Is Stress Affecting Your Health?
Is Stress Affecting Your Health?
Is Stress Affecting Your Health?
Copyright (c) 2011 Carl MortimerStress is usually the root cause of many people's problems, whether they know this or not. How many times have you heard, or even said your self, 'I'm stressed out'? Some people can handle stress better than others. Do you actually know what happens when you are stressed? Or even what it means?So let's look at what might be a typical day for you. You get up to an alarm clock and your dreary eyes barely read the flashing 6:00 a.m. You manage to pluck up enough energy to reach over and hit the snooze button for a quick 5 minute nap. Beep, Beep, Beep! When the alarm does go off a second time, you drag yourself out of bed and wake the kids up to get ready for school. You're too busy focusing on them to worry about yourself and before you know it, you don't have enough time for breakfast. Not to worry though, you can grab a coffee and some toast at work!Oh yeah...work. 9-5 in a job you hate, just to pay those bills. Oh yeah...bills.You get to work to find that one of your co-workers is sick, so you have to cover for their clients/workload. Did not expect that! You're running around the office like a madman and in the 5 minutes you seem to haven't managed to squeeze in for yourself, you have a quick apple and guzzle another coffee.You manage to get through the day and now you have to pick up the kids. You manage to get there and on the way back, you're stuck in traffic when the petrol symbol lights up a dreaded red. Man, you did not expect to be paying out another 20 to fill that tank up! So, after getting through the traffic and getting to the petrol station, you manage to get home. Now, it's 6:00 p.m. and you have to make the tea. You're cooking for 4 whilst worrying for the next day at work. Is that co-worker going to cream it and leave you with the work tomorrow? God, this is stressful!You've finished eating tea and now you're staring at a lot of dishes to clean. God!! After scrubbing the pans and dishes, you're exhausted and flip the switch of the kettle to provide one last caffeine pick me up. After what seems like one hour of you time, it's time for bed. After the kids are put to bed, you realise you're exhausted and make thee climb into bed...ready to repeat the same cycle again tomorrow.Does this sound like you? Or maybe you would love a day like that, since that seems like a walk in the park, compared to yours? We all experience stress in some way, shape or form. Some more than others.What is stress?When you hear stress, you think bad, right? This isn't always true, there are good types of stress as well. We need a certain amount of stress to remain healthy. A complete lack of stress wouldn't be good for us, believe it or not! There are 6 types of stress, all of them having good forms and bad forms of that stress:1. Physical stress 2. Chemical stress 3. Electromagnetic stress 4. Mental stress 5. Nutritional stress 6. Thermal stressThere are also what we call external and internal stress. An example of an external stress would be an injury or too much sunlight, something that is from the outside. An internal stress is, therefore, a stress that comes from within us, although these are a direct reaction to external stress, such as cancer (Internal) as a reaction to the high level of toxic chemicals (External) you are exposed to.Steel nervesAs indicated by the title, the nervous system plays a huge role in evaluating the different stresses your body is under.Your nervous system is made up of 2 systems that work together. The peripheral nervous system focuses on conscious movement and the central nervous system, which contains the autonomic nervous system, controls those actions in the body that you don't consciously control, suggest as digestion, releasing hormones and sweating etc.To make things even more complex to yourself, the autonomic nervous system splits into 2 further branches: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic.When activated, the sympathetic nervous (S.N.S.) produces a fight-or-flight response. In other words, those natural instincts that kick in when threatened. Are you going to stand and fight or run? So what happens?* Your organs release stress hormones that elevate your heart rate and blood pressure* Blood is shunted away from your internal organs, towards your muscles and skin, greatly limiting all digestive and eliminative processes* Increased sweatingCortisol levels are also elevated, a hormone that breaks down muscle tissue to protect itself. When muscle is broken down, your metabolic rate slows down (meaning very slow weight loss...just a heads up!). When one system, works however, the other one is restricted. So with elevated stress hormones limiting your repairing hormones, it's not good. If the parasympathetic nervous system (P.N.S.) is shut down, you won't be able to digest your food properly, lose weight, build muscle etc. So, over stimulation of the S.N.S. is a common cause of chronic fatigue, not to mention emotional imbalances and distress. So, how does this relate to your typical day?By missing meals and not eating well, you are effectively launching your S.N.S. and your fight-or-flight response. Therefore, muscle destroying hormones are released. You'll probably go for a pick me up to battle the lack of energy, usually coffee. Caffeine is a stimulant, which activates the adrenal glands and your S.N.S, resulting in more of these hormones being released. You're worried about work, right? Bad thoughts, worries and other bad mental stresses activate the S.N.S. also. To your subconscious, whatever you think of is real. Think it enough times and your head will think it's in a bad situation and, you've guessed it, activate your S.N.S!So, how can you manage stress?1. Identify your primary stressFocus on reducing the stress in the area of your life that is causing you the most trouble. Often, alleviating the main stress will create a domino effect and you'll find that you are much more relaxed by dealing with this issue.2. Make a planMake a realistic plan to address your biggest stress and set a series of achievable short-term goals, allowing you to clearly recognize your progress as it is being made. Look for books and other resources on the internet about how to deal with your situation or better still, find somebody that has dealt with your situation. There is no better teacher than experience!3. Eat and drink rightRegardless of what your stressors are, if you are not eating right for you and your body, you won't be efficient at replacing those stress hormones. Eat good quality produce as much as possible. A lot of farmed food and processed food contain toxins, a bad chemical stress on your body.Dehydration is also a common cause of internal stress. A reduction of as little as 1% of water content in your central nervous system can cause a significant decrease in your performance. Reducing your intake of coffee, tea and fizzy drinks plus drinking high quality water is an easy way to start reducing the internal stress on your body.4. Move and exerciseRegular exercise can be a major tool to reduce stress. When performed correctly for your particular needs, exercise creates an anabolic (tissue building and repairing) environment.5. Mental exercise"What you give out, you receive back. Whatever you give out in life is what you receive back in life. Whatever you give, by the law of attraction, is exactly what you attract back to yourself" (The Power, Rhonda Byrne)Successful people all have one thing in common, no matter what their field is...they believe in the power of positive thinking. So, try it. Be thankful for what you do have. Don't curse the fact that you are spending money, be thankful you have money to spend. Don't make the mistake of thinking that this doesn't work. You can't keep thinking that continuing to worry about things over and over in your head will bring you different results. So, be thankful for everything that you do have and don't focus on what you don't want, focus on what you DO want. What have you got to lose?To your health
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