In a nutshell (the child’s song And the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone… might come to mind):
Stress increases inflammation in the body; this causes the body to make more cortisol; making more cortisol taxes the adrenal glands- this can lead to blood sugar dysregulation; which may lead to insomnia, stubborn weight, digestive issues, joint pain, and a suppressed or fired up auto-immune response.
"A critical shift in medicine has been the recognition that many of the damaging diseases of slow accumulation can either be caused or made far worse by stress," writes Robert M. Sapolsky, author of the critically acclaimed Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. "Stress can wreak havoc with your metabolism, raise your blood pressure, burst your white blood cells, make you flatulent, ruin your sex life, and if that's not enough, possibly damage your brain."
And make you fat…
Dr. Les Feinberg, developer of NeuroModulation (NMT), defines stress as any stimulus perceived by the body to require a response in order to maintain homeostatic balance. When the body perceives a stimulus interpreted as a stress it manifests a condition of tension in the body. Physiological tension, by its nature, wants to be resolved. The trouble with stress and tension actually occurs on two levels- first, the mind often makes stuff up and causes us to feel threatened when there is no real threat; and second, the body often gets confused about how to resolve this state.
In addition to the tips for mind and emotions offered by Melanie at melaniesmithson.com, we recommend Adaptacrine from Apex, anti-inflammatories, acupuncture and NMT technique.
For Melanie's tips on dealing with overwhelm, click here.
