February 16, 2026
Are there any significant stressors in your life?
This is probably one of my favorite questions to ask any patient during their journey with me at Hope Upper Cervical.
Most people will laugh at that question and provide one of two answers.
The most common: they brush it off as an annoyance, treating it as a throw away question and really don’t take me seriously.
Or
I will be in for a treat in which the patient, depending on their comfort, time and depth of our relationship, will begin a slow outpouring of the areas of their life that are taking a toll on their system through a chronic stressor.
Regardless of which answer I receive there is one truth that does not change.
As a society, our sources of stress have evolved from pure survival in the elements to a more sophisticated, subtle, and often overlooked form.
Yet, our physiological response to them has not evolved even 1%.
You see – stress comes in many forms in our modern environment.
Just step back and think about the fact that most of us, on any given day, operate a vehicle at 60+ mph on a highway with multiple other people performing the same task, many of which are looking at their phone, talking on their phone, texting on their phone, or even giving over the driving capabilities to a robot operating their vehicle.
If that doesn’t spark a spike in your cortisol with sweaty palms and a subtle raise in your heart rate..
There are plenty of examples I can dive into about our modern stress consumption but that is for another time in another space.
The crucial piece of this to expose is that no matter what flavor of stressors you consume or are exposed to, no matter how strong you think you are, your underlying physiology will tell a different story.
Compounded stress triggers a response in a portion of your nervous system called the autonomic system which is regulated through something called your hypothalamic-pituitary-adreanal axis. HPA Axis for short.
When this is triggered in an all or nothing response (there is no gradation to the stress response, once the trigger fires the physiological cascade operates to make sure that your body is primed for survival from whatever threat is coming – whether it be an actual threat or a perceived threat).
This cascade triggers a buzzword on the hormone cortisol which every influencer on whichever social media platform your waste time on will tell you is chronically elevated and the root of all problems.
There is actually some partial truth to this.
You see, when cortisol levels are chronically elevated a few physiological processes take place.
- Insulin resistance takes place (hint – any carbohydrate intake will immediately promote visceral aka belly fat storage and creation of the notorious buffalo hump on the back of your neck
- Chronically elevated blood pressure.
- Brain shrinking leading to cognitive decline, anxiety, depression to name a few
- Disrupts hormonal cycles contributing to abnormal cycles in women and low testosterone in men
- Shocks your sleep cycle
Man…just reading that list sucks doesn’t it.
In summary for those who skipped it – chronic stress grows your waist, destroys your brain, tanks your sleep, fosters inflammation and kills your sex life.
Sounds like something I am not interested in.
BUT remember, we as a society believe that we have grown in our stress habits and stress response.
Yet, when I look around at the current presentation of health in America where over 60% of our population is obese and suffering from 2 or more chronic medical conditions on that bullet point list I provided, ALL of which require a prescription drug to manage with another drug to mask the symptoms, it makes me wonder have we really evolved?
Evidence would suggest otherwise.
Our physiology has not changed but our psychology has.
To keep this from turning into a paragraph in a book, there is a simple take away.
If you find yourself in that bullet point list wondering what steps you need to take to counteract the physiological dumpster fire your body is being subjected to, I highly suggest that you start taking account of your stress.
There are plenty of trackable devices that can help you have awareness of when you are under significant stress even though you may not “feel” it.
Remember, awareness of the problem is the first step in formulating a plan for attacking the problem.
Stress is always going to be there even though how we are exposed to it will constantly evolve, to maintain the immature idea that physiology will evolve at the same rate is the exact reason we have gotten where we are today.
Identify your stress, create ways to eliminate it, and with time your physiology will restore normal eliminating your need for the chronic medical intervention that takes years off your life.
