One thing is sure in modern societies: no one escapes stress. Old, young, active or sedentary, rich or poor, stress affects us all. At no time in history has a people been so stressed as we are today. Life is so fast paced, and complicated that stress levels rise faster than gas prices! This is especially true of America where stress is the common factor that unites us! We are all stressed. Like soldiers would say, we all “spill the same blood in the same mud”!
In these United States stress is everywhere: bills piling up, taxes, looming deadlines, long to-do lists, computer crashes, rude/obnoxious people, bad bosses, incompetent drivers, bad/computerized customer service, cigarette butt flickers, traffic, bumper stickers, annoying commercials, the news, missing car keys, shredded pay checks, pests in the home, malfunctioning appliances/devices, car troubles, drop-calls, flat tires, the list is endless.
Before you get all rankled and yell out obscenities that do no good, you must understand the mechanism of stress so you can better handle it.
How & Why
Stress affects us
Stress is a natural response designed to protect us. Yes, contrary to popular belief stress is not intended for harm. It is a biological response designed to sharpen the senses, heighten alertness, and prompt reflex actions during life-threatening situations. You see, without stress we would be extinct by now.
Our forefathers needed the stress response to flee sudden attacks from savage beasts. It is what prompts the Bushmen to climb up trees faster than a hungry lion can catch them! If you have ever had a close call in traffic, like hitting the brakes suddenly by reflex action, it is the stress hormones that enabled you act without thinking- saving you from harm.
When the brain perceives imminent danger, it signals the body to secrete stress hormones to speed the heart rate, breathing, and sweating. In other words, it prompts into action only the systems pertinent to survival like the respiratory, nervous, circulatory, skeletal and muscular systems. Survival in such a case is key. Like I always say, the body’s primary mission is protection.
When those systems are activated, the brain also halts other systems not relevant to immediate survival such as the reproductive system, the excretory, immune, digestive, and urinary systems. Translation: blood flow to these areas is inhibited and redirected to the areas it is needed to enable the body escape danger. That means diminished performance of these systems.
That is why America is plagued with health problems related to the body systems not involved in escaping danger such as indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), acid reflux, constipation, erectile dysfunction, low sex drives, colds, infections, insomnia, and restless leg syndrome (RLS). Indeed stress is made in America!
Cheering for your team may impact nerves
Note that the way you feel when you narrowly escape an accident is the same as when your team scores a winning goal at the last minute of a soccer game. The difference is perception: the accident is perceived as danger (rightfully so), while the goal is perceived as victory, leading to excitement and joy. Not so for the fans of the defeated team, mind you!
In other words, the body does not differentiate between the victory felt by one fan, and defeat felt by the other. That is why they both exhibit similar “stress” responses after the game, such as not feeling hungry. If the stress is prolonged indigestion or acid reflux may develop.
Prolonged stress or chronic stress feeds off of the body’s raw materials. Chronic stress requires a lot of energy to run the systems that are functioning at higher levels. Since our cells run on energy, stress leaves us drained at the end of the day. It puts a lot of pressure on our cells and organs such as the adrenal and pituitary glands. It wears them out.
Chronic stress may lead to elevated blood pressure and heart rate and risk cardiovascular diseases. Stress response also obstructs immune function leaving us susceptible to colds, allergies, infections, and other more serious immune diseases like cancer.
Did u know?
Most heart attacks happen on Monday morning. Medical research has shown that heart attacks are stress induced: stress inflames the lining of arterial walls. After a weekend of unwinding and relaxation, most heart attack sufferers stress suddenly about going back to work on Monday (deadlines, new projects or bosses, fear of losing job, etc). This causes heavy inflammation on the arteries, leading to poor circulation to the heart resulting in heart attacks.
It is not whether we stress or not, it is how we handle stress that matter. Two things are important when dealing with stress: duration and perception.
The longer you stay stressed; the greater the damage to your body. Our forefathers (cavemen) stressed, the Bushmen also stress too. But only for brief periods of time. After they escape a shark attack, they return home and are fine. We, on the other hand, are bombarded with one stress after another, all day long. We even stress in our sleep!
Perception is one thing that makes all the difference in life. We have to teach our brains to decipher between life-threatening and non life-threatening. Our perception of stress can dictate how the stress affects us, or rather how we deal with the stress.
One guy may be really stressed but still thrives, while the other may make up his own stress and suffer adverse effects. A CEO may be much stressed, but is fine because his company is doing very well (he perceives the stress as success) and so embraces it. The other guy may be watching the news in his living room all day and stress himself worrying or being angry or afraid and so suffers some health challenges due to prolonged feelings of stress.
Back to our soccer game analogy: one fan experiences victory and so sleeps soundly that night; the other fan whose team was defeated does not sleep for the same reason. No doubt they both felt differently about the game!
Bottom line:
Stress is not the enemy; it is a part of life. How we deal with stress is what matters to our health and fitness.