Your Health Your Way
James Ross M.D. shares insights on health, business, and life
Your Health Your Way
How Stress Hijacks Your Body And How To Heal
We explore how modern life keeps the stress response stuck on and what that does to hormones, sleep, mood, and energy. We share a practical path back to balance through rhythm, stillness, nutrient support, faith, and connection.
• what stress is and how fight or flight works
• chronic stress as a baseline and burnout signals
• addiction to busyness and the purpose gap
• men’s stress pattern and testosterone seesaw
• women’s stress pattern and progesterone drain
• adaptogens, magnesium, omega-3s, B vitamins, turmeric
• faith, stillness, and the 4-7-8 breath
• rhythms for sleep, meals, movement, and light
• connection and community as regulators
• moving from survival to restoration
If this conversation spoke to you, share it with someone who might need the same reminder
If you'd like to learn more about how we help people manage stress, balance hormones, and heal from burnout, visit us online or schedule a consultation
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Your Health Your Way. I'm Dr. James Ross, and today we are diving into a topic that affects every single one of us, and that topic is stress. We live in a world that never stops moving. We glorify busyness, chase constant productivity, and wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. But the truth is, stress isn't just an emotion. It's a full-body experience. It's your body's built-in survival system doing what it was designed to do. It just wasn't meant to do it all day long, every day. So today we're going to talk about why we stress and what it does to the body and how to break the cycle. We'll talk about the science, the faith, and the personal side of stress, including my own experience of being addicted to busyness and what it really looks like to find balance again. Let's start with what stress actually is. At its core, stress is your body's response to perceived danger. Thousands of years ago, that danger might have been a wild animal or a threat to survival. When that happened, your brain would trigger your adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol. Your heart rate would increase, your breathing would quicken, your blood pressure would begin to rise, and you'd be ready to fight or flight, right? Fight or run. That's your fight or flight response. And it's brilliant. It's what's kept us alive. It's what helps us in those critical moments. The problem is our modern lives trigger the same response every day, but for very different reasons. Now it's deadlines, bills, texts, arguments, constant comparison on social media. Your body doesn't know the difference between a real physical threat and a stressful thought. So it just reacts. And when that reaction never turns off, stress becomes your baseline. When stress becomes chronic, your body stays in a state of alert, always scanning for danger. Over time, that wears you down. Your immune system weakens, your digestion slows, your hormones fall out of rhythm. You might feel tired and wired. You might feel exhausted but unable to rest. That's because your brain and your adrenal glands, the two systems that control stress, start to fall out of sync. And normally they communicate clearly. Normally your brain tells your adrenals when to produce cortisol and when to stop. But under constant stress, that communication breaks down. So it's like your body's alarm system gets stuck in the on position. Even when life slows down, your body doesn't believe it's safe to relax. That's what leads to burnout. When you're running on fumes and nothing seems to recharge you. And I'll be honest, I've been there, even from my own experience, I know what it's like to be addicted to busyness. To feel like if I'm not doing something, I'm falling behind. That go, go, go mentality feels productive at first, but underneath it's the same stress chemistry. Your body gets hooked on adrenaline and cortisol and it starts to crave the rush of urgency, the constant motion. Stillness feels uncomfortable. Rest feels unproductive. But busyness and purpose are not the same thing. Sometimes we use busyness to avoid what silence might reveal. The exhaustion, the emotion, the things we haven't made space to feel. And here's the truth: you can't heal in the same rhythm that made you sick. Learning to slow down, to rest, to be present, to breathe isn't weakness. It's wisdom. Now let's talk about how stress actually shows up differently in men and women. For men, chronic stress raises cortisol and actually lowers testosterone. These two hormones work like a seesaw. When one goes up, the other goes down. That's why men under constant stress often feel tired, lose motivation, gain weight around the midsection, or notice changes in mood or sleep. It's not just mental, it's hormonal. The body starts prioritizing survival over strength and recovery. That's why it is so