Introduction

When we look deeper, many people do not know what to look for as signs or symptoms of chronic stress. They might attribute a certain symptom to "getting older" when really it's stress. It's how safe we truly feel, with our bodies and minds trying to get on the same page. That page where we define the true impact of stress on our body.

How Do I Know If I'm Over Stressed?

Many people in my practice laugh when I ask them if they think they have chronic stress... "Of course I do Doc!" they chuckle, "How could I not?"

The Mind and Emotion

We've started with the mind, as we seem to most easily recognize stress on our mental or emotional state:

• anxiety
• mental fatigue
• poor memory
• depression
• insomnia
• confusion
• agitation/irritability
• slowness
• difficulty learning
• "out of body"

The Body

Physical signs that we may be suffering from chronic stress:

• abdominal fat
• muscle fatigue
• neck fat
• back fat
• poor endurance
• thin nails
• bowel problems
• hair loss
• hronic cold/flu
• muscle loss
• de-conditioning
• asthma
• poor sexual function
• hypertension
• heart issues
• type 2 diabetes
• abnormal lipids
• GI issues
• autoimmune
• skin drooping

The body and mind both suffer from stress only. We often mistake it for other problems. You begin to dig into the research; one of the things you quickly discover is that the body is often the "silent victim" of stress. Many of the symptoms we would attribute to "normal aging" are caused or accelerated by stress. The hormonal cascades that were discussed in the previous chapter can cause serious havoc on every system of the body.

If you believe that stress could be contributing to a health problem, mention it to your physician, because you could be right. Stress is a root cause of many problems of the body, mind, and soul.

In our next few sections, we'll discuss how to start solving your stress problems.

Stress is a Physical Response to Brain Activity

If our brain perceives something as a threat, and your body prepares to meet that threat: fight or flight! We have discussed how worry affects our minds. Now, let's look at how stress affects our bodies.

Hans Selye is the father of Stress Research. In his landmark 1930's work, he described the fight or flight response. This surge of adaptive actions makes us stronger, faster, sharper for just a brief time. We experience this surge when faced with any stress.

In early human history, a person was being chased by a lion, and that resulted in a cascade of cortisol. Your body mobilizes glucose (sugar) from the brain and away from things like your digestion or other bodily function. In this scenario, you burn a whole lot of your fat stores attempting escape. You either live, and your body recovers, or you become lunch.

Fight or Flight Response

In our modern culture, our brains still employ the fight or flight stress response. Now, instead of running from a lion, you are racing to meet a production deadline, or maybe one of the most important job interviews of your life. It's no use just telling ourselves to RELAX.

Stress hormones trigger a physical response that triggers an emotional state of anxiety, panic, disease, and worry. It is something that is based in the mind through our perception of the world. The Institute of HeartMath says that, "While situations, encounters or events may seem intrinsically 'stressful,' it is truly how an individual perceives and reacts to an event that determines whether or not the stress response is activated."

Stress is a feeling, but it is a feeling with real physiological manifestations. You feel stress because it is causing changes in body chemistry through hormone and nervous system changes. The stress hormone is essential for life and survival. Chronic low-grade stress hormone excess will lead to other hormone imbalances. Hormone imbalances lead to changes in the body and mind. We often call these changes "symptoms" or "diseases."