Maintaining your body’s stability

 Your body contains complex regulatory systems to keep things running smoothly. For example, when you wake up your blood pressure increases to get you ready for the day. When you’re in a stressful situation, your body releases hormones that prepare you for fight or flight. 

Your brain is the command center for maintaining your body’s stability. It does this by predicting what your body will need and responding to challenges. This process is called allostasis—a relatively new field of study. It's kind of a budgeting process. Among other things, your brain manages your body’s levels of water, salt, and glucose. When you spend these resources by exercising, for example, your body responds by initiating an appropriate response —making you thirsty or hungry. In general, you can replenish used-up resources by drinking, eating, sleeping, or other restorative actions.

It gets trickier when dealing with your mental life, which also affects your body’s regulatory system. Every mental experience—your thoughts and feelings—affects your body’s budget. In a stressful situation, your body releases hormones to prepare your body to fight or flee (neuroendocrine responses). But if stress is chronic, your body is unable to restore itself. Withdrawals from your account exceed deposits, and your organ systems suffer as a result. Cardiovascular disease and depressive illness have been shown to be particularly affected by chronic stress.

Even though it might seem more difficult to regulate your mental state than your physical state, remember that, whether mental of physical, it’s your brain that’s in charge of your body budget. Every feeling of happiness or anger becomes part of your brain’s calculations as it anticipates and budgets your metabolic needs. Take a deep breath.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.