Understanding Stress And Disease

Stress and Disease.

Why Negative Stress Increases Your Risk of Disease, Illness, and Unhappiness.

Stress and disease. Why stress causes dis-ease, increases inflammation and reduces our immune system. Why stress is a modern-day killer.

The body’s stress response is our body’s innate life-saving system that effectively responds to dangerous and life-threatening situations. That is why it is known as the survival response or fight or flight response.

When you are in a state of stress. Your hypothalamus stimulates the release of stress hormones, especially adrenaline and cortisol.  Now, this rush of hormones will increase your heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, and muscle energy. This will help you react quickly and effectively (fight or flee) in a life-threatening or emergency situation.

Now, the stress response is supposed to be an occasional response. So, after the stress response, your body is designed to naturally go back into a relaxed state of being.

But today for too many people the stress response, has become their more normal everyday way of being. They are now in a state of chronic stress and disease. When your mind and body become habitually exposed to high levels of stress hormones. Your body then finds itself in a state of dis-ease, a state of imbalance.

Stress And Disease

Too many believe Chronic Stress is something you just live with, that it is a necessary by-product of modern life. But that is so not true, no-one needs to live with chronic long-term stress.

If you find it difficult to switch off, you cannot relax and find you always need to be busy. You are probably suffering from long-term or chronic stress.

Long-term stress sufferers find themselves in a constant state of hyperarousal or hypervigilance. They become constantly alert to the threat of possible danger and they are at increased risk of developing an anxiety disorder.

This chronic state of overstimulation can lead to a variety of physical, mental, and emotional health issues. The Immune System, for example, is a connection of systems, processes, cells, tissues, and organs. They all need to be working in harmony to protect the body against “foreign attack of viruses, bacteria anything that causes disease.

“Inflammation is partly regulated by the hormone cortisol and when cortisol is not allowed to serve this function, inflammation can get out of control,” said Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology within CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences – ScienceDaily.Com

Cortisol stops and slows down unnecessary essential body functions during emergency situations ( the fight or flight stress response) so when we are regularly overexposed to cortisol. Certain body functions are impacted especially the digestive and immune system, growth, and reproductive system.

Adrenaline increases heart rate and blood pressure. So in long-term stress, there is a higher risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. That is why stress and disease is so interconnected.

Long-Term Stress And Disease

Here are just some examples of how much long-term stress wreaks havoc with your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

• Anxiety
• Concentration and memory challenges
• Depression and mental health challenges
• Digestive Issues
• Headaches
• Heart disease
• Hormone imbalances
• Insomnia
• Lowered immune system
• Weight gain

Increased Stress Risk

Many factors can increase our stress exposure and many variables that can make us more stress resilient.

• Present Health Challenges
• Genetics, Hereditary Factors
• Personality Types and Traits
• Life Experiences and Life Challenges
• Life Skills, Communication Skills
• Location

The above can all increase our risk of stress and disease. But fundamentally most modern STRESS is triggered by our beliefs. By what we Fear or Resist persists.

Most chronic and long-term stress can be eliminated and reduced when we learn how to let go of and manage our stress.

Stress Management Advice

Learning how to manage, reduce, and let go of stress is key to making you more resilient to life’s challenges.

Learn To Relax – Relaxation Techniques are a powerful way to move the body off the stress response into the relaxed response.

Live In The Moment – Learn how to stop be in the moment, and be more mindful,  meditation and mindfulness can be extremely helpful.

Live A Balanced Life – A more balanced life leads to a more balanced mind, body, and emotions.-

Reduce Stimulants – Internal and external stimulants cause havoc on the body from caffeine, sugar, drugs, and nicotine too much EMF’s, noise and technology.

Hydration – Dehydration can seriously impact your stress levels

Eat Healthily – Fueling and flooding your bodies with healthy nutrients will help cushion your body system from the free radicals and disharmony that stress causes.

Healthy Communication- Healthy communication and assertiveness skills are extremely helpful in having healthy relationships. Making healthier decisions, asking for help, delegating, and creating healthy boundaries.

Purpose And Passions – Purpose and passions give people the  joy and optimum motivation to make healthier choices to live a more stressless life.