Stress is the body’s ability to handle physical and mental input. The human body’s nervous system has two vehicles for stress adaptation; the sympathetic division, and the parasympathetic division.
The sympathetic nervous system acts as an accelerator portion of the body it makes the body function faster. If your accelerator works but your brakes don’t, you can’t stop. If your accelerator is stuck the following symptoms can occur: decreased digestion, stomach inflammation, cold sweats, racing feeling, nervous energy, diarrhea.
The parasympathetic division is like the brakes for the body. It controls processes during ordinary situations. It conserves and restores. It slows the heart rate, decreases blood pressure, when it is overactive you may feel very sluggish. Symptoms of too many brakes: gag reflex increased, tear and saliva increased, restless legs at night, low back pain, muscle soreness, histamine activity.
The stress could be junk food, or mental whatever it is our body will always try to adapt in order to stay alive. In 1936 a guy named Hans Selye discovered the stress cycle known as General Adaptive System.
He came up with three phases: Alarm, Resistance, and Exhaustion. Each phase has specific characteristics and recovery times. Phase I alarm phase means something has to be done now! The accelerator pedal is floored (sympathetic dominance) to adapt to the circumstances (1 to 3 months). Phase II resistance phase “wired and tired†the body’s reserves (mineral, vitamin, energy) are getting drained to adapt to the circumstances (6 to 9 months). Phase III exhaustion phase a dangerous time when organ failure can take place and death. The body can no longer adapt it has lost all of its reserves. (12 to 18 months)
This is how our body adapts to all types of stress, nutritional, physical , emotional, and mental and the results can be devastating to your health. There are things you can do to keep this from happening. We can help!
We offer lectures on stress and dis-ease and how to support your body in times of stress without the use of drugs. Let us know if we can help.
Sincerely Dr. B