The Impact of Stress

     Your body reacts unconsciously to situations that you find threatening.  The body's emergency stress response primes you for "fight or flight" by causing certain physiological changes to take place.  As the stress response is set in motion your body produces additional adrenaline.  Your heart beats faster.  More blood flows into the larger muscles.  Your breathing becomes shallow and you start to perspire.  The functioning of your immune system and your digestive system are inhibited and the flow of blood is decreased to your extremities and internal organs.

     Ideally, this defensive reaction will subside once the threatening situation is resolved, allowing your body to return to normal.  However, if you experience frequent or unrelenting stress, you might remain locked into a pattern of stress response, unable to relax or let go.  This can cause imbalance in your body functions, sometimes leading to discomfort or pain, and is a contributing factor in many disease processes.

     The adverse effects of stress can manifest themselves as hypertension (high blood pressure), changes in blood sugar, ulcers, headaches, colitis and heart disease.  Accumulated stress and tension always diminish your energy and vitality and can spoil much of the pleasure and productivity you find in life.

     The stress that we must deal with today tends to be more pervasive, persistent and insidious because it stems primarily from psychological rather than physical threats.  We are living in a time in which there are many studies that explore the mind/body connection.  The acute response to stress can save your life, but chronic stress can accelerate the onset of diseases and psychiatric disorders from infancy to old age.  Reports have revealed that 90% of all illnesses have a stress related component associated with the illness, and research has identified the inter-dependence of our minds and our bodies.