The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls the involuntary bodily functions – pupillary response, heart rate, respiration, digestion, and sexual arousal. The autonomic nervous system is composed of the sympathetic nervous system (stress response) and the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest response). The ANS manages human stress, fear, anxiety, depression, and worry, in addition to the fight-or-flight-or-freeze response. In humanity’s ancient past, the fight-or-flight response played an essential role in helping to keep our ancestors alive in the face of such dangers as predatory animals and natural occurrences such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions. Researchers have discovered that actual physical danger is not necessary to trigger the fight-or-flight response. It can also be triggered by our thoughts and beliefs. Simply put, if you habitually focus on thoughts and beliefs of a limiting or negative nature, you are causing your body to act as if it is in danger. This results in the chronic production of stress hormones, specifically cortisol.

Stress is a biological response to the stimulus of a threat, either real or perceived. During an acute stress response, two parallel pathways are activated to prepare the body for fight-or-flight, the sympathetic adreno-medullary (SAM) arm of the autonomic nervous system and the HPA axis. Both systems can be triggered in a bottom-up manner from the brainstem by critical homeostatic perturbations, like respiratory distress, pain, or inflammation – which pose real threats. They can also be triggered in a top-down fashion from the limbic system, particularly from the amygdala, by psychogenic stressors, either innate or experiential – perceived threats. Your thoughts can trigger this response, and often do. The SAM triggers the release of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) from the adrenal medulla into the bloodstream.

As these hormones circulate through the body, respiratory rate and heart rate accelerate and blood pressure increases to maximize the delivery of oxygenated blood to vital organs. This alerts the body to speed up, tense up, become hypervigilant, and take action for survival. In parallel, the HPA axis (The Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis) triggers a series of hormonal signals to maintain this state of hyper-alertness. The hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which signals the anterior pituitary gland, to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). This hormone travels to the adrenal glands, prompting them to release cortisol, the well-known stress hormone. The release of cortisol can increase the production of epinephrine, as well as trigger the glucose release from protein to supply the body with energy.

Once this happens, blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to our body’s cells and organs are constricted so that more blood can be made available to nourish the tissues of our body’s major muscle groups, especially in our arms and legs, since it is primarily these extremities that the body uses to fend off external attacks and get out of harm’s way. Prior to this response, the blood in the body is concentrated in what are known as the abdominal visceral organs. These include our adrenal glands, kidneys, liver, gallbladder, stomach, intestines, colon, and appendix – the organs responsible for digestion and absorption of foods and nutrients, excretion, and various other functions that provide for proper cell growth and production of cellular energy. As blood is rushed to the tissues of the arms and legs, the visceral organs cannot function at 100%, causing all growth-related activities in the body to become limited. If this process continues for sustained periods of time, our body’s overall functioning is compromised, and we begin to break down. Once the fight-or-flight adrenaline response is activated, the mind cannot rationalize itself or self-regulate until the threat is removed and time passes, because the amygdala has taken oxygen rich red blood cells from the frontal cortex, negating access to executive function, logic, and decision making.

When there aren’t any threats, the HPA axis is in what might be described as “idle mode.” This state of idleness allows the rest of our body to flourish the way that nature intended. And the way nature intended for all humans is to be in autonomic nervous system balance, where we exhibit sympathetic nervous system responses throughout the day, but also activate the rest and digest restoration of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Chronically elevated stress hormones result in chronically suppressed immune function, leading to greater susceptibility to infectious disease. Additionally, because of how the visceral organs are also negatively impacted by chronic stress, many of our body’s functions are also suppressed, setting the stage for impaired digestion, increased muscle tension, and eventual declines in cell and tissue function, which can lead to a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. In addition, stress is also a major risk factor for gastrointestinal disorders, skin problems, neurological and emotional disorders, and a variety of conditions related to immune dysfunction, ranging from the common cold to arthritis, herpes, and even AIDS. Chronic stress in middle-age can also play a role in triggering the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia decades later, most likely because of the way chronic stress negatively impacts the brain and hormone regulation.

Sleep disorders are another area where stress is involved. To achieve healthy sleep our body’s normal cycle of hormone production must operate efficiently, especially regarding cortisol. When we are healthy, cortisol levels are highest in the morning (6-8 AM) and lowest in the evening, where they continue at a low level as we fall asleep. This allows our body to release sleep enhancing hormones, such as melatonin and serotonin, leading to deep, restful sleep. Stress interferes with this process. When we are stressed, cortisol levels remain high, even into the night, preventing restful sleep. Over time, the cycle of cortisol production becomes unbalanced, and even reversed, with levels spiking in the evening and falling in the morning, resulting in feelings of exhaustion. Insomnia and restless sleep (awakening throughout the night) are both common examples of sleep disorders that are associated with nighttime spikes in cortisol and other stress hormones, including, in some cases, adrenaline. Stress compromises the amount and quality of restorative sleep. This important phase of sleep (Theta brain waves) is when our cells remove toxins and restore our mitochondria, which is our cell’s energy source. Prolonged lack of restorative sleep decreases your cellular health and increases your risk of disease.

Stress, more than anything else, has the greatest potential to sabotage every aspect of our life. Our health, our relationships, our work, our productivity, our brain function, and cognitive abilities, and even our ability to simply enjoy our day can all be negatively impacted by stress. Yet, despite all that we know about the importance of managing stress, as a society we seem more stressed than ever before, especially with COVID-19.

So, what can we do about stress? Well, the first thing we can do is to accept it, appreciate it, and understand that stress is real, stress impacts every human on Earth every day, and the human physiological response as described above is the same in each of us. No one is impregnable to stress, so we must address it. Many people seek yoga, Tai Chi, meditation, or deep breathing exercises as healthy pathways to managing stress and activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Many others manage stress through the consumption of drugs and/or alcohol. All these approaches have an impact on slowing down the human stress response, but as most of us know, the path of drugs and alcohol has negative consequences that lead to more stress and depreciation of the mind and body.

