Understanding & Reducing Chronic Stress

 What Motivates or Drives You?  Are You as Healthy as you thought you would be at the age you are now?  Would you say your significant other would like to see you lose some weight?  Do you wake up everyday pain free and loving what you do?

“A critical shift in medicine has been the recognition that many of the damaging diseases of slow accumulation can either be caused or made far worse by stress.” -Robert M. Sapolsky, author of the critically acclaimed Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.

The wear and tear on your body as a result of anxiety, concern, or fatigue from a difficult or demanding situation.

 Job  Money  Relationships  Children  Junk food  Drugs

One of the worlds 1 st researchers on stress, Hans Selye, M.D., documented 3 stages a person goes through in response to stress.

 Alarm Phase: This is the body’s defense towards a flight or flight situation. ◦ Example: Walking up on a snake

 Resistance Stage: The body either adapts to the threat or successfully resists the stress and returns to normal.

 Exhaustion Stage: The body’s failure to return to normal in the resistance stage, due to prolonged stress, low resistance or mal function.

 Exhaustion causes the nervous system to secrete hormones  These hormones (adrenal hormones) cause the following problems: ◦ Loss of the ability to digest ◦ Decrease circulation to the heart ◦ Decrease immune system defenses by lowering the number of white blood cells ◦ Decrease oxygen to cells ◦ Increase risk of cancers

Z e b r a s don’t have chronic stresses like:  Mortgages  Unpaid Overtime  Being Accepted into a Good College  Traffic Jams  Paying Bills  Getting Sick

 Cortisol  Adrenaline  Norephinephrine Chronic stress is the major threat to humans. Chronic stress causes the increase in:

 Cortisol- increases blood sugar and stops immune response It’s now known that high levels of cortisol “take a toll on our bodies and can worsen inflammatory conditions such as colitis and eczema, as well as auto immune disorders like RA, lupus and MS,” says Dr. David Katz, MD, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center in New Haven, Connecticut.

 Adrenaline- stimulates heart muscles  Norephinephrine- constricts the blood vessels, decreasing oxygen to cells, slows gastrointestinal muscle contraction and increases heart activity.

 Headaches  Irritability  Sleep Disorders  Pain and tension in the neck  Allergies & Sinus issues  Fatigue, Insomnia & Digestive issues  Tension HA  Decrease Immune System  IBS & Constipation ◦ Stress also makes muscles tight, causing people to be tense and restricted in range of motion

These tests are simple ways to show you that your body is breaking down due to stress and that you need to take action to live a healthier life.

 Test #1: Turn your head to the right then left. You should be able to do this test freely with no tension or discomfort noted.

 Test #2: Stand up and try to touch your toes without bending your knees.

 Test #3: Test for trigger points. Touch or grab these locations to see if you have tenderness.

When you find tenderness in any of these points it indicates a local nerve is irritated. Low Back (erectors)Neck (suboccip)Shoulders (traps)

Have you ever had a pebble in your shoe? The pebble is irritating a nerve. Nerves are very sensitive, so you stop and remove the pebble or irritation.

A minor irritation to a spinal nerve not only can cause tension, pain and numbness, but all of the stress symptoms as well.

Chiropractors gently and without pain, remove irritation on spinal nerves by using their hands to reduce the tension and distortion.

Stress is going to attack areas of the body that have been predisposed to weakness.

A person with a damaged neck with stress gets headaches. A person with a weak lumbar under stress gets back pain, circulation problems, menstrual problems or even colitis.

Trauma to the spine and nervous system as a child create areas of weakness which show up in an adult with the onset of stress.

 Exercise: engage in some form of exercise or relaxation daily. Take a walk and get fresh air and sunlight (You owe yourself)!  Laugh: Laugh! Laughter has been clinically proven to quickly reduce cortisol while at the same time releasing endorphins, which are in the same chemical family as opiates, heroin, morphine and natural painkillers. “Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.” -Arnold Glasow

Natural Ways Of Reducing Stress with Alternative Medicine  Lifestyle changes to allow for more sleep  Healthy diet  Taking vitamins  Massage  Breathing exercises  Progressive relaxation  Meditation  Yoga  Chiropractic care

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“The longest journey begins with the very first step.” Confucis

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THE BEGINNING