I had one of those conversations recently that reminded me why I do this work.
My friend and co-host David Fugal and I were recording our podcast — and what started as a casual riff on clarity turned into something much deeper: a real, honest look at the effects of chronic stress on the body, the brain, and the choices we make every single day.
I’ve been a chiropractor for over 22 years. People come to me with physical pain. And every single time, I end up talking about the mind. Because here’s the thing most people miss: no matter where stress starts — a car accident, a difficult boss, a grieving heart, or a decade of sleepless nights — the body’s stress response follows a remarkably similar cascade. Your brain activates the same core alarm systems and floods your body with the same stress chemicals. The source is different, but the toll on your body is strikingly alike.
So let’s talk about what it’s actually doing.
The Oxygen You’re Not Getting
Let’s start simple. Oxygen. First thing you do when you’re born, last thing you do when you leave. We all know we need it. Your nervous system knows it so well that when your oxygen levels dip even slightly, your heart rate automatically bumps up to compensate — rushing blood to every corner of your body.
That’s how smart your system is. It’s constantly protecting you.
But here’s where chronic stress becomes a real problem. Research shows that prolonged stress blunts the body’s ability to sense and respond to changes in oxygen, blood pressure, and heart rate — the very reflexes designed to keep you safe. Autonomic dysregulation accumulates quietly over time, eroding the fine-tuned signaling between brain and body that most of us take completely for granted. I’ve seen this pattern in my own clinical work with brain mapping: nervous systems that have become sluggish in responding to the signals that matter most.
That’s not just a health issue. It’s a sign that the body’s most fundamental protective systems are wearing down. And yet — it’s incredibly common. Because chronic stress is incredibly common.
What Happens When the Alarm Goes Off
Deep in your brain is a structure called the amygdala. Think of it as your alarm system. It collects information, reads threat levels, and when things get to be too much — it fires.
That firing triggers what we call fight-or-flight. And the cascade that follows is dramatic:
- Cortisol, your primary stress hormone, spikes — and with sustained exposure, it begins reshaping the very structure and function of the brain
- Adrenaline floods your system, redirecting energy toward your muscles and away from functions like digestion
- Dopamine — the neurotransmitter behind motivation and reward — becomes blunted over time, making it harder to feel pleasure, purpose, or drive
You’re in pure survival mode. And in survival mode, you don’t think clearly. You don’t make great decisions. You don’t recover. You just react.
Now here’s the part most people don’t talk about: the stress compounds. Because once you’re in that state, you start stressing about the stress. Why can’t I focus? Why can’t I just power through? What’s wrong with me? Research confirms this isn’t imagined — chronic stress directly impairs executive functioning and self-regulation, which means the very mental tools you’d normally use to manage stress are the first ones to go offline. And the judgment piles on top of the dysregulation, and you drift further from the shore.
The Bucket With Holes
I like to use an image here: think of your energy as a bucket. Every function your body performs — breathing, thinking, digesting, healing, feeling — draws from that bucket. We call it metabolism, and it never stops, not even when you’re asleep.
When chronic stress punches holes in that bucket, you can’t fill it fast enough. You’re always running low. And when you’re always running low, you reach for anything that gives you a quick hit. Comfort food. Screens. Substances. David went with Twizzlers — I’ll let that speak for itself.
(He could use one as a straw, apparently. I learned something new.)
But all joking aside — this is exactly how compulsive behaviors take root in a stressed system. Chronic stress hijacks the brain’s reward circuitry, weakens self-control, and makes quick-fix cravings feel genuinely irresistible. It’s not weakness. It’s neuroscience. A brain under that kind of load will reach for anything — a potato chip, a Yoo-hoo, a Captain Crunch — that gives it a moment of calm.
We have to stop judging that response and start addressing the root cause.
Feel It to Heal It
Here’s something I say to patients all the time: feel it to heal it. Name it to tame it.
If we choose to numb it — with whatever our version of Twizzlers is — we’re denying a truth that is actively shaping our health, our relationships, our decisions, and our quality of life.
So here’s a practice I want to invite you into. Right now, wherever you are — do a slow scan from the top of your head down through your body. Not with your mind. With your feeling.
Where are you holding tension? Is it in your jaw? Your neck? Is there something sitting in your chest you haven’t let yourself acknowledge? Are you even breathing?
That awareness is not a small thing. It is the beginning of everything.
Building the New Foundation
The effects of chronic stress on the brain are real — but so is the brain’s capacity to recover. Even after prolonged stress, the brain can rebuild — restoring connections, growing new neural pathways, and regaining function it had lost.
Brain imaging studies of long-term meditators — including monks with decades of practice — reveal striking differences in brain structure and connectivity, particularly in regions that govern attention, emotional regulation, and self-awareness. And while those monks have thousands of hours of practice, measurable brain changes have been observed in people who had never meditated before, beginning to appear in as little as eight weeks of consistent practice.
You don’t have to become a monk. You don’t have to choose between natural health and traditional medicine. You don’t have to earn your way back to wellness through some heroic act of willpower.
You just have to start anchoring back to the fundamentals:
Breath control. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that breathwork significantly reduces stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. You cannot lose on breath. It is available to you right now, at any age, in any condition, at any stage of a health journey. When I have breath, I have a foundation. Everything else — endurance, intervals, mountains — can be built on it.
Calm mind. Whether that looks like prayer, meditation, a quiet walk, or five minutes of stillness in your car before you walk into the house — create it. Protect it. The American Heart Association has formally recognized meditation as a meaningful tool for cardiovascular risk reduction. That’s not fringe thinking. That’s science catching up with what healers have known for centuries.
Coherent lifestyle. When your nervous system starts to regulate, your nutrition choices align. Your movement choices align. The chaos that felt impossible to organize starts to make sense. These pillars don’t work in isolation. They become interdependent — and that is where sustainable health lives.
The holes in the bucket? They heal. Not all at once. But they heal.
You Are Not Sentenced to This
I want to say something directly, because I mean it:
Living in a state of chronic stress — somewhere between anxiety and depression — is not normal. It is not just “how you are.” It is not a sentence you have to serve. It is a prison, and the door can be unlocked.
Chronic pain is a chronic stressor. Complex health conditions are chronic stressors. And the emotional and psychological weight of navigating a difficult life? That is a stressor too. They all compound. They all run through the same stress pathways. And they all respond — over time, with the right support — to the same foundational care.
If you’re ready to stop patching and start rebuilding, I’d love to help.
Ready to take the first step? Book an appointment at Well-Rooted Health and let’s find your foundation together.
Recovery, resilience, and clarity — they all have a biology.
At Well Rooted Health, mindfulness and recovery are understood through the lens of nervous system function. How you regulate stress, process experience, and restore capacity is connected to how your body is working at a foundational level. Every new patient relationship begins with a comprehensive physical exam — in Westfield NJ, New York City, or virtually.
Request an Appointment: https://wellrootedhealth.clientsecure.me
Call NJ: 908-588-7532 · NY: 212-655-5802 Email: info@gowellrooted.comDr. Anish Bajaj, DC is a chiropractor and neuroscience practitioner at Well-Rooted Health (Westfield, NJ) and Well-Rooted Chiropractic (NYC). This post is adapted from a conversation on the Finding Clarity podcast, co-hosted with David Fugel.
This post is grounded in peer-reviewed research. Full references are listed below.
References
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