Americans are more stressed out today than at any other point in our history I believe. Some of that comes from increased expectations with less reward, some is from the diet and lifestyle we have created, and some is from our environment. Whatever the source, our bodies have a specific reaction to stress, and if left unchecked for too long, stress can lead to serious health consequences. When I lecture to peace officers or doctors about stress, I can find a detrimental reaction in every body system in response to stress.
Even though our bodies have a singular reaction to stress, all stressors can be put into three distinct classic categories. Either they will fall into chemical, physical, or emotional. I'm leaning toward adding a new, fourth category that is energetic, since technically that can't fit into any of the others, and yet we are finding it too is a stressor.
Chemical stressors include such things as what we eat, drink, and breathe, and everything contained by each. Food can be very good for us, or it can be a stressor if it is highly processed, missing key components or categories, or if it is contaminated with anything from pesticides and herbicides to pathogenic bacteria. Our beverage choices have a huge impact, since most in America rely on dehydrating beverages like soda, coffee, energy drinks, or alcohol to replenish water, which only leads to more need. Other beverages like milk, fruit juices, and sport drinks are loaded with excess calories that are difficult for the body to process. Our air, even on the best of days, is sadly polluted. Last I heard, running a marathon in downtown Minneapolis was like smoking two packs of cigarettes. Add to all of this the drugs we take voluntarily or involuntarily through our air, food, and water sources, and chemical stressors are at a level unseen in human history.
Emotional stressors come in only a few forms for most of us: friends, family, and money. While some would add work, boss, co-workers, and a variety of others, I believe that if you took money out of the equation, most of those stressors would leave as well. While friends are supposed to not be a stressor, they can be as well. And, we all know that we can choose our friends, but we can't choose our families. From any generational perspective, family is probably one of the biggest causes of emotional stress.
Physical stress shows up in anything we actually do, or don't do. Exercise, while a stressor, is good for us. A lack of it, is a physical stressor. Prolonged positions, repetitive motions, and injuries are all examples of physical stressors. I believe physical stressors, while not declining, have changed in the last hundred years or so. We were once a very physical society. Whether we worked the farm, mill, store, or home, most had a very physical life. Today, we have conveniences that take most of this physicality away, leaving us with a lack of physical activity, which is in itself a significant stressor.
Energetic stressors including things like electromagnetic waves from our buildings' electrical supply, cell phones, wifi, blue tooth sets, and a whole host of other devices that we have come to rely on, unknowing their true effects on individual or societal health. This category could not have been imagined by the developers of the stress concept any more than the automobile could have been imagined by those who lived two hundred years ago, yet from what is being found, it is a true stressor to the body.
Whether emotional, chemical, physical, or energetic in origin, the reaction created in the body doesn't change, but is compounded with increasing amounts of stress. Think of your body as a barrel and stress is water. Every day you put in the "normal" stressors in your life; you put a certain amount of water for each of the stressor types: physical, chemical, emotional, and energetic that you constantly encounter. The water gets higher, and higher, and higher, until it's almost at the brim. Then you have something happen in your life that is a significant stressor. You lose your job; a parent dies; you have a motor vehicle accident; you get a staph infection; or anything else that creates stress in the body. There's no place left to put any more water, and it spills out of the barrel. But, where does it go? There's no "ground" around our barrel, so what happens to that water? It expresses as disease in your weakest area.
The type of stressor is irrelevant; the expression will be whatever your body has the least strength to protect. I have seen many patients over the years that have had physical stressors like motor vehicle accidents develop colds within a week of being in the accident. Did the accident expose them to the virus? Doubtful. I have seen a multitude of others that lose their spouse, and end up in significant physical pain for at least the next year. Did they do anything differently over that year that would have explained the increased pain? More than likely not. The source type doesn't matter, you will express in your weakest area. For some that means physical pain; things like lower back or neck pain or headaches. Some have chemical weaknesses and develop diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. Others have emotional weaknesses and may develop depression, anxiety, or eating disorders.
Our bodies can only handle so much stress before our barrel is full of water, and it begins spilling into our weakest areas, where we develop symptoms. That means when we look at symptom reduction and healing, stress reduction can often have a profound impact. With chiropractic, I am removing physical stress. With clinical nutrition I'm removing chemical stress. Either one might might allow for more reserve to fight other stressors. We can't always look to specific sources of symptoms, sometimes they simply are the body's expression of weakness due to stress. Just how full is your barrel? Is it time to "empty" it a little? I'll be talking more about stress in future blogs, and how you can make your barrel larger, or your water level lower.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
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