What is Stress and What Does it Do to You?
Stress can be defined as the body’s response to any demand. Since modern life is so demanding, I think it’s safe to say that stress affects everyone. According to a 2001 article in Healthy & Natural Journal, 70-80% of all doctor visits are for stress-related conditions and 50% of all illness is directly caused by stress. Stress clearly has a big influence on our health and wellbeing, so I want to make you aware of the different types of stress you face so that you can better manage it.
Mental and Emotional Stress
Everyday life is punctuated by deadlines at work, bills to pay, traffic on your daily commute, conflicts with friends or family, the horrors on the nightly news, noisy neighbors, and car trouble. These common situations cause what most people think of as stress, the sort that makes us worried, blue, or irritated. Much of this kind of stress relates to how we think about or perceive things. That’s known as mental and emotional stress.
Biomechanical Stress
In addition to the mental and emotional stress we are so familiar with, our bodies also experience biomechanical stress. That is stress on the muscles, connective tissue and bones of your body. Examples of biomechanical stress include being injured or working out too hard. A tight neck from hunching over your keyboard all day is biomechanical stress, as is a sprained ankle. This kind of stress can certainly also cause mental and emotional stress. Have you ever worried about getting everything done when you have gotten hurt? And worrying about your deadline at work might also lead to that tight neck. So we see that types of stress are related to each other.
Biochemical Stress
A third type of stress is biochemical, or physiological stress. That most often occurs at the level of our cells and organs. Our cells and organs are amazing at doing their jobs but sometimes these biochemical stressors make it harder for them to function at their best. Biochemical stress may result from excessive alcohol, caffeine, and sugar consumption, as well as illness, exposure to toxic chemicals, and poor eating habits. There is a growing scientific field that examines how bacteria and other microorganisms living in our guts, our microbiome, affect our health. If this is out of balance it may lead to biochemical stress as well.
Eustress
This last type of stress literally means “good stress.” Reed Davis, founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, says, “Eustress is what makes a butterfly emerge from its cocoon.” It is the stress that makes us stronger and more fit as we exercise and that makes our brains develop new pathways as we learn. There is a stress response when we are very happy or excited such as winning a prize. While some of the physiological effects of all stress occur from eustress, we tend to recover very quickly from them.
The Stress Response
As we see, not all stress is bad for us. Eustress is what allows us to grow and change. In fact, our body’s reaction to distress can be protective or even life saving. All animals experience what is called the stress response. That is a sudden and involuntary response to anything perceived as dangerous, such as being chased by a wild animal or being in a traffic accident. Neurotransmitters and hormones flood our bodies to prepare us to run away from or fight off danger. You may have heard of the “flight or fight response.” That is the stress response. Your heart beats faster, your muscles tense up for activity, and even your circulation changes so more blood flows to your brain, arms and legs. If you are in a dangerous situation, you very much want to experience the stress response! Problems occur when stress becomes chronic,
Chronic Stress
When a deer runs away from a wolf, once the deer is safe she just shakes it off and goes back to browsing for tender grass. She doesn’t stay up all night worrying about whether the wolf will come back tomorrow.
While the changes that occur in response to stress benefit us in the short run, they may harm us if we are in that state too much of the time. In addition to preparing us to run or fight, the stress response reduces blood flow to our internal organs, keeps us from sleeping, and prevents us from digesting our food properly. No wonder stressed-out people have poor digestion and complain of trouble sleeping! Because so many people experience stress so often, and so many stressful situations of modern life are on-going, it is often difficult for people to shift from the stress response to what is called the relaxation response. That is when we rest and recover.
What Chronic Stress Does to Your Health
According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), people under chronic stress are prone to more frequent and severe viral infections, such as the ‘flu or common cold. Vaccines are also less effective for people under stress because of the effects of stress on the immune system. Without the signal to return to rest and recovery, the strain on the body from chronic stress can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, headaches, depression and other disorders.
What You Can Do About Stress?
There is no way to remove all stress from your life, and as I showed, you wouldn’t want to. It’s important to do things to help you to enter the rest and recovery phase after stressful situations.
- I have found that acupuncture can induce the relaxation response quite rapidly in most people, despite the use of needles.
- Many people benefit from psychotherapy or life coaching to help learn to manage their stress.
- A daily mindfulness practice such as meditation can do so much to manage chronic stress, and Grokker offers so many great resources for that. Check out the guided meditations from Davidji or Mark Coleman. It’s important to know that what helps is the daily practice so get started now!
- In addition to a regular mindfulness practice be sure to get regular exercise.
Learn to recognize how you respond to stress. Do you have trouble sleeping, feel on edge, get tight muscles, abuse substances or food, or feel tired? If you recognize the signs you will know to take action.
