Rise of Stress - Causes & Solutions
Exploring the root cause of chronic illness in modern society
Homeostasis
The tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.
Content Overview
Metabolic Stress
Type II Diabetes
Heart Disease
Cancer
Mental Stress
Anxiety
Depression
Physical Stress
Sitting
Sports
Cause of Many Chronic Illnesses:
Modern man has “evolved” beyond a state of nature.
Nature = Homeostasis
Return to nature, return to health.
Metabolic Stress
Type II Diabetes
T2 Diabetes is the epitome of modern life. Much of the world is born into decadence. Dopamine hits around every corner; Netflix, junk-food, social media, porn. Titans of industry have capitalized on our primal tendency to indulge whenever possible.
Ice cream does not exist in the wild. T2 Diabetes does not exist in the wild.
The answer is simple. Not easy. Simple.
—> Cut out refined carbohydrates
pasta
chips
baked goods
flour/wheat
Refined carbs invoke a strong insulin response. The more our body responds to insulin, the more resistant it gets. T2 Diabetes is when the body fails to respond to insulin.
Like a junkie who gets high too often and develops a tolerance, T2 Diabetics are addicted to sugar and develop an insulin tolerance.
Insulin Resistance = T2 Diabetes
Refined carbs are not natural. T2 diabetes is not natural.
Wake up, America. You are eating yourself to death.
10% of Americans have Type II Diabetes. 10% of the population is unable to break their addiction to the processed junk we call “snacks” and “fast food.”
Stop eating refined carbs. Simple as that. Not easy. Simple.
Heart Disease
Heart disease became a “leading cause of death” in the early 20th century.
Two reasons:
Increased life expectancy —> something’s got to kill you
Refined carbs and unsaturated fat
“Educated” health professionals claim saturated fat clogs arteries. In their eyes, red meat and butter might as well be arsenic and cyanide. Nothing is further from the truth.
Saturated fat intake does not correlate with heart disease.
Heart disease prevalence correlates with two categories of food:
refined carbohydrates —> corn syrup, refined grains (flour), sugar
seed oils (unsaturated fat) —> margarine, Crisco, canola oil
Grains, such as corn and wheat, are weeds that humans cultivated to produce larger quantities of seeds.
Almost all processed food contains perverted versions of these grains (i.e. corn syrup, flour).
In tandem with this, intense refinement eliminates essential vitamins and minerals. All that is left is pure crack— I mean carbohydrates.
Corn —> corn syrup
Wheat —> flour
How We Got Here
The agricultural revolution brought about new machines capable of processing plants into various byproducts.
Cotton production left cotton oil as a waste product. Eventually, cotton oil found its way into food as a “fat substitute.” Today most foods contain “fat substitutes” in the form of seed oils instead of natural, saturated fat.
Soybean oil, canola oil, peanut oil, cotton oil, corn oil, sesame oil.
Vegetable processing left vegetable oils. These are not normally eaten in such massive quantities. Companies in the early 20th century turned a waste product of vegetable processing into food: vegetable oil, AKA Crisco.
The prevalence of heart disease in the U.S. in the 20th century correlates with the dominance of unsaturated fats and refined carbohydrates in the American diet.
I trust food that apex predators, chimps, and hunter gatherers ate for millennia over processed “food” invented a century ago.
Nature does it best.
Cancer
Cancer = excessive growth
Sugar = energy to grow
Excess sugar = excessive growth
Sugar contributes to cancer.
Sugar invokes the strongest insulin response amongst all sources of energy. The modern diet packs refined carbs, usually in the form of glucose, into most foods. The result is excessively high consumption of sugar.
Sugar causes inflammation, tension, stress.
Sugar is a source of energy. Excessive consumption of sugar causes excessive growth. Cancer is excessive growth of cells.
Therefore, sugar contributes to cancer.
Warburg Effect:
Cancer uses glucose (sugar) for energy —> aerobic glycolysis
Healthy cells can use glucose (sugar) OR ketones (fat) for energy.
Cancer cannot use ketones (fat) for energy.
Low-carb diets, also known as “ketogenic” diets, restrict glucose (sugar) intake, which forces the body to use ketones (fat) for as its primary fuel source. The consequence of this is cancer cells starve. While our body switches to using fat/ketones for energy, cancer is left without a source of usable energy.
Ketosis starves cancer -> Cancer dies.
IMPORTANT:
Ketogenic diets are not a perfect solution to treating cancer.
The protein glutamine can be broken down into glucose.
Glutamine is a protein found in most meats. Cancer is perfectly capable of converting glutamine into glucose, and therefore energy.
Ideal Solution = Fasting
Fasting eliminates all energy sources that cancer can convert into energy.
Fasting = no glucose & no glutamine
Animals fast when injured or sick. Listen to our bodies and fast. Appetite suppression is a signal to allow the body to cleanse itself.
Metabolic Stress: Conclusion
Ketosis, either through law-carb diets or fasting, eliminates glucose. Excess glucose consumption contributes to T2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Ketosis, ideally through fasting, is a solution to reduce the risk of chronic metabolic disease.
The first step is to eliminate processed foods. This will cut out refined carbs and processed unsaturated fats. This is enough for most.
If you are currently in a state of metabolic stress, meaning you have any of the aforementioned diseases, talk to your doctor about the following:
Intermittent Fasting, or extended fasts if you have cancer (starve cancer)
Ketogenic Diets (paleo, carnivore)
Mental Stress
Anxiety
A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
Anxiety = Fear of the Future
Anxiety is a fear response to imminent danger.
Fight or Flight.
