Sunday, March 19, 2006
Stress can damage body in many waysPublished - March, 12, 2006
Gerold@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
Do you often feel the stress of daily life?
Does even the thought of another hurricane season leave a pitted feeling in your stomach?
Are you sometimes annoyed by your boss, your spouse, your children, your parents or even your friends? Does traffic make you mad?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you are normal. Stress is part of life.
We respond to a stressful situation with the fight or flight response. This response is part of our automatic, primitive, inborn response mechanism that prepares us to defend ourselves.
When we go into our fight or flight response, our body tenses up and we activate a complicated sequence of bodily responses. There are chemicals such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol that are pumped into our bloodstream. We breathe faster. Blood is directed into our muscles and prepares them for action. We become more aware and our sight gets clearer. Our impulses quicken and our perception of pain diminishes. We are ready for anything.
Our response to stress is neither good nor bad; it is simply part of our survival mechanism. It has kept us alive for all these years.
But in today's world, the quality and quantity of most stressful situations have changed. We are engaged in an ongoing set of subtle encounters. We might be undergoing stress so much of the time that we don't even notice it anymore. Our bodies were not designed to respond to continuous stress, and with no clear outlet for the tension, we turn it in on ourselves. Our body is working overtime and we hardly notice it.
Ongoing, unresolved stress does long-term damage to our bodies. Many of the lifestyle diseases that we deal with have a stress component.
According to some estimates, perhaps as much as 40 percent to 80 percent of all doctor visits may be directly related to stress.If we fail to notice the stress we are undergoing, or we simply ignore the signs over long periods of time, it will affect our health. Accumulated stress in our body will cause or contribute to many different diseases and syndromes, including heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, chronic fatigue, anxiety, insomnia and depletion of our immune system, leading to the flu, viruses, colds and such.
It's easy to spot the bad things that stress us, but it is amazing how many of the good things that we strive for and hope for, also put stress on us. Losing some of your income would be an obvious stressor, but did you know that getting a raise can be stressful also?
Falling out of love is stressful, but so is falling in love. Even going on vacation can be stressful, as well as exercising more, or exercising less, getting fired or getting promoted. There are many stress inducers that we would not ordinarily think of.
For a fascinating test that can measure the stress factors in your life over the past year, go to http://bobgerold.com/.
Don't ignore the stress levels in your life. You don't have to change your life in order to manage your stress. There are many things that you can do that will help you manage stress.In future columns, we will discuss some of the ways we can reduce our stress and contribute to our overall health.