Stress can be defined as the body’s response to any demand. Since modern life is so demanding, I think it’s safe to say that stress affects everyone. According to a 2001 article in Healthy & Natural Journal, 70-80% of all doctor visits are for stress-related conditions and 50% of all illness is directly caused by stress. Stress clearly has a big influence on our health and wellbeing, so I want to make you aware of the different types of stress you face so that you can better manage it.
Mental and Emotional Stress
Everyday life is punctuated by deadlines at work, bills to pay, traffic on your daily commute, conflicts with friends or family, the horrors on the nightly news, noisy neighbors, and car trouble. These common situations cause what most people think of as stress, the sort that makes us worried, blue, or irritated. Much of this kind of stress relates to how we think about or perceive things. That’s known as mental and emotional stress.
Biomechanical Stress
In addition to the mental and emotional stress we are so familiar with, our bodies also experience biomechanical stress. That is stress on the muscles, connective tissue and bones of your body. Examples of biomechanical stress include being injured or working out too hard. A tight neck from hunching over your keyboard all day is biomechanical stress, as is a sprained ankle. This kind of stress can certainly also cause mental and emotional stress. Have you ever worried about getting everything done when you have gotten hurt? And worrying about your deadline at work might also lead to that tight neck. So we see that types of stress are related to each other.
Biochemical Stress
A third type of stress is biochemical, or physiological stress. That most often occurs at the level of our cells and organs. Our cells and organs are amazing at doing their jobs but sometimes these biochemical stressors make it harder for them to function at their best. Biochemical stress may result from excessive alcohol, caffeine, and sugar consumption, as well as illness, exposure to toxic chemicals, and poor eating habits. There is a growing scientific field that examines how bacteria and other microorganisms living in our guts, our microbiome, affect our health. If this is out of balance it may lead to biochemical stress as well.
Eustress
This last type of stress literally means “good stress.” Reed Davis, founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, says, “Eustress is what makes a butterfly emerge from its cocoon.” It is the stress that makes us stronger and more fit as we exercise and that makes our brains develop new pathways as we learn. There is a stress response when we are very happy or excited such as winning a prize. While some of the physiological effects of all stress occur from eustress, we tend to recover very quickly from them.
The Stress Response
As we see, not all stress is bad for us. Eustress is what allows us to grow and change. In fact, our body’s reaction to distress can be protective or even life saving. All animals experience what is called the stress response. That is a sudden and involuntary response to anything perceived as dangerous, such as being chased by a wild animal or being in a traffic accident. Neurotransmitters and hormones flood our bodies to prepare us to run away from or fight off danger. You may have heard of the “flight or fight response.” That is the stress response. Your heart beats faster, your muscles tense up for activity, and even your circulation changes so more blood flows to your brain, arms and legs. If you are in a dangerous situation, you very much want to experience the stress response! Problems occur when stress becomes chronic,
Chronic Stress
When a deer runs away from a wolf, once the deer is safe she just shakes it off and goes back to browsing for tender grass. She doesn’t stay up all night worrying about whether the wolf will come back tomorrow.
While the changes that occur in response to stress benefit us in the short run, they may harm us if we are in that state too much of the time. In addition to preparing us to run or fight, the stress response reduces blood flow to our internal organs, keeps us from sleeping, and prevents us from digesting our food properly. No wonder stressed-out people have poor digestion and complain of trouble sleeping! Because so many people experience stress so often, and so many stressful situations of modern life are on-going, it is often difficult for people to shift from the stress response to what is called the relaxation response. That is when we rest and recover.
What Chronic Stress Does to Your Health
According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), people under chronic stress are prone to more frequent and severe viral infections, such as the ‘flu or common cold. Vaccines are also less effective for people under stress because of the effects of stress on the immune system. Without the signal to return to rest and recovery, the strain on the body from chronic stress can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, headaches, depression and other disorders.
What You Can Do About Stress?
There is no way to remove all stress from your life, and as I showed, you wouldn’t want to. It’s important to do things to help you to enter the rest and recovery phase after stressful situations.
- I have found that acupuncture can induce the relaxation response quite rapidly in most people, despite the use of needles.
- Many people benefit from psychotherapy or life coaching to help learn to manage their stress.
- A daily mindfulness practice such as meditation can do so much to manage chronic stress, and Grokker offers so many great resources for that. Check out the guided meditations from Davidji or Mark Coleman. It’s important to know that what helps is the daily practice so get started now!
- In addition to a regular mindfulness practice be sure to get regular exercise.
Learn to recognize how you respond to stress. Do you have trouble sleeping, feel on edge, get tight muscles, abuse substances or food, or feel tired? If you recognize the signs you will know to take action.
