CAUTION! Stress Can Cause Serious Long-Term Effects…(Part 1)

Your car breaks down. The baby is sick. You have a deadline at work. Taxes are due. You’ve just been given more responsibility at work. You or your spouse has just lost a job. Finances are tight. Your email inbox is overflowing and your cell phone is full of voicemails.

The list goes on. It is these little things, and big things, that cause us stress and anxiety everyday. And numerous surveys and studies confirm that occupational pressures and fears are far and away the leading source of stress for American adults

What happens to your body under stress?

When the body is put under stress it naturally moves into a ‘fight or flight’ state, secreting the hormone
cortisol. Small increases of cortisol have some positive effects - a quick burst of energy for survival reasons, heightened memory functions, lower sensitivity to pain, helps maintain homeostasis in the body, etc.

While these effects of cortisol are important and helpful for the body in response to stress, it is then critical that the body’s ‘relaxation response’ be activated in order for your functions to return to normal after a stressful event. However, in our current fast-paced, high-stress culture, the body’s stress response is activiated so often that it doesn’t always have the chance to return to normal - resulting in a state of chronic stress.

It is this persistent chronic state of stress that leads us beyond the short-term effects of stress to serious long-term health issues.

Stress is America’s Number 1 Health Problem!

(Continued Next…Part 2)

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