Modern life of today is filled with pressure, frustrations and stress. Worrying regarding your job security, driving in rush-hour traffic, arguing with your spouse, these create stress. According to a current survey by the American Psychology Association, fifty-four percent of Americans are worried concerning the level of stress on their everyday lives and two-thirds of Americans state they are prone to seek help for stress.
You might feel physical stress as a result of too much to do, insufficient sleep, a poor diet or perhaps the outcomes of an illness. Stress may also be mental: when you worry about money, a loved one’s illness, retirement, or experience an emotionally devastating event, for example death of your spouse or being fired from work.
Yet, many of our stress comes from less dramatic everyday responsibilities. Obligations and pressures which are both physical and mental aren’t always obvious to us. In response to the daily strains the body automatically increases blood pressure level, pulse rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood circulation in your muscles. This response is intended to help your body react quickly and effectively to a high-pressure condition.
The Stress Response
Often referred to as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, the stress response occurs automatically if you feel threatened. Your body’s fight-or-flight reaction has strong biological roots. It’s there for self-preservation. This reaction gave early humans the vitality to battle aggressors or run from predators and was important to assist the human species survive. But today, instead of protecting you, it may possess the opposite effect. If you’re constantly stressed you could be more vulnerable to life-threatening health issues.
Any kind of change in life could make you feel stressed, even good change. It’s not only the alteration or event itself, but also how you respond to it that means something. What might be stressful is different for each individual. As an example, one person might not feel stressed by retiring from work, while another may feel stressed.
How does stress affect the body?
If you have experience stress, your anterior pituitary gland responds by enhancing the discharge of a hormone called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). When the pituitary sends out this burst of ACTH, it’s just like an alarm system going off deep inside your brain. This alarm tells your adrenals, situated atop your kidneys, to release a flood of stress hormones into your bloodstream, including cortisol and adrenaline. These stress hormones cause a whole series of physiological adjustments to your body, such as increasing your pulse rate and blood pressure, turning off your digestive system, and altering your defense mechanisms. Once the perceived threat is fully gone, the degrees of cortisol and adrenaline within your bloodstream decline, and also your heart rate and blood pressure level and all of your other body functions return to normal.
In reactions to stress, your body automatically increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood circulation to your muscles. This fact is intended to help your body react effectively to the high-pressure situation.
If stressful situations pile up one after another, your body has no chance to recover. This long-term activation of the stress-response system can disrupt almost all your body’s processes. Some of the common physical responses to chronic stress are experienced in the digestive system. As an example, stomach aches or diarrhea are very common when you’re stressed. This happens because stress hormones slow the release of stomach acid and also the emptying of the stomach. Exactly the same hormones also stimulate the colon, which speeds the passage of its contents.
Stress which is chronic will dampen your immune system too, causing you to more susceptible to colds as well as other infections. Typically, your immune system responds to infection by releasing several substances that create inflammation. Chronic systemic inflammation contributes to the development of many degenerative diseases.
Stress is linked with the central nervous system as well, since it can lead to depression, anxiety, anxiety attacks and dementia. With time, the chronic discharge of cortisol could cause harm to several structures on the brain. Excessive amounts of cortisol can also cause sleep disturbances and a loss of sexual drive. The cardiovascular system is also affected by stress because there may be an increase in both heart rate and blood pressure level, that may cause cardiac arrest or strokes.
Just how you react to a particular stressor could be totally different from other people. Some people are naturally laid-back about all things, while others react strongly on the slightest hint of stress. If you’ve had the following conditions, it might be an indication that you’re struggling with stress: Anxiety, Insomnia, back pain, relationship problems, constipation, shortness of breath, depression, stiff neck, fatigue, upset stomach, and weight gain or loss.
Research, it is clear that the side effects related to stress are true. Although you may not always be able to avoid stressful situations, there are many of things which you can do to lessen the effect that stress has on your body. The first is relaxation. Learning how to relax doesn’t need to be difficult. Here are some simple ways to help get you started on your journey to tranquility.
Exercise
Exercise is a good way to deal with stress because it is a good way to relieve your pent-up energy and tension. It also helps you get in better shape, making you feel better overall. By getting physically active, you can reduce your degrees of anxiety and stress and lift up your moods. Numerous studies show that individuals who begin exercise programs, either at home or at the office, demonstrate reasonable improvement in their ability to concentrate, could sleep better, suffer from fewer illnesses, experience less pain and report a much higher quality of life compared to those who don’t exercise.
Call Dr. Rhonda at the Back Pain Relief Clinics to set up an appointment.