Stress can be defined as the body’s response to any demand. Since modern life is so demanding, I think it’s safe to say that stress affects everyone. According to a 2001 article in Healthy & Natural Journal, 70-80% of all doctor visits are for stress-related conditions and 50% of all illness is directly caused by stress. Stress clearly has a big influence on our health and wellbeing, so I want to make you aware of the different types of stress you face so that you can better manage it.
Mental and Emotional Stress
Everyday life is punctuated by deadlines at work, bills to pay, traffic on your daily commute, conflicts with friends or family, the horrors on the nightly news, noisy neighbors, and car trouble. These common situations cause what most people think of as stress, the sort that makes us worried, blue, or irritated. Much of this kind of stress relates to how we think about or perceive things. That’s known as mental and emotional stress.
Biomechanical Stress
In addition to the mental and emotional stress we are so familiar with, our bodies also experience biomechanical stress. That is stress on the muscles, connective tissue and bones of your body. Examples of biomechanical stress include being injured or working out too hard. A tight neck from hunching over your keyboard all day is biomechanical stress, as is a sprained ankle. This kind of stress can certainly also cause mental and emotional stress. Have you ever worried about getting everything done when you have gotten hurt? And worrying about your deadline at work might also lead to that tight neck. So we see that types of stress are related to each other.
Biochemical Stress
A third type of stress is biochemical, or physiological stress. That most often occurs at the level of our cells and organs. Our cells and organs are amazing at doing their jobs but sometimes these biochemical stressors make it harder for them to function at their best. Biochemical stress may result from excessive alcohol, caffeine, and sugar consumption, as well as illness, exposure to toxic chemicals, and poor eating habits. There is a growing scientific field that examines how bacteria and other microorganisms living in our guts, our microbiome, affect our health. If this is out of balance it may lead to biochemical stress as well.
Eustress
This last type of stress literally means “good stress.” Reed Davis, founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, says, “Eustress is what makes a butterfly emerge from its cocoon.” It is the stress that makes us stronger and more fit as we exercise and that makes our brains develop new pathways as we learn. There is a stress response when we are very happy or excited such as winning a prize. While some of the physiological effects of all stress occur from eustress, we tend to recover very quickly from them.
The Stress Response
As we see, not all stress is bad for us. Eustress is what allows us to grow and change. In fact, our body’s reaction to distress can be protective or even life saving. All animals experience what is called the stress response. That is a sudden and involuntary response to anything perceived as dangerous, such as being chased by a wild animal or being in a traffic accident. Neurotransmitters and hormones flood our bodies to prepare us to run away from or fight off danger. You may have heard of the “flight or fight response.” That is the stress response. Your heart beats faster, your muscles tense up for activity, and even your circulation changes so more blood flows to your brain, arms and legs. If you are in a dangerous situation, you very much want to experience the stress response! Problems occur when stress becomes chronic,
Chronic Stress
When a deer runs away from a wolf, once the deer is safe she just shakes it off and goes back to browsing for tender grass. She doesn’t stay up all night worrying about whether the wolf will come back tomorrow.
While the changes that occur in response to stress benefit us in the short run, they may harm us if we are in that state too much of the time. In addition to preparing us to run or fight, the stress response reduces blood flow to our internal organs, keeps us from sleeping, and prevents us from digesting our food properly. No wonder stressed-out people have poor digestion and complain of trouble sleeping! Because so many people experience stress so often, and so many stressful situations of modern life are on-going, it is often difficult for people to shift from the stress response to what is called the relaxation response. That is when we rest and recover.
What Chronic Stress Does to Your Health
According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), people under chronic stress are prone to more frequent and severe viral infections, such as the ‘flu or common cold. Vaccines are also less effective for people under stress because of the effects of stress on the immune system. Without the signal to return to rest and recovery, the strain on the body from chronic stress can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, headaches, depression and other disorders.What You Can Do About Stress?
There is no way to remove all stress from your life, and as I showed, you wouldn’t want to. It’s important to do things to help you to enter the rest and recovery phase after stressful situations.
- I have found that acupuncture can induce the relaxation response quite rapidly in most people, despite the use of needles.
- Many people benefit from psychotherapy or life coaching to help learn to manage their stress.
- A daily mindfulness practice such as meditation can do so much to manage chronic stress, and Grokker offers so many great resources for that. Check out the guided meditations from Davidji or Mark Coleman. It’s important to know that what helps is the daily practice so get started now!
- In addition to a regular mindfulness practice be sure to get regular exercise.
Learn to recognize how you respond to stress. Do you have trouble sleeping, feel on edge, get tight muscles, abuse substances or food, or feel tired? If you recognize the signs you will know to take action.