Stressors, Stress, and You

Why am I so tired all the time? Why can't I remember things anymore? How can I get rid of stress in my life? Wouldn't we just be better off without it?

At Advanced CardioLogix, these are questions that we hear everyday. People just like you and me are coming to the inescapable conclusion that "life is hard" and life's circumstances present an endless opportunity to experience stress.

Your response to stressors impacts everything you do

Have you noticed:

• Fuzzy thinking and short-term memory lapses
• The inability to relax
• Increased irritability
• Hypersensitivity to sounds and light
• Chest pain (although not all chest pain is cardiac related, you should see your doctor immediately)
• Elevated blood pressure
• Weight gain or loss
• Stomach and intestinal discomfort
• Insomnia
• Increased or irregular heart rate
• Shallow, uneven breathing
• Headaches and muscular tension and pain
• Higher occurrence of infections and illness
• Longer healing time for injuries

Did you know that up to 90% of all visits to primary healthcare professionals are a result of the effects of Stress?

The cause of these Stress-related problems is simply the inability of your "Stress Control Center" (the Autonomic Nervous System) to adequately recover from Stress.

Stress: The Real Story

It's no secret that stress is epidemic. More people are seeking the help of physicians for relief from stress-related illness than ever before. Even worse is that stressed-out people lead to stressed-out companies. Workman's comp claims for stress linked disorders are at an all-time high with no end to the trend.

In short, the "down-sizing" of America is leading to the "super-sizing" of a stress-related healthcare bill totaling billions of dollars.

Before you can fully understand the power of ACL's amazing products, it might be helpful if you had a good grounding in the subject of "stress" and how it works.

Let's take just a minute to define some terms:

Stressor--an internal or external event that leads to an internal stress response. That is, a stressor is anything in the environment that causes us to adapt to maintain mind/body balance (homeodynamism).

Stress Response--a biological and biochemical process that begins in the brain and, by way of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), sometimes called the "Stress Control Center," releases a cascade of powerful hormones that prepare the body to deal with the stressor (fight-or-flight). A healthy stress response also includes the ability to recover by activating the other part of the ANS called the "relaxation response" once the stressor has subsided. This interaction is what we commonly mean when we refer to "stress."

The stress response is extremely complex but for the sake of simplicity let's say that stress is the mind/body response to challenges, both real and imagined.

Actually, stress is not necessarily a bad thing. We need stress in our lives to make things happen, to motivate us toward goals, and to protect us from danger. Sometimes stress can promote curiosity, creativity, and be challenging, stimulating and rewarding.

On the other hand, a lack of variability, challenge, and "response-ability" can lead to serious health problems, both mental and physical. The bottom line is that no one is free of stress and your ability to recover from and resist the impact of stress is what dictates how much stress you can handle.

How does stress work?

Our response to stressors is as old as humankind. Our ancestors lived and survived in an extremely hostile environment where people were not as high on the food-chain as we are today. That is, early man had to be on guard against natural predators like tigers, other large carnivores, and a host of environmental dangers.

Today, those threats have been replaced by schedules, mortgages, divorce, and many other man-made demands. Although our modern stressors are not the same as those of our forefathers, they are no less deadly.

How can that be? How can a busy schedule be as threatening as a tiger? The answer is that your body doesn't know the difference between the psychological stress of a "time-crunch" and the physical threat of being eaten--it responds in the same way to each even though, in most cases, the threat doesn't require us to fight or flee!

So where's the "deadly" part?

The major difference in our modern world is that we live under a constant barrage of social, psychological and environmental challenges that, if left unchecked, lead to the exhaustion of our stress response-ability and the eventual collapse of the mental and physiological systems of the body. Stress has been implicated as a factor in every major cause of death in American adults. In some cases, yesterday's benefits have become today's killer.

Consider also that in the 21st century, our technology is doubling every 3.7 years. As humans, we are exposed to more information than ever before in our history at a speed that literally boggles the mind (and body)! The simple truth is our technology is evolving far faster than our natural ability to handle the enormous input. It's no surprise then that more than a fourth of all American adults are subjected to crushing levels of "techno-stress" every day.

The dark side of the Stress Response

The obvious point here is that we still respond to stressors as our ancestors did, but today, we rarely have the need to physically fight or run away from a threat. So what happens when we constantly "over-respond" to our modern stressors?

Notice in the following examples how the saving response of our ancestors has become the real threat instead.

Once a threat has been perceived, the Stress Control Center (ANS) is activated and:

As you see, the very powerful internal responses that allowed for our ancestor's survival is now a prime instigator of premature death and disease in adults.

Since there seems to be little hope of reducing the stress in our lives, it means that we must do all we can to reduce the effects of stress. Learn why Advanced CardioLogix products, using a new measurement of Heart Rate Variability and Advanced Breath Training are designed to do just that.

For more information, visit our Solutions page today!