common for men in high-pressure jobs to feel burned out or disconnected without realizing it's stress driving it. For men, managing stress starts with rhythm, movement, rest, and reflection. Strength training, prayer, quiet time, time outdoors, all of that can help reset cortisol. I like recommending supplements like ashwagandha, rhodiola, L-theanine, magnesium glycinate, and even omega-3s, these all can support balance and calm the stress response. For women, the picture looks a little different. When stress hormones stay elevated for too long, the body starts pulling resources from progesterone, one of the main calming and balancing hormones in a woman's body. This is to help keep up with the cortisol production. This is why when women are under chronic stress, they often experience things like anxiety, PMS symptoms, sleep disturbances, irregular cycles. The body is doing its best to keep you going, but it's constantly running on overdrive. And here's something fascinating women tend to handle stress through connection. The research shows that when women are under a lot of stress, they're more likely to reach out, to talk, to nurture, to build community. That's partly because of oxytocin, a hormone that helps calm the body when you feel safe and supported. In other words, while some people deal with stress by shutting down or isolating, others heal through relationship. And for women especially, community plays a huge role in recovery. From a functional medicine standpoint, adaptogens like ashwagandha, holy basil, and rhodiola, along with magnesium and B vitamins and even turmeric, can all help restore balance and lower inflammation. Now let's pivot the conversation and talk a little bit on a deeper layer. The faith side. But somewhere along the way, we flipped that script. We read in scripture where we're encouraged to be still and know that I am God. That's not just a spiritual reminder, it's a physiological truth. Stillness actually can activate your body's calming system, the part of your nervous system that helps you rest and repair. When we slow down, when we breathe, when we surrender control, our body comes back into alignment with peace. And peace isn't the absence of problems, it's the presence of alignment. So, how do we begin to live differently? First, awareness. Start noticing your body's signals like fatigue, irritability, headaches, or anxiety. Those aren't random. They're your body's way of saying, hey, something's off. Second, rhythm. Build margin into your days. Wake up with natural light. Eat consistent meals. Go for walks. Create a bedtime routine that allows your body to unwind. Third, support. Nourish your adrenals with the right tools. Adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha, supplements like magnesium and omega-3s actually can help regulate your cortisol. Prioritize nutrient-rich foods, hydration, and deep sleep. Fourth is stillness. Make time for prayer, meditation, or simple breathing exercises. One of my favorites, and my kids know about this, is the 4-7-8 method. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven, exhale for eight. It's amazing how something so simple can reset your entire nervous system. And finally, connection. Don't carry life alone. Healthy relationships are one of the strongest stress regulators that we have. When you feel seen and supported, your body calms down literally at the cellular level. Chronic stress is a silent killer, but it's also a messenger. It shows you where you're out of rhythm. And if you listen, it can actually guide you back to peace. You can't eliminate stress, I wish we could, but you can change how you respond to it. You can move from survival to stability, from exhaustion to restoration, from chaos to clarity. And that's what I love helping people do at my clinic. We look at the full picture, your hormones, your adrenal function, your lifestyle, and we create a plan that helps you heal, not just cope. So if you're feeling drained, anxious, or just tired of running on empty, I want you to know you're not broken. You're human. And when you finally give yourself permission to slow down, your body will actually begin to heal. You're allowed to rest. Hear that. You're allowed to rest. You are allowed to stop proving. You're allowed to find peace again. Because peace was never something you had to chase. It's something you were designed for. Let that sink in. It's something you were designed for. So thank you for joining me today on your health, your way. If this conversation spoke to you, share it with someone who might need the same reminder. And if you'd like to learn more about how we help people manage stress, balance hormones, and heal from burnout, visit us online or schedule a consultation. I'll leave you with this stress will always be a part of your life. But it doesn't have to define your life. Until next time, I'm Dr. James Ross. Stay grounded, stay hopeful, and remember your health, your way, starts with balance.