Modern society has perverted our sense of danger. Consequently, our Fight or Flight response (sympathetic drive) is over-active.
Instead of living in a state of relaxation, or “Rest and Digest,” we spend most of our time in a state of stress, or “Fight or Flight.”
Danger used to be sporadic. An apex predator or pack of animals wandering around our camp at night would set us off. Now “danger” is a call from our boss, social media notifications, and school/work assignments.
Return to Nature. Relax. Embrace the void.
Modern society is pure stimulation. Constant attention/danger.
Relaxation is not simply the absence of stimulation.
Relaxation is an active effort towards emptiness.
Relaxation is NOT:
watching TV
browsing social media
eating
How to eliminate most anxiety: remove stimulation.
Get off social media
removes notifications/stimulation
Walk in nature
quiets the mind of thoughts/fear
Meditate
quiets the mind of thoughts/fear
Breath exercises
commands relaxation; shuts off Fight or Flight
Depression
Feelings of extreme guilt, uselessness, disappointment, sadness.
Depression is guilt of the past. Failure to achieve.
Trauma also causes depression, and that is something that we can not necessarily control.
This section will focus on what we can control: depression due to a lack of fulfillment.
Habitual Cause of Depression: removal from nature
Failure to DO something, anything at all, lowers serotonin and dopamine levels. We lose motivation. We get fat. We get depressed. It’s a vicious feedback loop.
Ancient man rose in the morning with purpose: produce or die.
Hunt, farm, love, manage.
Each member of a tribe had a purpose, as everyone worked together to survive.
Modern society has created excess. There are many who do not serve an identifiable purpose, who do not provide measurable value to society.
Example:
Sales representative for a large company. They do not see the fruit of their labor. Their work/input does not immediately reveal output/progress.
Consequently, they may perceive their role to be useless, unimportant, unfulfilling.
Modern man has been stripped of true purpose.
Working 9-5 in pursuit of another man’s dream.
The thrill of the hunt is gone.
Start doing and you’ll stop feeling depressed.
Break the cycle.
Learn a marketable skill. Must align with a passion.
Market that skill, brand yourself as a product.
Connect with others who enjoy your passion.
Enjoy the fruit of your labor.
In essence, DO something useful. Be productive. Fulfill yourself.
Show yourself and others that you are worth something.
Produce = Value = Fulfillment = Happiness
Physical Cause of Depression: removal from nature.
refined/processed diet
causes metabolic stress
stress can lead to depression
lack of Vitamin D (sun)
the sun is the most important nutrient
Vitamin D boosts immune system, energy, mood, and more
over-stimulation
stress, angst, anxiety (FOMO), depression (guilt)
let go of the world and be at peace with yourself
prolonged sitting
state of stress, Fight or Flight
lack of exercise
tension, inflammation
lower self-confidence, lack of productivity
Solutions:
eat natural food only (i.e. paleo, carnivore diets)
sit in the sun for >15 minutes every day (Vitamin D)
meditate (isolation)
sit outside alone at night, without technology (isolation)
work standing up. Avoid sitting.
exercise daily. Walking, sprinting, calisthenics, lifting, yard-work
Physical Stress
Abnormal positions and activities that cause dysfunctional movement patterns in the body.
Sitting
Back pain, knee pain, feet pain, shoulder pain, foggy brain, poor posture, shallow breathing, high blood pressure, high heart rate, weakness.
Sitting = Slow Death
After a full day of sitting, whether it be due to work or driving, you feel like shit don’t you?
Tired, tense, irritable. Sitting is self-inflicted torture.
Solution:
stand-up desk
work standing up. Phone calls, computer, writing.
exercise throughout the day
instead of eating lunch (and continue to sit), go run or do calisthenics.
improves blood flow, eases tension.
yoga
releases tension in spine
engages neglected muscles, such as abdomen and legs
increases blood flow to brain
Sports
Children used to be pristine creatures; yet to be perverted by Father Time.
Now many adolescents visit chiropractors, physical therapists, and doctors with knee, ankle, shoulder, and back pain.
This is not natural.
The habits of children have damaged their movement patterns which has led to chronic stress on their joints.
The Cause: Sports.
Persistent running, jumping, and impact (forms of stress) alter the structure of our bodies.
In children, they fail to develop healthy movement patterns before experiencing this stress. In effect, they are trained to react to stress.
Sports = Fight or Flight
Be ready to dodge, run, jump, tackle at any moment.
Be in an athletic stance.
These conditions adapt the muscle-movement patterns in children to be in a state of Fight or Flight.
These movements patterns require an article of their own. Without digressing, sports cause children to evolve harmful movement patterns.
The result is a state of tension which leads to pressure of joints. Hence, the knee, ankle, shoulder, and back pain adolescents experience.
Preventative Measures:
Natural Movement
walking, hiking
NOT excessive running and jumping
Dynamic/Rotational Exercises
climbing trees and rock-faces
carrying random objects (yard-work does this)
Reactive Measures:
yoga
strengthens smaller, neglected muscles
targets rotation, lateral movement, core stability
stretches tense muscles
swimming
removes tension/weight from spine and joints
engages neglected muscles
physical therapy
main principle is alternative movement
deactivates tense muscles
actives neglected/weak muscle (rotation, lateral movement)
Takeaways
Each of these sections will receive dedicated articles in the future. Stay tuned!
Metabolic Stress
Mental Stress
Physical Stress
Main Principle: return to nature.
Modern society, modern inventions, are unnatural and damage our being.
Natural diet, natural exercise, natural activities = Homeostasis
Nature does it best.
Momento mori,
@BowTiedBreath