How does the human brain deal with stress? | Doctor Vs Internet

Neuroscientist Kumaar Bagrodia sheds light on how the brain processes stress and anxiety.

In Short

• The brain is the physical organ that is inside the skull; the mind is the intangible part that makes up cognition, emotions, beliefs, upbringing, memories, and subconscious patterns.
• Anxiety is a “friend”, Bagrodia said, adding that human beings were not meant to be deprived of it. “Anxiety keeps us from doing stupid things, like walking in the middle of a highway.”
• Bagrodia believes that the only way to deal with stress is to just deal with stress. “Stop using that word. Stop reading a book on stress. Stop listening to a podcast on stress,” he said.

Did you know that stress on the mind has a different manifestation from stress on the brain?

In the latest episode of Health Wealth’s Doctor Vs Internet podcast with Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor, neuroscientist and founder of Neuroleap Kumaar Bagrodia said that stress doesn’t just affect the mind; it also has an impact on the brain, the physical organ.

BRAIN VS MIND

What exactly is the difference between the brain and the mind?

The brain is the physical organ inside the skull; the mind is the intangible part that makes up cognition, emotions, beliefs, upbringing, memories, and subconscious patterns.

STRESS RESPONSE

Scientifically, stress is a response to a physical or psychological factor that disrupts the body’s regulated state. It is a state of worry or tension.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a little stress is good and helps people perform daily activities. But when this stress exceeds a certain threshold, it can lead to physical and mental health problems.

“The brain needs to look for an outlet to process stress Sometimes the outlet is your skin, sometimes it's your sleep, sometimes it is your neck, shoulders, lower back, or any of the joints,” Bagrodia said.

According to Bagrodia, the gut-brain connection is at play when we talk of stress. “Some people physically stress out a part of their body, through actions like tapping their feet,” he said.

He also added that humans don’t have stress; they create stress.

“Talking about stress is the most ridiculous marketing phenomenon of the last two decades,” Bagrodia said.

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He mentioned that the brain has multiple neural pathways, like an anxiety network, an attention network, and a default mode network. “The anxiety network helps us understand how your brain processes stress or any trigger, whether external or internal, and how it creates symptoms of anxiety, restlessness, anger, temper, and irritability.”

ANXIETY

Anxiety is a “friend”, Bagrodia said, adding that human beings were not meant to be deprived of it. “Anxiety keeps us from doing stupid things, like walking in the middle of a highway.”

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders in the world. The WHO says they affect hundreds of millions of people. They can be of varying degrees – easily manageable or interfering with daily activities.

Bagrodia argued that physiology plays a role in how humans respond to stressful situations. Blood work, brain patterns, vitamins, minerals – all these enable the brain and nervous system to fight. “If you are somebody who has a thyroid imbalance and life is going on, you don't notice some of those issues because everything is hunky doryThe first sign of trouble, and that's when the rubber hits the road and the real you comes out,” he said.

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This has been scientifically proven. The two neuroendocrine systems that play a significant role in how we respond to and cope with stress are the sympathetic adrenal medullary system (SAM) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

The SAM works to activate the fight-or-flight response in stressful situations. These processes lead to the activation of the HPA axis, characterised by the release of stress hormone cortisol into the bloodstream.

But, Bagrodia believes that the only way to deal with stress is to just deal with stress. “Stop using that word. Stop reading a book on stress. Stop listening to a podcast on stress,” he said.

Watch the full podcast here.

- Ends