Stress is one of the top complaints of old and young people. Many are also allowing their minds to bully their bodies into believing it must carry the burden of the worries.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to understand how your body response to stress. Ignorance is not bliss.
When your mind perceives a real or imaginary stressor, the cerebral cortex, the region of the brain that interprets the nature of an event, triggers an automatic nervous system (ANS) response that prepares the body for action. The ANS is the portion of the central nervous system that regulates body functions that we do not normally consciously control, such as heart and glandular functions and breathing.
See the attached figure on the complex series of the body's involuntary physiological responses to exposure of stress of any kind.
Prolonged stress will lead to allostatic load, or exhaustive wear and tear on the body. The physical and emotional energy used to fight a stressor have been depleted.
As the body adjusts to chronic unresolved stress, the adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, continue to release cortisol, the primary stress hormone. It remains in the bloodstream for longer periods of time as a result of slower metabolic responsiveness.
Cortisol, released in response to fear or stress, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues as part of the fight-or-flight mechanism.
Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.
While it is vital to health for the adrenals to secret more cortisol in response to stress, it is also very important that bodily functions and cortisol levels return to normal following a stressful event.
Unfortunately, in our current high-stress culture, the stress response is activated so often that the body does not always have a chance to return to normal. This leads to health problems resulting from too much circulating cortisol and/or from too little cortisol if the adrenal glands become chronically fatigued (adrenal fatigue).
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
Higher and more prolonged levels of circulating cortisol have been shown to have negative effects, such as:
Therefore, it is worthwhile to understand how your body response to stress. Ignorance is not bliss.
When your mind perceives a real or imaginary stressor, the cerebral cortex, the region of the brain that interprets the nature of an event, triggers an automatic nervous system (ANS) response that prepares the body for action. The ANS is the portion of the central nervous system that regulates body functions that we do not normally consciously control, such as heart and glandular functions and breathing.
Prolonged stress will lead to allostatic load, or exhaustive wear and tear on the body. The physical and emotional energy used to fight a stressor have been depleted.
As the body adjusts to chronic unresolved stress, the adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, continue to release cortisol, the primary stress hormone. It remains in the bloodstream for longer periods of time as a result of slower metabolic responsiveness.
Cortisol, released in response to fear or stress, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues as part of the fight-or-flight mechanism.
Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.
While it is vital to health for the adrenals to secret more cortisol in response to stress, it is also very important that bodily functions and cortisol levels return to normal following a stressful event.
Unfortunately, in our current high-stress culture, the stress response is activated so often that the body does not always have a chance to return to normal. This leads to health problems resulting from too much circulating cortisol and/or from too little cortisol if the adrenal glands become chronically fatigued (adrenal fatigue).
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
Higher and more prolonged levels of circulating cortisol have been shown to have negative effects, such as:
- Impaired cognitive performance
- Dampened thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances, such as hyperglycemia
- Decreased bone density
- Sleep disruption
- Decreased muscle mass
- Elevated blood pressure
- Lowered immune function
- Slow wound healing
- Increased abdominal fat, which has a stronger correlation to certain health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Some of the health problems associated with increased stomach fat are heart attacks, strokes, higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL), which can lead to other health problems.
- Brain fog, cloudy-headedness and mild depression
- Low thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances, such as hypoglycemia
- Fatigue – especially morning and mid-afternoon fatigue
- Sleep disruption
- Low blood pressure
- Lowered immune function
- Inflammation
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