What Happens When Any Form of Stress Impacts Your Life?

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What happens when any form of Stress impacts your life?

Stage 1: Alarm Reaction known as 'fight or flight'. In this stage your bodyis geared to ward off the impacting stress which could be anything or anyone,including our loved ones, any pressures for our time, money or love andchallenges to our identity in any way.In this stage, the body is alarmed by the stressors and mounts an aggressiveanti-stress response to reduce stress levels. Some doctors call this the Early Fatigue stage.Stage 2: Resistance Response. This is where the stress goes for some days, weeks, even months. In this hypervigilant state, the body is resisting theongoing stress but at the expense of the adrenal glands over-pumping the stress hormones.Stage 3: Exhaustion. When the resistance stage goes on for longer than the body can physically cope with, exhaustion sets in after one or two years. Inthis stage, people normally start to experience Fibromyalgia, aches/pains,back-ache, muscle tension, severely suppressed immune system and muscle weakness. Many experience sluggishness and weight gain.Stage 4: Failure. After a couple of years of over-pumping stress hormones daily, eventually, the adrenal glands become totally exhausted. People at this

stage have a high chance of cardiovascular collapse, nervous breakdown, and according to Dr. Selye -- total collapse, even death.To understand how and why Chronic Fatigue happens to us, we need a basic understanding of the functions of the adrenal glands. These are walnut-sized

glands located on top of each kidney. Their purpose is to help the body dealwith stress and help us to survive.Adrenals are important control centers for many of the body's hormones. Theouter layer of the gland, called the adrenal cortex, produces hormones including

cortisol, DHEA, estrogen and testosterone. The centers of the glands produceadrenaline, the hormone named after them.The basic task of your adrenal glands is to rush all your body's resources into 'fight or flight' mode by increasing production of adrenaline and otherhormones. When healthy, your adrenals can instantly increase your heart rateand blood pressure, release your energy stores for immediate use, slow your digestion and other secondary functions, and sharpen your senses.When you are stressed, your adrenal glands produce cortisol in excess. Cortisolis also known as the death hormone, because it is highly toxic and catabolizes(literally tears down) muscle mass for energy, your organs, diminishesyour strength and your speed of recovery and makes people unable to copewith daily life. Adrenal fatigue also known as Chronic Fatigue occurs whenthe amount of stress exceeds the capacity of the body to recover from thestressful challenges.And that list of stressful challenges is endless, including:* lack of sleep* a demanding boss* the threat of losing your job* financial pressures* personality conflicts* yo-yo dieting* relationship turmoil* death or illness of a loved one* skipping meals* reliance on stimulants like caffeine and starchy carbs* digestive problems* over-exercise* illness or infection* unresolved emotional issues from our past or presentThe result is adrenal glands that are constantly on high alert.These are common symptoms that are directly related to stress* Weight gain around the waist and inability to lose it.* Regular bouts of colds/flu and other respiratory ailments.* Reduced sex drive.* Poor memory* Lack of energy in the mornings and also in the afternoon between 3 to 5 pm.* Need coffee or stimulants to get going in the morning.* Pain in the upper back or neck with no apparent reasons* Mild depression* Food allergies* Increased effort to perform daily tasks* Dry and thin skin* Hypoglycemia - low blood sugar* Nervousness* Palpitations* Unexplained hair lossEvery challenge to the mind and body creates a demand on the adrenal glandsby secreting stress hormones, one of which is cortisol and when the levelsare in excess it literally destroys the body.The destructive effect of high cortisol levelsIn its normal function, cortisol helps us meet the stressful challenges, byconverting proteins into energy, releasing glycogen and counteracting inflammation. For a short time, that's okay. But at sustained high levels, cortisol gradually tears your body down.Stress, as noted earlier, raises your cortisol levels and this affects not only your body, but also your whole brain function by reducing your abilityto focus/concentrate and remember things, making you somewhat incoherent. If this is not bad enough, cortisol then diminishes your immune system, makingyou unable to 'turn up' for your life.Why does it happen this way?Obviously, to force us from 'soldiering on' so you are forced to deal with the stress itself, whatever it may be. It's usually at this point that peoplestart seeking some form of professional help, as opposed to compensatingand pretending they're coping with everything -- when the body is clearly in 'danger alarm mode', because the stress is not being addressed and the symptoms are piling up.The mind is very good at fooling itself into a coping mechanism, yet your body will always reflect signs of stress. Often, people ignore them and start'micromanaging' symptoms (the term I use in clinic when people focus on 1symptom at a time), rather than understanding their own patterns of survivalby looking at emotions/attitudes towards situations in their life and thus'macro managing' their symptoms.Hidden causes of stressIt's important to emphasize the role of emotional factors. Guilt, pain frompast hurts, self-destructive habits, unresolved relationship problems -- yourpast and present emotional experience may serve as an ever-present stressor.Dealing with these problems directly is much more beneficial than tryingto micromanage symptoms which lead to focusing on the symptoms rather thanthe causes, the stress itself.Thoughts and emotions and our belief systems have the most debilitating effecton our mind/body system. Powerful emotions arise out of stress -- fear,frustration, anger, sadness, apathy, hopelessness -- and usually overwhelmwhen the person is too exhausted to deal with anything. All these have a profoundly toxic effect on the mind/body as they force the adrenals to release

more stress hormones.In summary, our ability to handle stress, physical or emotional, is a cornerstoneto our human survival. Our adrenal glands are equipped to ward off and

modulate all stress. When these glands become dysfunctional and/or exhausted,our body's ability to handle stress reduces, and multiple symptoms will arise.Even though it is always the adrenals that need special attention in the initialrecovery process of Chronic Fatigue, for complete recovery it is necessaryto identify the emotional or mental stress, acknowledging the impact it hason the mind/body. Balancing the stress allows people to take responsibilityfor their symptoms and surrender to their own healing process.http://www.naturalnews.com/024268.html