6 minute read
The Missing Link in Health Care: How Stress Resilience Impacts The Body And The Bottom Line
Megan Wroe, MS, RD, CNE, CLEC, Wellness Manager & Registered Dietitian, Wellness Center, Providence St. Jude Medical Center
When most people talk about health programs, they mean food and fitness interventions. Yet decades of research tell us that mental and emotional states are just as vital to physical health as diet or exercise habits. Despite this knowledge, mindbody-spirit practices are often dismissed as indulgent “extras” reserved for those with extra time or privilege. In reality, any practice that results in a calming shift of the nervous system should be considered an essential component to that person’s health routine; thereby making restorative programs not luxuries, but standards of care.
The Physiology of Stress
The human stress response is designed to protect us. When we face a challenge, the body releases cortisol and adrenaline, increasing heart rate and blood sugar, and decreasing digestion and creative thought, to prepare for immediate action. Unfortunately, in today’s world, stress—while usually not life threatening—is persistent, meaning these stress hormones stay elevated for hours or even days.
Over time, chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in the body:
•Metabolic health: Long-term cortisol elevation leads to insulin resistance, higher blood sugar, and increased visceral fat storage
•Cardiovascular health: Stress raises blood pressure, heartrate, and systemic inflammation, contributing to atherosclerosis.
•Cognitive health: Persistent stress hormones impair memory and executive function, enhancing the normal cognitive decline of aging and increasing risk of dementia.
•Immune function: The immune system becomes less effective, leading to slower healing and greater susceptibility to illness.
Heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, and cognitive decline are all metabolic conditions that drive the majority of healthcare spending, yet treatments are primarily focused on medication, diet and exercise, and very rarely on helping the individual learn to better recover from stress.
The Cost of Unmanaged Stress
The financial impact of chronic stress is difficult to truly measure, and so it is absolutely under-recognized. According to the American Institute of Stress, stress-related illness accounts for up to 75 to 90 percent of all physician visits and an estimated $190 billion in annual health care costs, largely driven by preventable chronic disease, which we have already shown to be significantly influences by chronic stress. As people age with these metabolic conditions and continue to ignore the impact of their stress, symptoms get worse and their use of medications, ER visits and hospitalizations all increase.
The great news is that stress CAN be better managed—and this CAN improve health outcomes. Programs that incorporate mind-body and stress-resilience interventions consistently demonstrate measurable improvements in the literature:
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs lower systolic blood pressure by an average of six mmHg, which is comparable to medications for mild hypertension.
Participants in mindfulness or yoga therapy programs report 40 to 60 percent reductions in anxiety and depression scores, improving adherence to the practice and to other self-care habits
A 2023 review in Frontiers in Public Health found that even brief daily meditation or breathwork practices were associated with lower overall medication utilization and reduced inflammatory biomarkers. This particular outcome is of significant interest since it shows participation is large-scale, high-commitment programs is not necessarily essential for stress management techniques to make an impact. People simply need to be taught techniques that can be easily incorporated into their daily lives.
This short summary of findings translates into a clear preventive ROI for those in administrative roles in healthcare. Stress resilience directly supports value-based healthcare models by lowering chronic disease burden, improving quality metrics, and enhancing member engagement.
Whole-Person Health as Standard of Care
Hospitals and wellness centers are now beginning to redefine what preventive healthcare means. At St. Jude Wellness Center, we integrate as many modalities of health into programming as we can. Nutrition and fitness are key, yes, but mind-body practices are just as much of a program staple.
When our programs include breathwork, yoga therapy, mindfulness, massage therapy, and/or sleep education, we see participants gain better overall benefits, and their reported quality of life is always significantly better than fitness programs alone.
We also aim to educate our community on super basic stress resilience techniques so that they are not beholden to being able to attend a class in order to manage stress. Knowing the power of breathwork, we teach that breath is something absolutely every demographic, age and physical ability has as a tool in their pocket, and they can use it at literally any time of day.
Here are some of our favorite simple daily strategies that you can practice on your own or perhaps design in a small pamphlet for added value to a client:
Box Breathing (4-4-4-4): Inhale 4 sec, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4.One minute lowers heart rate and calms the nervous system. Use this before meals, before bed, or any time you feel a little stressed or distracted
Mindful transitions: Before meals, calls, or meetings, take three deep breaths of equal counts inhales to exhales to reset focus
Five-minute gratitude journaling: Improves emotional regulation and cognitive performance. Simple bullet points of things or people you are grateful for, or what you are glad happened to you that day
Walking outdoors: Just 20 minutes in nature can lower cortisol by more than 15 percent
Gentle stretching before bed: Releases tension and promotes better sleep
Set a timer for five minutes and exhale for twice as long as you inhale during those five minutes. This strategy can reduce perceived anxiety in just five minutes
Whole-body wellness should never be a privilege; it should be an accessible, practical and essential part of everyday care for all
As we enter the holiday season, I invite you to consider this mantra: Whole-body wellness should never be a privilege; it should be an accessible, practical and essential part of everyday care for all.
Megan Wroe, MS, RD, is a registered dietitian and Manager of St. Jude Wellness Center, part of Providence St. Jude Medical Center. She leads preventive wellness programs that support whole-person care and partners with insurance professionals to advance healthy aging and chronic disease prevention for both corporate and Medicare populations.
St. Jude Wellness Center offers in person nutrition, fitness and restorative services and programs and will be offering breath work mini sessions throughout November and December. They also offer educational programs, workshops, and cooking classes online to be accessed anywhere. Enroll on their website and ask about programs designed specifically for your clientele by reaching out directly to Megan at megan.wroe@stjoe.org
St. Jude Wellness Center offers nutrition, fitness and stress resilience services to help optimize your health. To learn more about services, programs and monthly free webinars on a variety of health and wellness topics.
Visit the Programs & Events page at: www.stjudewellnesscenter.org
714-578-8770
Megan Wroe, MS, RD, CNE, CLEC manages St. Jude Wellness Center, an integrative wellness department of St. Jude Medical Center. St. Jude Wellness Center is located in Brea, CA and offers a variety of nutrition, fitness and restorative programs and services for prevention and condition management such as PD.
For more information: www.stjudewellnesscenter.org
