Maybe you've heard the expression that pain hurts but stress kills it's that a
bit harsh is that a little exaggerated or is there something to that (Can Stress Kill You?) Coming
right up
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Most people come in to a chiropractor or they go to the doctor because something
hurts it's the symptom that gets their attention but stress is something that
goes on behind the scenes.It's the stuff that undermines your body's function it
is truly the silent killer So let's talk about what that is And stress is when
your autonomic nervous system reacts to something so your autonomic nervous
system it's the thing behind the scenes that handles everything about your
health that you don't have to think about so you're breathing and you're
blinking your eyes and your digestion and beating your heart and growing
fingernails and regulating pH and blood sugar and hormones all of that stuff
goes on all the time and it's not doesn't happen by itself
it is being managed for you by your autonomic nervous system so when your
autonomic nervous system is in balance you're in homeostasis and you can
quickly return to health but if something is constantly pushing that
system out of balance then you can't really be in homeostasis then there are
challenges to your health so let's talk about how that works so the two branches
are called sympathetic and parasympathetic and stress by definition
is when your sympathetic nervous system is activated
that's simple physiology the inside workings of your body the physiology
stresses when you have a sympathetic response when that part of your
autonomic nervous system reacts to a stressor you have a stress response so
why does it do that because your body is a closed system you have about a gallon
and a half or five liters of blood in your body blood contains all the
resources in your body you have oxygen and amino acids and vitamins and
minerals and fatty acids and so forth and the blood transports this to all the
cells that need it but it's a resource allocator your autonomic nervous system
is a resource allocator so whatever parts need it the most whatever is the
most important in this moment is who's gonna get the most resources so let's
say you're sitting at a picnic and you're having a good time you had a
wonderful meal that weather is great you're relaxed now your parasympathetic
nervous system is a little bit more active because you're involved with
digestion you're in a relaxed state so your body is allowing repair and healing
and immune function and so forth and in that state you are allocating most of
the blood to those processes to digest food and maintain repair but let's say
that you glanced over and you see a grizzly bear come charging to join your
picnic now things are not so relaxed anymore and consequently you have a
stress response and the stress response is there to save your life so your heart
starts beating faster your blood pressure goes up your cortisol goes up
because cortisol raises blood sugars you have more quick energy available during
a stress response so now all the resources are going to
the heart and to the muscles to pump blood out so that you can run and fight
and get out of there and now because your body shifted a lot
of their blood a lot of the resources now there's not so much available for
the digestion because your body says you know dealing with that grizzly bear is
more important than digesting the food I'll worry about that later so in that
scenario it's a very intelligent and very appropriate response but there are
lots and lots of things that create a stress response not just grizzly bears
not just things that require us to run and fight sometimes there's an imagined
danger so anything that gets you tense or frustrated or overwhelmed or angry or
fearful is going to trigger a sympathetic response a stress response
and you're gonna have the same increases in heart rate increases in blood
pressure increases in cortisol because your body is preparing for an imagined
danger if you imagine it it's real to your brain and your brain is going to
prepare for that danger to deal with it whether it's real or not
so most people today have a lot of stress anyone I talked to says they we
have more stress than we've ever had and that means most people are in
sympathetic dominance now because we are a closed system and we are a limited
resource system there's only so much blood only so much resources in the body
anytime the sympathetic goes up the parasympathetic is going to go down and
it's like a seesaw there is no other way it's you're hardwired in your nervous
system to do that it's like you're driving a car you can't speed up and
slow down at the same time you pick one of them and when there is a
stress when there's a danger real or imagined your body is hardwired to fire
off that stress response at the expense of the relaxation response at the
expense of immune function digestion reproductive function repair and healing
so this is why the stress is the silent killer stress is the number one thing
that we should be concerned with so what do we do about it well the short term
solution is breathing peace of mind awareness relaxation exercises
affirmations getting yourself into a state where you can maybe see that
things aren't so bad and there's no reason to be angry and so forth
long term we want to work on this we want to develop an attitude and
lifestyle where we don't let things get to us so much and another thing is there
is no substitute for good health the body is chemical structural and
emotional and all those aspects can trigger stress responses pain can
trigger stress responses chemicals can trigger stress responses poor motion in
the spine can trigger stress responses because signals are incomplete the
picture that reach the brain receives is incomplete so we have to understand that
stress is multifaceted and most stress is the kind that we're not even aware of
that's why it's so important to start understanding these things and working
toward stress relief whether we think we have stress or not if you take one thing
away from this video just remember this you can heal or you can defend yourself
you can heal or you can stress but you can't do both at the same time because
your body is going to pick one over the other anytime the sympathetic increases
the parasympathetic decreases so I hope this was
helpful and maybe eye-opening if you know some people I could benefit from
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