Stress is Making You Sick

It’s no mystery that stress will destroy your health.

It is well known that stress is a major factor in nearly every degenerative disease in America…and we bury ourselves in it every day.

Not many people know, however, exactly how stress will destroy your body. The process will both shock and alarm you.

The Stress Response

I’m sure you’ve heard of the “fight-or-flight” response (also called the stress response) at some point in your life. It is a natural and healthy reaction to sudden threats.

Let’s say you’re down by the river fishing and off in the distance you see a drooling tiger creeping toward you. Some very specific and necessary things happen in your body to prepare you to either run away or defend yourself.

• Your heart rate and blood pressure increase.
• Sugar stores are broken down for energy.
• Adrenaline and other stress hormones are dumped into your bloodstream.
• Digestion ceases.
• Your immune system shuts down. (After all, who needs to be able to fight off a cold when you are about to become lunch?)

Once the stress is removed, such as when the tiger catches up with your little sister instead of you, the stress response will cease and the body will return to normal. This process is absolutely necessary to our survival.

The stress response is the same whether you are in physical danger, under emotional strain (worry, fear, anxiety), or toxic assault (unhealthy food, cigarettes, drugs).

When a person is under constant physical, mental, environmental, and social stress however (like we are these days), the body is never able to shut off the stress response and it will destroy your health.

• Blood pressure stays high.
• The immune system remains shut down.
• Stress hormones remain in the bloodstream, etc.
• High sugar level remain in the blood.

Over time, these altered levels of function become the norm as the body adapts to them.

Major Health Killers

What are the major killers in our society?

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• And the drugs prescribed to treat them (The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that an estimated 220,000 deaths per year can be attributed to properly prescribed drugs!)

What are the major chronic health problems?

• Depression
• Obesity
• Anxiety
• Fatigue
• Chronic pain
• Osteoporosis
• Fibromyalgia
• Lack of sleep
• Decreased sex drive
• Decreased fertility
• Indigestion
• Accelerated aging
• ADHD

These are virtually all preventable issues!!!

Many cancer journals admit that nearly all cancers are preventable! They are all lifestyle and immune function related.

They are illnesses of stress and lifestyle.

Effects of Stress on Health

What is the medical response to all these problems? Drugs and surgery.

We are committing suicide by our sedentary lifestyles and by what we eat, think about, drink, and smoke, and using drugs to cover up the way in which our bodies naturally respond to the assault!

The following is a break-down of the stress response as it occurs in the body. See if you recognize any of these so-called “diseases” which are actually natural effects of stress:

1. Increased Cortisol

You’ve heard about cortisol from TV weight loss commercials.

It is true that cortisol is released when you are under stress and leads to weight gain. Over a prolonged period, increased cortisol also leads to type 2 diabetes, immune deficiency, and decreased bone density (osteoporosis).

2. Increased Stress Hormones (catecholamines)

These act on the heart to increase your heart rate when the fight-or-flight response is triggered. Along with vasoconstriction (tightening of the blood vessels), stress hormones like adrenalin will increase blood pressure.

Stress hormones also inhibit factual learning, memory, and the ability to focus (can you say ADHD?)

3. Increased Blood Sugar Levels

4. Drop in Seratonin

Along with an increase in adrenalin, this will cause:

• Depression
• Irritability
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Tension headaches
• Decreased sex drive
• Changes in appetite
• More rapid aging

5. Increased Fat (lipids) in the Blood

6. Increased Cholesterol in the Blood

7. Insulin Resistance

This topic is so huge I wrote an eBook about it.

8. Increased Sensitivity to Pain

Increased heart rate and blood pressure, along with increased fatty acids and blood sugar, is heart disease and stroke just waiting to happen.

Add a depressed immune system and the effects of cortisol and virtually every major health issue in America has been addressed here.

Reversing the Destructive Effects of Stress

• Eat natural food. The further it gets from the way nature made it, the worse it is for you.
• Get rigorous exercise EVERY DAY. Your body produces chemicals and hormones you NEED to be healthy that it DOES NOT produce when you don’t exercise.
• Drink clean water. Don’t EVER drink water from the tap. Distilled water or water purified by reverse osmosis is best.
• Supplement your diet. Raw fruits and vegetables help reverse damage to your cells.
• Spend time every day in prayer or meditation. You will be amazed at what fifteen minutes of relaxation will do to your mental and physical health.
• Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep will depress your immune system.
• STOP consuming toxins! Everything you put into your body that is not made by nature is a poison to your system.
• Be positive. Studies prove that happy people get sick much less often than unhappy people.
• Instead of asking what you must do to treat your symptoms and diseases, ask instead what you must do to INCREASE health. This one question alone will take you in the right direction.

This topic is a complex one, but hopefully now you understand how stress will destroy your health.

Take the necessaary steps to eliminate as much of it as you can.