But there is also another path to managing stress, and this one is founded in applied neuropsychobiology, has no drugs, no side effects, and is easy to use. NuCalm was invented out of necessity by the brilliant quantum physicist, neuroscientist, Dr. Blake Holloway. Dr. Holloway served the military veteran community in San Antonio, Texas for more than 40 years. His invention path began over 33 years ago, which illustrates the challenges inherent in trying to solve complex problems such as down regulating the sympathetic tone (stress response) with predictability, reliability, safety, and ease for people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress, often comorbid with addiction.

Janet Hranicky, MD, PhD, and Dr. Michael Galitzer have been studying the benefits of NuCalm on stage IV metastatic cancer patients using HRV since October 2014. The need to slow down cortisol, sympathetic overload, and adrenal fatigue is paramount to helping cancer patients battle the disease and heal. NuCalm has proven to slow down the sympathetic nervous system while increasing parasympathetic nervous system dominance. Below please find research observations by Dr. Hranicky:

“NuCalm allows the old limbic area of the brain to experience a state of perceived safety and comfort, which triggers a parasympathetic response and the chemical changes physiologically connected with it. When the old brain is calm and feels safe, the frontal cortex can experience synchronicity and flow throughout the entire organism, and allow the person to go into a state of deep relaxation. Perhaps, deeper than they might have gone for a long, long time. That state, we know, is a healing state. Going into and having periods of deep, restorative rest and relaxation is hugely important for getting better, getting well, and for creating optimal health and well-being. For most patients, there has been a chronic stress physiology involved with cancer, both before the diagnosis and then, for sure, secondary to having a diagnosis. The NuCalm state of deep relaxation allows for recuperation and a reboot of the system that can provide the resiliency necessary to come back to where regeneration can occur. Regeneration occurs when we can bring down the stress physiology, because the immune system, the hormonal system, all of the healing mechanisms will begin to buoy back up and begin to self-regulate again.”

The goal of NuCalm Rescue, PowerNap, or FlowState is not to heal or cure disease, but to simply guide brain wave function into a state of healing (theta), where the body activates its maintenance and detoxification systems. The body knows how to heal itself and get into homeostasis, it’s the “monkey mind” that overrides the body’s natural balance and keeps the foot on the accelerator. NuCalm puts the brakes on, and provides valuable “resource allocation” of valuable oxygen rich red blood cells. When the “fight-or-flight” response is activated, oxygen-rich red blood cells flow from the prefrontal and frontal cortex to the primordial midbrain, also referred to as the “reptilian brain,” managed by the amygdala. The prefrontal and frontal cortex of the human brain is what separates humans from every other species on Earth. This is where our character, personality, patience, presence, thoughts, emotions, decision making, and executive functions occur. The autonomic nervous system and primordial midbrain manages fear, stress, anxiety, depression, worry, and our fight-or-flight. Therefore, when we are stressed, resources are allocated and trapped inside fear, stress, anxiety, depression, and worry, and we often find it difficult to access our personality, character, patience, presence, and rational decision making. This is what makes humans react to stressors instead of responding to them in a rational, patient manner.

Mindful practices and drugs and alcohol help interrupt the stress response by diverting resources away from the fight-or-flight response and down-regulating the sympathetic tone. The challenges with mindful practices are as great as the benefits derived … meditation, for example, requires time, effort, patience, persistence, determination and is difficult to engage in when our “monkey mind” is racing and we are in a high stress state. Furthermore, the intangible of meditation (we can’t see it, touch it, taste it, smell it, or hear it) leaves a mystery in our minds as we engage on our meditation journey. The challenges with drugs and alcohol are far more detrimental due to the risks of addiction and the physical consequences of systematic abuse.

NuCalm is safe, portable, and easy-to-use. It takes seconds to self-administer and within three minutes, you will experience parasympathetic nervous system dominance that results in homeostasis of your autonomic nervous system in one treatment. Rescue, PowerNap, and FlowState expedite recovery by oscillating your brain waves in the ‘healing zone’ of Theta brain wave dominance, including the hypnagogic, dissociative state of cellular restoration. This results in a synchronization of the heart and lungs and lower respiration rates to one breath every 10 seconds. This synchronicity maximizes oxygenation throughout the brain and body which removes lactic acid, lowers inflammation, and increases focus through oxygen-rich red blood cells in the frontal cortex and prefrontal cortex. In as little as 20 minutes of Rescue, PowerNap, or FlowState, you will feel focused, energized, and able to perform at a high level without emotional distraction, fear, stress, or anxiety.

“We are measuring the impact of NuCalm on human physiology and concussion healing using heart rate measurement and heart rate variability (HRV). We look for enhancing the vagal tone, which reflects the parasympathetic system (rest and relaxation) response. Heart rate variability is the easiest way to evaluate the vagal response. Although other expressions of stress response are certainly present such as pupillary dilation, increased heart rate, increased respiratory rate and increased concentrations of cortisol and catecholamines, the measure of HRV has become our Gold Standard in evaluating concussion healing. The PNS plays a major role in immunity and response to inflammation. It is therefore important in recovery from brain injury healing since the inflammatory response following concussion is responsible for the post-concussive symptoms. We have been researching the impact of NuCalm on concussion patients – measuring the response versus a sham. Thus far, the results have been significant. NuCalm enhances the parasympathetic state, which is clearly beneficial in post-concussive recovery.”

– Dr. Tom Allen (former Dean of the University of Oklahoma Medical School). Professor, Center of Exercise and Sports Medicine, Adjunct Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and the Director, Human Performance Laboratory, School of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa.