How to Minimize the Effects of Stress – WWR 236 Prolonged, chronic stress causes illness. It is one of the four causes of imbalance and illness (trauma, toxins, deficiency and stress).

Can I define stress for you? The technical definition is change – any change you must adapt to is stress. Adapting to stress costs us energy. Prolonged stress causes fatigue and exhaustion. But you probably didn’t need that definition. You probably know the effects of chronic stress all too well. Maybe a better use of our time together would be to discuss what stress does to cause illness and how we can minimize the effects of chronic stress.

Know your enemy!
Our system is balanced by an internal process called homeostasis. No matter which direction life pulls us, homeostasis pushes us back and we regain our balance. If homeostasis fails to restore balanced health because of stress, we will experience distressing symptoms. Severe or prolonged imbalance may lead to adverse health conditions.

Stress can imbalance the function of our immune system. When this happens we may get autoimmune disorders such as Grave’s disease, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and allergies.
Stress can disrupt your circulation and cause high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and coagulation disorders, where a person forms blood clots abnormally.
One of the most common reactions to stress is metabolic syndrome, a collection of imbalances surrounding obesity and type 2 diabetes. Stress can cause metabolic syndrome which causes “central obesity” – the accumulation of fat around your middle. It causes us to have low HDL (“good” cholesterol), high total cholesterol, high LDL (“bad” cholesterol), high triglycerides and high blood sugar. Metabolic syndrome causes hormone imbalances. For example, many women with polycystic ovary syndrome have metabolic syndrome and are pre-diabetic or diabetic.
Fighting the enemy
So, we can agree that stress kills! Before stress kills us, however, it makes us sick, fat and miserable. Stress prevents us from having successful relationships. It blurs our sense of purpose. Stress prevents us from making good decisions and it directly causes or indirectly contributes to disease. We need to mount an effective strategy to resolve the impact of stress.

The first technique of stress management is isolation from unnecessary stressors. Simplify your life. To determine if a stress is worth holding on to, ask yourself first if it is worth “dying for,” because stress will kill you. Alternately, ask yourself if a particular stressor is worth suffering for and being miserable for and being fat for, because these are the consequences of prolonged stress.
Following isolation from stress is insulation against the effects of stress. Practice deep breathing for 10 minutes, three times daily and 20 minutes at bedtime. This can reduce the impact of stress by up to 50%. So, deep breathing may cut the impact of stress in half.
Peaceful sleep, daily activity and eating nutritiously can also help reduce the impact of stress.
Adaptogens help support homeostasis so we are better able to resume balance even under extreme stress. The effect of adaptogens is non-specific: it doesn’t matter where the stress is coming from or what is causing it, adaptogens help reduce the impact of stress and promote homeostasis to rebalance us. Add Sublingual Vitamin B-12 to help protect the brain from stress as well.
The most important lesson we can learn about stress is that we must not minimize it; stress will kill you if you don’t manage it effectively. The most important lesson regarding stress management is the same: don’t minimize the techniques of deep breathing, peaceful sleep, vigorous daily activity and eating nutritiously. You can win the battle against the imbalances of stress if you “know your enemy.”

Take Control of Your Health

Do a mental inventory of your stresses:
External
Internal – from your thoughts, etc.
Assess your circumstances and simplify your life
Practice breathing deeply
Get peaceful sleep
Enjoy activity and eat nutritiously
Take Adaptogen 10 Plus® to protect against the effects of stress
Add Vitamin B-12 to help protect your brain
Support yourself with Foundation Nutrition
Help reduce the inflammatory consequences of stress with Nopalea™