Physical and mental stress can overwhelm the mind and body to cause poor health and disease
A person's stress response describes the condition caused by a reaction to physical, chemical, emotional or environmental factors. The general concept of stress is “loading” the body's internal organs including the central nervous, endocrine (hormone), respiratory, cardiovascular, and immune systems. When we experience or feel stress, our bodies respond by stimulating the hormonal glands throughout our body to release hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.
Contemporary stress tends to be more pervasive, persistent and dangerous because it stems primarily from psychological rather than physical threats. Repeatedly invoked, it is not hard to see how stress can contribute to hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, ulcers, neck or low back pain and other "Diseases of Civilization". In the United States we call these diseases “stress” related and in other countries, they call them “Diseases of Adaptation”. All told, the physical symptoms of stress and pursuit of stress relief cost the United States an estimated $200 billion a year.
Acute and chronic stress can be an immediate health threat
Acute stress is the reaction to an immediate threat, commonly known as the fight or flight response. Common acute stressors include noise, crowding, isolation, hunger, danger, infection, and imagining a threat or remembering a dangerous event. Stress responses become inactivated and levels of stress hormones return to normal when the acute threat has passed.
Internal body responses to acute stress include:
- Breathing becomes rapid and lungs take in more oxygen
- Blood flow can increase 300-400% priming the muscles and brain for demand
- Spleen discharges red and white blood cells allowing more oxygen transport
- Hormones dampen immune system so white blood cells can be redistributed
- Immune system boosted for injury, infection at skin, bone marrow and lymphs
- Blood diverted from mouth and throat
- Blood diverted from skin causing cool, clammy, sweaty skin
- Digestive system shuts down for short periods of time
Modern life poses on-going stressful situations that are not short-lived and the urge to act (fight or flee) must be suppressed. Stress, then, becomes chronic. Common chronic stressors include on-going highly pressured work, long-term relationship problems, loneliness, and persistent financial worries.
Stress creates an out of balance body condition
When stress puts the body out of balance, our bodies go through a series of actions (stress response) to help the body regain its balance and find relief from stress. The struggle to maintain this balance is known as the general adaptation syndrome . It is the body's way of reacting to a stress and to bring the body's system back in balance.
Phase one of the response is termed the alarm phase, characterized by an immediate activation of the nervous system and adrenal glands. Next comes the phase of resistance , which is characterized by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is the coordinated system of the three primary endocrine tissues (glands) that manage our response to stress providing stress relief.
The HPA axis is a major part of the neuroendocrine system that controls reactions to stress, provides stress relief, and has important functions in regulating various body processes such as digestion, the immune system and energy usage. Species from humans to the most ancient organisms share components of the HPA axis. It is the mechanism for a set of interactions among glands, hormones and parts of the mid-brain that mediate a general adaptation syndrome.
Small increases of cortisol have some positive effects including bursts of energy for survival reasons, heightened memory functions, bursts of increased immunity and lower sensitivity to pain.
The problem occurs when we ask our body to react too often or with excessive resistance – both of which can lead to elevated cortisol levels, causing stress and increasing the risk of disease. When stress is repeated, or constant, cortisol levels increase and stay elevated – causing a third phase of the general adaptation syndrome that is appropriately referred to as overload . In the overload stage, body systems start to break down and the risk of chronic disease increases significantly.
Beware of the damaging signs of stress
Physical signs and symptoms of stress include: increased heart rate; pounding heart; elevated blood pressure; tightening of the chest, neck, jaw and back muscles; sweaty palms; headache; diarrhea; constipation; urinary dysfunction; trembling, twitching; stuttering and other speech difficulties; nausea; vomiting; sleep disturbances; fatigue; fibromyalgia; shallow breathing; dryness of the mouth or throat; susceptibility to minor illness; cold hands; itching; and chronic pain. Physiological, prescription medications and natural remedies can provide stress relief under conditions of physical stress.
Emotional signs and symptoms of stress, include irritability, angry outbursts, hostility, depression, jealously, restlessness, withdrawal, anxiousness, diminished initiative, feelings of unreality, hyper alertness, reduction of personal involvement with others, lack of interest, tendency to cry, being critical of others, self-deprecation, nightmares, impatience, decreased perception of positive experience opportunities, narrowed focus, compulsive thoughts, reduced self-esteem, insomnia, changes in eating habits and weakened positive emotional response reflexes. Psychological, prescription medications and natural remedies can provide stress relief for emotional stress.
Cognitive or perceptual signs and symptoms of stress, include forgetfulness, preoccupation, blocking, blurred vision, errors in judging distance, diminished or exaggerated fantasy life, reduced creativity, lack of concentration, diminished productivity, lack of attention to detail, orientation to the past, decreased psychomotor reactivity and coordination, attention deficit, disorganization of thought, negative self-esteem, diminished sense of meaning in life, poor self esteem, lack of control or need for too much control, negative self-statements and negative evaluation of experiences Psychological, prescription medications and natural remedies can provide stress relief for emotional stress.
Behavioral signs and symptoms of stress, include increased smoking, aggressive behaviors (such as driving), increased alcohol or drug use, carelessness, under-eating, over-eating, withdrawal, listlessness, hostility, accident-proneness, nervous laughter, compulsive behavior and impatience. These behavioral symptoms can provide temporary stress relief, lead to poor health conditions and life-threatening diseases.
Natural remedy can provide long term stress relief
Adaptogens work through the adrenal glands to produce adjustments in the body to provide an increased resistance to stress. Adaptogens have been scrutinized over the past 50 years in the former Soviet Union and Europe by more than 1,200 scientists, 3,000 efficacy studies and thousands of research papers involving over 500,000 people worldwide. Despite many legends and thousands of years of utilization of these plants by many generations of people in China, Russia, Japan, Korea and finally in Europe, the effectiveness of these herbs has been confirmed by the international scientific community and is now available for stress relief in the United States.
Millions of everyday people around the world who suffer from anxiety, obesity, depression, sleep deprivation, high blood pressure, immune system deficiencies, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, ulcers have been taking adaptogens for decades. They experienced significant stress relief as well as positive health results, evidenced by a dramatic broad spectrum of benefits including greater endurance, and faster and better recovery from illness and disease.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
VitaLife is an all natural remedy that can help eliminate the damaging effects of
stress and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.