Why You Need More Good Stress, According to a Wellness Expert

If you want to improve your health, balance is key. From the nervous system to the immune system to the respiratory system and more, balance is the foundation of health across all systems of the human body. Jeff Krasno, entrepreneur and author of Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things, is a firm believer that “disease is the manifestation of imbalance.”

“The good news is, we have more agency than ever to address those imbalances. Change is possible,” he says. 

On Treated With Dr. Sara, Dr. Sara Szal interviews the founder of the Commune podcast to discuss practical strategies for taking control of your health. Krasno shares his personal health transformation from battling prediabetes, weight gain, fatigue, and brain fog to reversing metabolic dysfunction. Together they explore metabolic health, longevity, the value of good stress, and what Krasno calls the ultimate hack for longevity: social connection. 

Why you need more hormetic (moderate, short-term) stress 

In his book, Good Stress, Krasno makes a powerful statement: “Chronic disease is the product of chronic ease.” Common symptoms like chronic stress, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, and lack of concentration are precursors to more serious conditions.

“We have normalized what is completely abnormal. Today, 60 percent of Americans have chronic disease and 93 percent of us are metabolically dysfunctional,” he says. 

The epidemic of chronic disease in the U.S., Krasno explains, stems from the normal and expected result of trying to cope with our modern environment and lifestyle. Since the industrial revolution, culture has disrupted our biology, turning adaptive mechanisms maladaptive. 

“We are nothing but change. The human organism is process, and thus, disease is process. I realized that I had significant agency over the trajectory of that process. I could move toward wholeness, the process of healing, or move toward disease and disconnection, the process of ailing,” he says.

Krasno has seen the impact of lifestyle changes on his health. He has reversed his prediabetes, lost 50 pounds, and stabilized his glucose. Taking control of your health starts with embracing the right kind of stress. Hormonal stress (cold, heat, fasting, and exercise) helps unlock metabolic flexibility, mental clarity, and emotional resilience. 

“We’ve become accustomed to lives of convenience and ease,” he says. “But doing hard things makes other things easier—like fasting, jumping into an ice plunge, making yourself deliberately hot, lifting heavy, and even having hard conversations. The more you push the edges of your comfort zone, the more the body becomes better at bouncing back.”

Integrate rest and repair as much growth

Krasno embraces intermittent fasting to encourage metabolic balance. He stops eating three to four hours before bed, which leaves 16 hours a day for fasting and eight hours for eating. He notes that hormonal differences between men and women influence fasting protocols, menstruation affecting how fasting stresses the body. 

Overall, Krasno says society needs to learn to balance growth pathways (things that put pressure on the body) with repair pathways (things that restore the body). There are wear and tear hormones like cortisol and melatonin, and the repair hormones like testosterone. “We tend to praise growth at every turn, but there is always a place to restore and repair,” he says. 

To live long, embrace social connection 

Flexibility should extend to all aspects of life, Krasno says—from physical mobility to cognitive adaptability to scheduling. For example, although eating his last meal before 5 p.m. is ideal for his fasting regimen, Krasno tries to approach his eating schedule with flexibility so he can have family meals. 

“Social connection is the number one determinant of health and happiness. I don’t see my wellness as an individual quest, and I don’t think most women do either. Women tend to see their health span within the matrix of connection more than men do,” he says.