but it’s warning about

not too long of either of these. Can you talk about that?

Dr. Sharon: – Yeah, so I’m gonna say

that I’m a cold intolerant person. So I will certainly do these stressors,

but I am very sympathetic to people who prefer warm weather. I live in the South.

So I mean, I lived in New England  and it was tough.

So, um, and the key here with cold and heat and all these good stressors is that

in the scenario of cold and heat, there’s not an exact temperature you have to hit

for these stress responses to be activated. All you have to do is get a little bit

outside your comfort zone and that’s just enough to trigger stress response,

but you don’t want to get to the point where it’s overwhelming or where you feel

unsafe because then any good stress can become a harmful chronic stress.

So if you are exposed to even 30 seconds of cold at the end of a shower,

that can be energizing and invigorating. It raises your dopamine level by 250%.

It can raise your norepinephrine by 530%. I mean, it’s incredibly powerful as a way

to kind of energize your body and create a scenario where your body is swimming in

these stress hormones, but you know, you can kind of stay calm and during those 30

seconds kind of take deep breaths and you’re essentially training your brain to

become more resilient by creating this stress scenario through cold.

So, you know, if you went into an ice plunge and you stayed in there for,

you know, 20 minutes saying, it’s going to be really tough, you know, if you feel

that you are overwhelmed, like sometimes your body’s saying, get out, get out. I’m

not feeling well. Like if you push it too far again, it’s like

overtraining your past that point where it’s beneficial. You want brief intermittent

mild to moderate stress. That’s just past your comfort zone followed by recovery. You

get out. You naturally let your body warm up again you know, you can risk putting

yourself in a situation of hypothermia if you overdo it, right? So more is not

always better. I think we have to get out of the mentality that, you know, just

push hard, push hard, push harder. I don’t think that that’s the message with good

stress. It almost sounds like a message of tough love, but it’s really a message of

love your body by helping it grow. And it’s not about pushing and persevering in

situations where you’re overwhelmed or in situations where you’re stuck. It’s about

using the right amount of stress as a kind of a secret weapon really of becoming

your best self, of increasing your potential.

Colleen: – And that’s good to hear for a lot

of people because they get in that competitive mode and they’re like, I need to

push the exercise, I need to push the eating habits, I need to push the cold

plunge. And you’re saying, like Bridgett said before, the Goldilocks kind of just in

that zone where you’re making changes, but you’re not becoming chronic in and the

change not staying too long. And your book talks about the stress paradox protocol

at the end, which is very helpful. And you do give that kind of guidance on what

zone you want to hit, where it’s just right. Can you talk about the protocol?

Dr. Sharon:  Yeah,

you know, I, you know, as a physician, I work with people individually. And it was

really hard to think, well, how can I, you know, have something that everybody

that’s reading this could benefit from because so often, you know, we try and

individualize every treatment, um, and every person is different. And the way I

designed the protocol is really thinking about a health habit as, um,

you know, here’s a general way you do it. And here’s how you find what’s right for

you. Cause that was so important for me like to have people realize that

what’s stressful for one person in a good way it’s gonna be different than for the

next person depending on where you’re starting from and even the same stress from

day to day can be different depending on your amount of recovery right, if you’re

well recovered, if  you’ve slept well you could probably handle 30 seconds of a cold

shower if you didn’t really sleep well the night before you didn’t really eat well,

you didn’t exercise like you, your body just may not be able to handle that one

additional stress that can push you into chronic stress. So the protocol is really

designed so that you can ask yourself the right questions of making sure you’re

benefiting from the good stress and that you’re straddling that Goldilocks zone where

you’re thriving from it. And again, too little and too much are really not where we

want to be. And part of the reason it was so important for me to kind of help

people get there is because so much of what we’re told about stress is, you know,

curb it, get rid of it, whatever we need to do to get it out of our lives.

And, you know, take into the other end of the extreme where we’re not exposed to

enough challenges. We also weaken our body. We’re telling our body to adapt to a

state that doesn’t push it in the way that it can grow and in a way that it can

thrive and in lack of good stress. I think is now becoming a really big risk

factor for so many of the mental and physical diseases like anxiety, depression,

diabetes, heart disease, etc that we’re seeing so it is you know just it’s not to

get rid of stress in our lives the protocols really designed to help you optimize

the stress in your life and and to help you differentiate the harmful stressors from

the beneficial ones.

Colleen: Dr. Sharon thank you so much for coming on today and talking

about the stress paradox. We’ll have the link for the book in the show notes and

we appreciate all that you’re doing in this research that seems very cutting edge at

this moment in time. So thank you.

Dr. Sharon: Thank you for having me. Thank you for letting

me share this information with your listeners. And I hope everyone can benefit from

this.

Colleen:  I’m sure they will. Thank you.