Stress is an overlooked reason people have health problems. Reducing stress is guaranteed to give you a healthier life and can prevent future health problems!
Stress!!!
Most of us feel some kind of stress every day.
The dictionary defines stress as physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension. Everyday 87% of the population lives under this type of stress. We worry about money, children, jobs, our spouse or significant other and hundreds of other things on a daily basis.
Just driving to the corner store can cause tension as you dodge that crazy driver or see the price of gas at the pump.
Some people are very aware of the strain and tension in their life, but many of us live with stress that we don't see or are unwilling to admit we have. We just go about our daily life thinking this is the way it is supposed to be, the norm. We build our lives and behaviors around stress. Even children and especially teens have stress. They worry about their friends, their weight, if they are wearing the right clothes or if they have a zit (acne).
More Medical Problems are caused by Stress than anything else!
Learning the right way to relax and reduce tension can help your body work better and create a healthier life. Your body's natural processes are affected by stress. Stress can be a killer and reducing your stress should be a top priority in your life.
Stress can cause:
1. Your Body to Age: - Which means all your cells and organs are getting old before their time. When your stomach ages, food sits in it longer and can start to spoil before its even digested. This can lead to colon problems. Your skin and heart can also be affected by stress.
2. Sugar to Build Up: - When humans were hunters and gatherers, they had stress when they were being stalked by a predator. The body understood this stress and released sugars for instant energy so we could flee or fight. Now, when the stress causes the sugars to release, we don't use them for energy. They go unused and the body stores them as fat instead.
3. Your Blood to Thicken: - Thicker blood allows it to carry more oxygen to help with our fight or flight as previously mentioned. Again we don't use this feature as nature originally intended and now thicker blood only starts the process of building up plaque on the walls of our arteries.
4. Increased Number of Diseases: - Stress depresses the immune system. Colds and viruses are more common in stressed people. Viruses can cause some cancers, thus keeping a strong healthy immune system is a must. Stress has also been linked to Parkinson's disease.
99% of all Disease is caused by Stress!
When your body senses stress, it automatically gets you ready to run or fight. This is just part of your biological makeup.
First, the natural response causes the stomach and colon to shut down. - Extra blood is needed by the body and it takes it from the stomach and colon. - With no blood, these organs age faster. - Food that was being digested now just sits there and starts to rot. You end up with rotten food in your colon. As you can imagine, eating rotten food can make you sick, so can having it sitting in your body. - 90% of your immune system is battling disease in the colon. Ask any doctor who does autopsies about people's colons. It's not a pretty picture.
Second, your metabolism changes. - The body needs energy and it needs protein. - It goes to the muscles to get it. - If you don't replace the protein and all the amino acids and enzymes, you lose muscle. - You lose body shape when you lose muscle. - The body replaces the muscle with FAT!
I have just described a majority of the human population.
We are stressed out and because of the stress we are battling colds, the flu, allergies, you name it because of our reduced immune system.
So What Can I Do to avoid this downward spiral?
Dealing with stress is something we can manage. There are several steps that can reduce stress and when that becomes too difficult, there are things we can do to counteract the negative effects stress has on our bodies.
First and foremost, the best way to alleviate the problems associated with stress is to get rid of the stress in our lives.
Some things you can do include learning relaxation techniques and ridding yourself of stressful habits.
Everyone is different and deals with everyday situations in different ways, but we can all learn to reduce the stress in our life.
Second, because it is impossible to get rid of all stress, we need to give our bodies the things it needs to be healthy and overcome the ill effects that stress creates.
These can include:
Provide you body with the nutrients it needs.
While this sounds simple enough, when you body is under stress , the stomach shuts down so even if you are eating a good diet, your body isn't getting what it needs.
Supplementation is the answer. However, not all supplements are created equal. Make sure your supplements can be used by the body when it is under stress. This means they get the nutrients to your cells where they are needed and not just take them on a nice ride through your digestive tract.
Boost your immune system.
Stress makes our bodies more susceptible to disease. It lowers the overall immunity and creates a situation where a majority of the immune system is battling disease in the colon.
Get more protein.
Most people don't get enough protein. Stress causes the body to need more of it and so your body raids the muscles to get what it needs. When there is nothing to replace the muscle protein it gets replaced with fat. We slowly lose our shape and definition as we lose muscle.
Adding more meat to our diet is not the best solution. Today, almost all commercial meat is contaminated in some way. The beef, pork and chicken you buy from the supermarket is pumped full of antibiotics.
A better solution is soy protein. This is a plant protein that has all the amino acids a human body needs.
I read a great article once about everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten. It said something like " Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some." It's amazing, if we think back to when we were young and now as adults followed some of those same rules how much better our lives could be. I can hear my Mom saying "Eat your vegetables and Take your vitamins".
We can all learn a thing or two about life and living if we sit back and watch little kids.
So relax, listen to your body and learn how to reduce the stress and its effects on your health. This could be the most important action you can take towards living a longer, healthier and more enjoyable life.
THINK ABOUT IT!
Michael Tomberlin is a father of 6 and has been teaching and coaching at the High School level during the past 11 years. Michael has been interested in Health and Wellness for many years and has written a website (www.healthylife-healthyplanet.com) devoted to helping others improve their health and the health of the planet they live on. Having adopted 5 of his children from Child Protective Services after they were born addicted to drugs, he has a keen interest in supplementation and its uses in maintaining and increasing health while avoiding the traps and side effects of prescription drugs. Michael welcomes your thoughts, concerns and questions. You can contact him at michael@healthylife-healthyplanet.com.
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I agree, stress is a huge factor in our society and I really don't see much way to aviod it with our modern lifestyles. That is one reason I believe so strongly in supplementation to help counteract the problems stress can create with our bodies.
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