Stress and It's Effect on the Body.

     We all know what stresses us out and we do live in stressful times. Stress is the response of the nervous system to stressors that are too large to handle. The 5 largest stressors individuals can endure include:

• The Loss of a loved One
• Moving
• Divorce
• Being Fired/Unemployed/Changing a Job
• Physical Trauma

     Since I'm a chiropractor I'm in the business of taking care of people's spine dealing mostly with #5 (i.e. the physical and mental trauma of living through a car crash). Stressors set off a release of our "fight or flight hormones" which have an overall negative effect on our health and happiness. They are the internalized result of our external overloads. Let's use the analogy of a person compared to a modern building.
     "Consider modern buildings. They are protected from electrical fire by a system of separate circuits, each protected by its own circuit breaker that interrupts the current in the circuit whenever there is an electrical overload, whether caused by using too many appliances or by a short-circuit. In the absence of circuit breakers, the intense heat caused by high current could result in serious fire. If one or two breakers are tripped, the building still functions. One can run an extension cord from an outlet that is still working to where one is needed. It's not convenient but its much better than having just one breaker to protect the whole building.
     Like a modern building, we hypothesize that the human nervous system has a distributed 'graceful degradation'  mechanism that protects it from serious damage when overloaded. While we haven't as yet identified it in terms of anatomy or biochemistry, researchers can observe the very real negative physiological and mental effects of stressors on people over time, using measurable effects such as reaction time, anxiety, trust, anger memory, creativity, problem solving, skin resistance, EEG, blood pressure, and blood chemistry.
     The only way to correct dead circuits in the electrical system of a building is to remove any problems like short circuits and too many appliances plugged into a power outlet, then go to the breaker panel and reset all the tripped circuit breakers. The natural way,( actually the only way) in which we as humans can eliminate limitations int the human nervous system (our stresses) is to improve our life by removing at least the worst of the stressors. (for example, by getting treatment for a medical condition) then expsoe the nervous system to deep rest.''
   So, you can see that stress effects us negatively in many ways. We have to try to eliminate the worst of the stressors as best we can, for example-getting treatment for a medical condition or physical traumas to the body and getting our spine checked by a chiropractor for misalignments and taking pressure off of the nerves and then expose the nervous system to deep rest. We know the deep rest we gain through sleep is refreshing; there's no doubt it helps emliminate stress, but sometimes we can't sleep well due to circumstances.
What I ususally suggest to most all patients is 2-3 recumbant rest breaks per day for 12-15 minutes (late morning and late afternoon preferrably), and during this time we should attempt to close eyes, relax all body parts, be in as quiet a place as you can, clear your mind and breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth - extending the belly with air rather than the upper chest. Clear your mind as best you can. If you can't find time to do this twice a day then do it once - its quite refreshing.
Also, take a B-stress complex vitamin at least once a day -twice per day if you've been really over-stressed. These are vitamins that feed the nervous system positively.
Reduce stress in summary, by seeing a chiropractor, practicing recumbant rest breaks and deep breathing and add a stress B-complex vitamin each day. And do something that makes you smile! Until next time, be Well.