Today’s PrimalMed Prescription
Awaken your ancestral genes. Invoke the primitive power of GOOD stress!
Are you Hungry Like the Wolf? Can you jump over a bonfire like this crazy Spartan?
True story. I was driving back from Boston the other day with family when suddenly, Siri announced that I was driving into severe weather and should seek shelter. We were on the Mass. Pike and the sky seemed clear so of course we ignored the warning and kept on. Soon, the sky turned black. Not overcast, but more like Dorothy in Kansas get in the cellar black. Rain came on and pelted the car so hard that visibility was nil even with the wipers maxed out. I could feel the wind push the car side to side. Focus, focus, focus. Grip the steering wheel hard. Put on the hazards so as not to get rear-ended. It was white knuckle time.
I needed a tune STAT. It had to be Riders on the Storm” by the Doors and Siri obliged. As the music played, I felt a zen-like calm yet my senses heightened. My vision seemed sharper and my pulse, and blood pressure rose. I was acutely aware of my surroundings. For this brief moment in time, I was Primal guy, defending the cave whilst being attacked by a sabre-toothed tiger. I was on task, charged with protecting my family from this most ominous threat. I was in LASER FOCUS.
So where am I going with this? How does this fit into your own PrimalMed Prescription? Well, this is my meandering lead into the topic of stress. Good stress, bad stress, acute stress and chronic stress. Here’s the TL;DR for those with the attention span of a goldfish.
Chronic stress = BAD
Acute stress = GOOD
Now for the rest of us:
So hear me out on this. I was thinking about how little micro doses of stress make us better. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Who said that?Was that Nietzsche or Kelly Clarkson?
Let’s talk Hormesis!
HORMESIS is basically exposing yourself to small doses of a stressor or toxin that disrupts your homeostasis and allows your body to undergo repair. You come back stronger.
Too much sun? Not good. Responsible exposure to UV sunlight? Good stressor which allows your body to increase production of Vitamin D.
Too much exercise? Overuse injuries and fatigue and unrelenting hunger. Little bursts of resistance training? Your muscles break down, rebuild and you are harder to kill.
Have fun and think of all the ways you can micro stress your body in a way that creates a positive response. I call it creating “Productive Discomfort.”
Back to hormesis. External or exogenous hormesis is taking that cold shower or plunge. Create some cold shock proteins that sends a signal to your body to ramp up its survival mechanisms.
How about Intermittent Fasting or TRE (Time restricted eating?). That can be a deleterious long term stressor, but once in a while, sends a signal to your body that food is scarce and you need to go in to survival mode.
How about endogenous stressors? Polyphenols like olive oil and other miracle compounds like resveratrol do their magic by creating an oxidative stress on your cells. Your body responds with creating antioxidants. That is called xenohormesis.
All of these stressors create an hormetic response. For you science nerds out there who need to know, these stressors up regulate cell signaling proteins and molecules such as AMPK and Nrf2. These proteins have an anti-aging effect on you and your mitochondria. You are now harder to kill. Are you interested? We can take it offline and discuss over a coffee.
So when the wolf goes out for the kill, he needs to be game on. He needs to create a short term stress so he is a friggin wild-eyed wolverine. He performs best when he is hungry. So I’m thinking that when we need to be in the zone on a task and need to game up and perform, we need to be hungry. We need to MAXIMIZE a short term burst of Cortisol. If we carb up before attempting big task or needing to bang out a block of creative work (or drive through a rainstorm), we need to have that burst of adrenaline and cortisol and NOT have a burst of INSULIN. Remember that Cortisol and Insulin are crucial hormones but in many ways counteract each other. When Insulin spikes, we can’t maximize our cortisol responses. We feel like resting, digesting, and chilling. Wolves don’t dine BEFORE the kill. Neither should we.
Look at what cortisol does SHORT TERM: Heightened attention, transitory increase in blood pressure and blood sugar and decreased pain sensitivity. You are ON TASK and protecting your tribe. Too much Cortisol long term? Suppressed immunity, lousy sleep, and a drop in serotonin (your happy hormone).
Need to have a short term spike in your cortisol so you perform your best? Be ancestral. Go hungry in the AM. Sprint on the erg, or bike or track or bang out those push ups to the max. Turn the shower on cold for 30 seconds. Create hormesis.
TL;DR
Invite productive discomfort into your life to mimic our ancestors and awaken and express your primal genetic code.
Acute stress = acceptable short term bursts of cortisol = hormesis = Harder to Kill. Cortisol > Insulin.
And on that note, it is time for our musical interlude: If you are chill and have 7 minutes, go the Doors. Going for a run? Go for Duran Duran.
Hey you PrimalMed Prescription reader! Don’t be shy! COMMENT! How can you use HORMESIS to awaken your ancestral genes? What do you do when you are called upon to step up to the plate and invoke the primitive power of acute stress?
Hi Ida. Thanks for your reply. Glad you are enjoying the nuggets !!! Hope you enjoyed the Wizard of Oz reference !!!
Dear Dr. Ted, I so enjoy reading your posts. I like your sense of humor and your prescriptions. Even though I’m a senior and a lay person I can take nuggets of information that I find relevant and valuable to me. Keep sending your prescriptions and thank you.
Ida