Action4Balance

Imagine that you are a zebra strolling across the savanna. You are minding your business when a lion comes charging toward you from bushes. The classical stress reaction “fight or flight” starts – your body quickly paces itself through a series of neurological, biochemical, hormonal, and physiological actions – to escape and survive.

For zebra stress response runs its complete course, in a relatively short period. The stress occurs (lion), which causes the zebra’s brain and hormonal system to release a series of stress hormones (one of them - cortisol), which enables to fight or run away. After getting away from the lion, the zebra’s cortisol levels return to normal - end of story.(adapted fromThe Cortisol Connection )

We humans are not so lucky. The majority of our daily stressors come from job, family commitments, mortgage payments, traffic jam and project deadlines. Our modern day stressors are much less easy to escape the lion. In many cases we can’t run away or fight.

We become victims of chronic stress and chronic or constantly elevated cortisol level.

When we encounter something that causes us to feel stress our cortisol level goes up in order us to overcome the stressful situation. In fact, small increases of cortisol have some positive effects:

• A quick burst of energy for survival reasons
• Heightened memory functions
• A burst of increased immunity
• Lower sensitivity to pain
• Helps maintain homeostasis in the body

Unfortunately, nowadays we are exposed to enormous amount of stressors that we experience stressful events on regular basis and our cortisol levels stay constantly elevated above normal level and we are in chronic stress state.

Over the long term, elevated cortisol levels can be as damaging to overall health:

• Increased appetite and food cravings
• Decreased bone density
• Decreased in muscle tissue
• Suppressed thyroid function
• Increased anxiety
• Mood swings (anger and irritability)
• Increased body fat (especially abdominal fat)
• Higher blood pressure
  
• Lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences
• Memory and learning impairments
• Develop IBS, colitis and ulcers.
  

Prolonged high levels of cortisol can lead to many serious health problems.(Read How Does Stress Affect Health?)

We have choice.

The easiest choice is to do nothing (like most of people) and let chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels slowly break down our bodily defences and increase your risk for diseases.

The more effective choices are to do something – about either your stress level, the way you handle stress or how your body responds to stressful situations.

Lets face it - stress is here to stay, and its already well known that stress is going to be the number one health/wellness/wellbeing (also finansial) problem for majority of mankind in many years to come.

You simply cant afford to leave it unresolved.

I would like to encourage you to start investing time, efforts and money and learn really effective and long lasting stress management solutions in order to maintain a low-stress lifestyle.

Contact me at info@action4balance.com now to find the best way to take action.