During talks we mentioned that it is important to be emotionally and mentally healthy to maintain good posture and be able to recover or reduce strain from poor posture. I was asked what it means to be mentally and emotionally healthy. The reply of living a stress free life was not taken lightly. Therefore, it was argued that stress is necessary to get things done. Hmmm…… what an interesting belief system. Before we pick up this belief system or decide to continue with it, let us explore what happens to the body when we are stressed.
Body Response
During the hunting and gathering stage of the human race, whenever one was attacked by a wild animal or was facing any form of danger, the fight or flight response was triggered by the body. Thereafter adrenalin and other stress hormones would be released. Therefore the heart would pump much faster to get oxygen to the muscles necessary to fight or flee. Blood glucose levels rise to increase the body’s energy levels. Therefore unnecessary systems at this time such as digestion and immune shut down.
This has not changed one bit, and today’s dangers are in the form of trying to beat deadlines. They are such as fighting with our friends or spouses, arguing with our boss, being struck in traffic, running late etc. The problem with these situations, our perceived danger cannot be fought or fled from as this would be counterproductive. Imagine running from your boss or punching him/her. Yet all these stresses cause the flight or fight reaction which has the following shortcomings:
ShortComings Of Flight/ Fight Reactio
- Non-essential systems (like digestion and immune system) shut down to allow more energy for emergency functions. This makes one susceptible to attacks by disease and irritable bowel syndrome.
- Trouble focusing on small tasks. Brain is directed to focus only on big picture in order to determine where threat is coming from
- heart rate and blood pressure increase if perpetual it leads to catastrophic conditions such as high blood pressure
How To Reduce Stress Hormone
In order to reduce the effects of these stress hormones and enable the body to break them down, one needs to excersice. Not necessarily vigorous, 5 minutes of push ups that make you break a sweat, or even 10 minutes of brisk walking can break down these hormones.
It is even much better to look at long term ways of reducing the triggering of these hormones such as the ones below:
- Constantly strive to calm your mind by living in the present moment, concentrate on what you are doing at any given point as opposed to fearing about the future. Meditate or use mantras that help calm the mind. The mind’s chatter of always perceiving danger or fearing future outcomes causes the fight or flight response.
- Change your reality; “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. We should strive to have positive attitudes, beliefs and change our emotional reactions to things that happen to us. Learning not to take things personally, viewing the difficulties of life as challenges that will make us stronger and more loving and certainly accepting others as they are.
Chiropractic and Physiotherapy Health Centre
Nellie Nthiga,
Compiled by,
Do have a stress free day.
Perhaps it is time to review your perception of stress.
So is it possible that stress is the cause of disease….without stress your body can easily fight off disease.
