104. Stressed or Supercharged? The Truth Revealed, Part One | The Stress Story We Were Sold, and What We Know Now

Feeling stressed out? Well, of course you are, but believe it or not that’s not always a bad thing. Midlife women do report the highest levels of daily stress compared to all other demographic groups according to the American Psychological Association. That includes caregiving responsibilities, health concerns, financial transitions, and age discrimination in work and healthcare. But don’t panic—we’re here to problem solve. Stress has layers and surprising benefits. Skeptical? That’s only natural, so over two episodes I’m revealing all to help you rewrite the story of stress in your life for a happier, more content future.

To reclaim your potential and reach for whatever midlife-plus goal means the most to you without distractions, come work with me one-on-one! Just send an email to hello@laurieadamscoaching.com to schedule a no-pressure conversation/Q & A about individual coaching. We’ll explore the goal that has eluded you most, including weight loss if that’s the important one for you. Together, let’s edit the story of you so you’ll never want to put your own book down.

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hi, and welcome to the Fire Up at 55 Plus Podcast, a show about how to put yourself first in your second act of life. I'm Certified Life and Weight Loss Coach Lori Adams, here to empower you to let go of guilt, take charge of your health, then find and fulfill your dreams. It's never too late, so let's get started. Let's dig into the science of stress, especially for women over 50, and how what we used to believe is giving way to newer, better truths that can actually help us thrive. This is Lori with episode number 104 titled Stressed or Supercharged The Truth Revealed and this is part one. The stress story we were told and what we know now. So today we're talking about a topic that every one of you midlife women knows intimately stress. But now I want you to get curious. What if what we've been told about stress is only part of the story? A little history first to reveal the origins of the stress myth we've been carrying around. Nearly a hundred years ago, the concept of stress was introduced to the medical world by Canadian endocrinologist Hans Cellier. His studies on rats laid the groundwork for the term general adaptation syndrome, also known as Cellier syndrome. Essentially it was saying that stress, distress is bad and breaks the body down over time. But here's the catch, and you've probably heard something like this before in terms of medical research. Han Cellier only studied male rats. Female biology was left out. What a surprise. The result? An entire era of stress science based on just one side of the story. Until the early 2000s, most stress research still only used male subjects, animal or human, because female hormones were considered quote too complicated, unquote. But in 2008 that began to change, and what we've learned since then has revolutionized our understanding, especially for midlife women. So now let's get real with current findings about stress in women fifty plus, the real stats about stress in women fifty plus. So again, according to the American Psychological Association, midlife women report the highest levels of daily stress compared to all other demographic groups. I would have thought maybe young moms would have had more stress. But no, maybe they haven't been stressed long enough like we have, because again, midlife women report the highest levels of daily stress. That includes caregiving responsibilities, health concerns, financial transitions, and age discrimination in work and health care. A twenty twenty two survey showed sixty seven percent of women ages fifty to sixty four report frequent stress distress compared to fifty five percent of men the same age. And cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone, declines more slowly in women after a stressful event than it does in men, according to research from the National Institute of Health. So we're not imagining it. Our bodies, our midlife women's bodies, really do hold on to stress differently. And here's a kicker. Chronic stress can double the rate of cognitive decline in postmenopausal women, according to a twenty twenty one study in neurology. That's double not twenty percent more, not fifty percent more, double. But don't panic. Here's where we're gonna turn from old science to new science for relief and even some unexpected benefits of stress in a moment. Okay, the old science, the old belief. Stress is always harmful. It leads to disease, burnout, and decline, period. But new science, new evidence. Stress has layers. According to health psychologist doctor Kelly McGonacle of Stanford University, how we perceive stress, our mindset, can change its effect on our body. Yep, that's true. McGonacle's twenty thirteen TED Talk, viewed more than thirty million times, highlights studies showing that people who believe stress is harmful are more likely to die prematurely than those who experience equal levels of stress but don't believe it's harmful. So yes, mindset keeping up the belief in the myth that it's always harmful is a problem. And here's a quote from McGonical's twenty fifteen book The Upside of Stress. The most helpful mindset towards stress sees it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Still skeptical? Well that's natural. So here's more proof. Positive stress is real, not woo woo, and it's measurable, which reinforces its reality. Let's meet Eustress, that's EUS T R E S, the good kind of stress. Stress is simply an external stimulus. Eustress is the feeling you get when overcome with the excitement and anticipation of a desired outcome. As opposed to distress, eustress was first recognized by Cellier and defined as stress that is healthy or gives one a feeling of fulfillment or other positive feelings. Eustress is a process of exploring potential gains, and again he referred to the opposite negative stress as distress. So examples of U stress, and I like to think of it more as YOU S T R E S might include starting a new business, meeting someone for a new relationship, and moving into that, training for a charity walk, training for fitness, saying yes to all kinds of possibilities that you haven't said yes to before, moving to a new city or downsizing. These are the very type of goals and dreams we always talk about here to get us off the back burner of life to a fired up second act at midlife and beyond. Neuroscientists at the University of California Berkeley found in 2018 that intermittent stress boosts brain performance, the use stress by promoting neurogenesis, the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical to memory. That's right. Some forms of stress help our brains grow. We're always talking about neuroplasticity and helping to stretch our brains toward our desired outcomes. So this is where mindset actually becomes medicine. Yes, a proven treatment. So what do we do with all this? How do we work with stress? Not just reduce it, reduce the distress, but use it, moving into eustress. That's what we're going to tackle in part two, episode 105 next week. But you can start now by increasing the self-awareness that will support your own stress treatment. By that I mean how often do you experience what you feel as negative, harmful stress? And can you see the same in others around you? Sometimes it's easier to see other people in a situation because you have a little bit more objectivity. Are they at work, at home, in your circle of friends and family emphasizing distress? Or on the flip side, do you see what people in action, people you admire, are creating, like new ventures and hobbies for themselves? What are they doing and feeling? Are they motivated, in use stress, or are they taking their excitedness a bit too far for self care, such as starting a new business and putting in ungodly hours, or create a new home in a new town, and just not giving up on that driving, driving, driving that creates distress, exhaustion, and burnout? Are you able to see recreation and rest in action for positive well being? So from cortisol control to post stress rituals, from boundary setting to leveraging life's pressure into progress, get ready for some more science backed strategies that help you to reclaim power in midlife and beyond. Because stress isn't going away, but neither will we give up to it. Until next time, please remember this story of renewal is authored beautifully by you. Let's edit it so you'll never want to put your storybook down. And if today's episode did make you rethink the story of stress, be sure to follow the podcast and share it with a friend who could use this truth. Then join me for part two next time to embrace freedom from stress as an exciting opportunity for personal growth and happiness. I can't wait to see how your 2025 transformation tale unfolds with the utmost fulfillment. Again, I'm Lori Adams and I love podcasting here, but I love even more working with individuals like you as your own life coach. To reclaim your potential and reach for whatever midlife plus goal means the most to you without distractions and negative stress, come work with me one on one. Just send an email to hello at laurieadamscoaching dot com to schedule a no pressure conversation and Q ⁇ A about individual coaching. We'll explore the goal that has eluded you most, the one you want to achieve most to start, including weight loss if that's the important one for you. The story of you deserves that. And to keep the transformational information coming each week, please follow Fire Up at fifty five plus wherever you download your podcasts, and if on Apple, share a review at a star worthy rating. It's much appreciated.