Stress. It’s a part of our lives.  People give us problems.  We have money worries.  Our schedules are too busy.  It’s not pleasant. Now we know from numerous studies that stress not only takes its toll on your nerves. It slows your metabolism and makes you fatter.

The reason?  It’s a hormone called cortisol.  This trouble-making hormone was designed for your good.  If you are in danger, cortisol gives you the extra energy to run faster or fight harder in order to escape with your life.  It does that by releasing energy in the form of glucose into your bloodstream.  It also instructs your organs to slow down in their work so all energy can be diverted to the muscles and brain.

But what happens if you are not running or fighting — just stressing?  You still get the glucose dump.  As we have seen before, a load of sugar in the bloodstream calls for a heavy dose of insulin from the pancreas.  The insulin delivers the message “store up the fat.”  Your body gets the message and slows down to save the fuel.  Your organs slow to a crawl because they mistakenly think that you need to use your energy to run or fight.

Too much cortisol for too long not only builds up a layer of fat, especially around your abdomen. It also can cause health problems, like Cushing’s Syndrome. This cluster condition causes all kinds of dangerous symptoms, like weight gain, depression, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

So how can you deal with this metabolism drag? Exercise helps.  You will feel better, as you divert that glucose into it’s intended use — running.  Exercise has been proved over and over to work better for easing depression than any of the depression medications on the market.

Perhaps, though, the best plan is to deal with the stress itself.  Take a look at your life.  What is stressing you out?  Is it temporary?  If you have a deadline looming, or a problem at work, you may just need to focus on giving your body some extra care until it passes.

But if you have chronic stress, maybe you need to make some changes. Identify the stressors and decide how you can eliminate them.  Maybe you can’t get rid of the people causing you stress, but you can change how you react to them.  It’s worth putting some effort and some prayer into learning to cope.

Forgiveness, trusting in God’s goodness and sovereignty, and walking by faith. These are all essential parts of the Christian life.  All will help overcome worry and stress.

And here is a verse to help you along:  “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.”  I Peter 5:7.   If you are God’s child, you don’t have to bear the stress and cares of life alone.  You can trust Him to help, because He truly cares!

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown