Covenant Health For Life

Your body is a highly regulated “machine.”  It is balanced like a well-tuned engine so that all the components work together in a remarkable system of operation.  But if any one of those functions gets out of alignment, it can cause problems somewhere.

When the body is functioning as it should, this state is called homeostasis.  This is the well-balanced machine.  Enter stress. . . .

Stress is anything that disturbs the balance, anything that removes homeostasis.  Everything in alignment, everything working perfectly. Homeostasis.

Stressors can be the reaction to events, real or perceived.  Even in our mind, if an event does not meet our expectations and we don’t control the reaction, some kind of imbalance occurs in the body’s functions.  Herein lies one huge difference between humans and animals.  Humans don’t necessarily wait for something to occur before they begin the stress process.  People can get excited, worried, or afraid in anticipation of events and activate the stress-response system.

Now stress is not necessarily a bad thing at the right time and place.  What can be bad are your individual reactions to stress, and how you deal with it.  DO you let the stress go, or do you maintain it?  That is the key question.
There are typically three kinds of stress: Physical, emotional, and nutritional.

Physical
Physical stress occurs when your muscular system is taxed to the limits.  When put into these situations your body responds remarkably with the manufacture of additional adrenalin, for example, that allows you to achieve what can often be described as above-normal achievements.  An example of physical stress would be when confronted with a six-foot bear and no gun to defend yourself.  Your body will prepare the muscular system for great physical energy – getting out of there fast.

Some bodily activity, such as digesting food, stops.  You need the energy in your muscles, and digestion takes 10-20% of your energy.  Your body makes this adjustment to redirect energy for an emergency.  Your lungs pump oxygen to the muscles; glucose (energy) is needed and your body will use what you have already stored, demand more, and even turn amino acids into glucose so they can be used.  You’ve just become a machine ready to fight or run for your life.

Emotional

Stress can also be created by emotional and psychological factors.  This is probably the most common cause of stress.

Consider this list:

• marital relationship
• divorce, separation
• children
• business relationships
• personal finances, debt, taxes
• the economy, falling stock market the survival of Social Security
• where the next job is coming from
• deadlines, missed appointments, late aircraft
• driving
• traffic jams
• speaking in public
• first date
• exams

These activities, however, can produce a range of emotional responses, negative and positive.  The list of responses includes:

• fear
• anger
• resentment
• disgust
• impatience
• guilt
• jealousy
• hatred
• anxiety
• worry
• resistance
• reluctance
• love
• patience
• kindness

This list covers just about everyone.  Somewhere in there is a “that’s me” description at one time or another. The real issue for you, however, is what emotional response you give to an activity.  Now we do not all respond emotionally the same way to the same event. But it is in the response to stress that we begin to find the key to diseases such as diabetes.

Nutritional
There is a third kind of stress in the body.  This is created when your diet is unbalanced and there are nutritional deficiencies.  Your body needs to have certain nutrients to be healthy.  Your diet may diminish the supply of particular vitamins and minerals, and so the body begins to “compensate” for the missing ingredients.  Your body is no longer in homeostasis.

Nutritional issues can also lead to toxic stress, an overload of certain minerals in your body.  Minerals such as lead or mercury can build up in your body and cause an imbalance in the system.  Arsenic levels can reach heights that become unhealthy.  Again, your body is now out of balance.  And because it is out of balance, it contributes to an ongoing problem that now your body will not metabolize food properly.  That is, your body does not maximize use of the vitamins and minerals that you put into it.  (It will take something like a metabolic test to figure this one out.)

It could be the acid/alkaline balance that is now out of order.  Known as the pH balance, there are some health care professionals committed to the idea that pH balance is important.  It is well known, for example, that cancer cells thrive in a low alkaline environment, and balancing the body’s pH can eliminate cancer rather quickly in some patients.

Stress is simply being out of balance.  And when your body detects stress, a choice is made: it chooses between fight or flight.  That is, you choose to either stay and fight whatever is causing stress, or you flee from it.  Either way, your body prepares itself for the major decision.

Calling 911
Stressful situations in your body are the equivalent to calling 911.  When the “call” is made, your body responds to provide a powerful and complex response.  It calls upon the brain, heart, blood, lungs, glands and immune system to prepare for fight-or-flight.  Your body needs energy, oxygen, mental sharpness, pain resistance and muscle power to deal with the “emergency” situation.

All of these activities going on inside you are for the sole purpose of preservation: additional physical strength should it be needed, and even a protective environment against infection, at least in the short term.

The key thing here is to remember that you cannot – nor should you even try – to avoid stress.  But behind this stress lurks a very real danger.  It is the danger of prolonged, or unrelieved stress.  More on that in the next posting.

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