Stress is unique to each of us.
Yet the stress experience is one we can all relate to and which has shared qualities. Stress is the tension that we feel within us whenever we feel threatened. When we see something outside of us that is threatening, we tense up in reaction. Imagine yourself as a spring. When everything is going well and you feel safe and secure, your spring is relaxed. But if something unexpected happens that weren't counting on, you react by tensing up your spring. This creates a tense feeling within. A tense reaction occurs both in our mind and in our emotions. In our mind where we observe what is happening, we interpret what we see as threatening. Our perception of a threat triggers an emotional reaction. The emotion that we often feel is fear.
But it doesn't stop there. The emotional reaction initiates an alarm reaction in our body. This alarm reaction within our physical body is programmed in. Whenever we experience anything stressful, our body runs the same program. Our body's physical responses to stress are often referred to by researchers as the "stress response".
The body's stress response.
The stress response-our body's programmed response to any experience of a threat-starts in the brain. Within the brain is an area called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus controls all of the body functions that we are not aware of. Things like blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow, secretion of stomach acids, kidney filtration of urine, liver secretion of bile, back ground muscle tension, and so forth.
When we perceive something threatening and react, our brain (hypothalamus) goes into action. It's alarm spreads throughout our body in two ways. One is directly through the nervous system and the other is through hormones secreted into the blood stream. The hypothalamus stimulates nerves throughout the body that rev things up. These nerves stimulate the heart to beat faster and blood vessels to constrict. As a result blood pressure rises and blood circulates through the body faster. Blood is routed away from the digestive organs and to the muscles. Why?
When we experience feelings of stress we are telling our body that we are in danger. Our body reacts in a logical way. It immediately mobilizes its resources. It knows that we are going to have to fight off the threat or run like the dickens to escape. For this we need our muscles to be tense and ready to act. Our muscles need to be well fueled with oxygen and sugar from the blood. All blood that can be spared is routed to the muscles and the brain. This way we'll be able to think and move quickly in the face of the danger.
The hypothalamus also signals the alarm to the master gland of the body, the pituitary. The pituitary spreads the alarm through the blood. It secretes a hormone (ACTH) which travels in seconds to the stress glands of the body-the adrenal glands.
The body's accelerator - the adrenal glands.
The stress alarm tells the adrenal glands to rev up production of its hormones. Cortisol is a key stress hormone. When secreted from the adrenals it raises blood sugar so that the muscles and brain have the fuel that they need.
If we undergo stress for long periods of time the adrenal glands begin to show the effects of chronic overwork. At first the daily rhythm of the adrenal glands is thrown off. This often results in highs and lows of energy during the day and at night. If depleted further, the adrenals no longer secrete sufficient amounts of key hormones when they are needed. The resulting adrenal exhaustion can result in chronic fatigue.
Increased levels of cortisol from the adrenals help reduce inflammation in case we are injured. If we are injured, we want to control the pain and inflammation. This way, even though we're injured we can still focus on what is important-handling the threat. We don't want to be distracted by pain while we are still in danger.
All of our reactions-from our perception of danger, to our emotional reactions, to our body's physical changes, are parts of the stress response. Psychologists focus on our perceptions and feelings in relation to stress and on learning to cope with stress. Doctors and biologists focus on the physical changes which occur during the stress response. Beyond a doubt, researchers have demonstrated that chronic stress causes deterioration of health.
Traditional medicine recognizes the ill effects of chronic stress and its contribution to many diseases. Yet traditional medicine has done little to develop ways to combat stress. Tools to alleviate the impact of stress are found more in alternative medicine.
More often than not we suppress our stressful feelings. Often when we are experiencing stress we are unaware of it. Modern stresses are quite different from those that our body was designed to deal with. Yet our body's programmed response to perceived threats is the same whether we see a lion who wants to eat us or hear that we may lose our job. In either case our pre-programmed stress response revs us up to either fight or run.
In olden times we ran like the dickens from the lion, and if we escaped we heaved a huge sigh of relief and relaxed up in a tree. Now-a-days we may have the threat of losing our job hanging over our head for months or years. What's worse is we often feel that we can't do anything about it. It may have nothing to do with our job performance-something that we can control. It may be due to the economy, or the whim of the company president, etc. In the latter case we remain under constant stress for weeks, months or years.
The realities of modern stress.
Modern day stress is chronic. It is with us day in and day out. This type of stress takes its toll on our physical health. Stress is often referred to as the silent killer. We may or may not be aware of how our stress is impacting our health. But the negative effects of stress on our health can be severe. Of all our organs, the first casualty of stress is usually the adrenal glands. Under the demands of chronic stress, the ability of the adrenal glands to respond can gradually decline. This is referred to as adrenal fatigue or adrenal exhaustion by clinicians.
I have seen many patients who are obviously under stress. Yet when asked many of them say that they don't have much stress. Since we can't change something that we aren't aware of, it is often helpful to see what the common symptoms of stress are.
The symptoms of stress are signs of deterioration of adrenal function.
Some common symptoms of stress are anxiety, fatigue, depression and insomnia. The connection between stress, anxiety, fatigue depression and insomnia arises from the complex interactions of hormone systems in the body and brain. With ongoing stress the function of our stress organs (brain, pituitary, adrenal glands, etc.) frequently deteriorates. This wearing down of our system is seen mostly in the adrenal glands. Their secretion of the necessary stress hormones declines and we feel the effects through symptoms such as fatigue.
As the deterioration of our adrenal function progresses symptoms such as fatigue, which use to be an occasional thing, become more frequent. The severity can also increase. Whereas we used to feel tired only on occasion, now we are tired every single day.
The breakdown of the body's stress system can be evaluated clinically by doctors. The health of your stress response system can be tested through laboratory tests which measure the levels of hormones being secreted by the adrenal glands.
Healthy Adrenal Function versus Exhaustion
When our body is challenged by a sudden stress such as an aerobic work out or weight training, our adrenal glands give us the surge of energy that allows our muscles to contract strongly. Adrenal hormones have stimulated his heart to beat faster to move blood faster. The hormones have routed blood away from the digestive tract and other internal organs so that most blood goes to the brain and the muscles. They raise blood sugar so that the muscles and brain have plenty of fuel to handle this stressful situation--climbing the wall. Adrenal hormones also route blood and fuel to the brain to allow critical thinking in stressful situations.
When the "stress" is an intellectual challenge-like needing to take an hour long examination, adrenal hormones raise our blood sugar so that the brain has the fuel it needs to function optimally. For more information on herbs that help reduce the impact of stress on the body please go to http://moringa4goodhealth.blogspot.com/
There are invaluable herbal remedies that help to reduce the impact of stress on the body and improve physical endurance and mental performance during stress. For instance when medical students during examinations where given the herb moringa their grades were better than those students who didn't receive the herb.
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