 Stress Can Be Deadly
Psychological and physical disorders associated with stress are associated with chronic stress and exhaustion. Creatures actually die from intense unrelieved stress. It happens all of the time with men and women who have kept stress and tension within their lives.
In humans, infants deprived of adequate physical and emotional nurturing are considered chronically stressed. Infants and very young children have died as a result of such deprivation. Indeed, adults dealing with chronic stress are at higher risk for heart attacks and strokes, which are themselves life-threatening.
The medical community today estimates that excess stress plays a role in 70-90 percent of all health complaints plaguing modern societies. Realizing the implications of the results of study in this field, researchers at centers around the world continue to build on this research to better understand the nature of stress and how we can cope with it.
Herbal Remedies For Stress Relief
The following are some herbal suggestions for stress control and amelioration:
1. Borage is used to relieve depression and stress and is a mild diuretic.
2. Chamomile is a gentle herb used in tea to soothe and relax the nervous system. In stressful circumstances, chamomile is used to soothe the digestive tract. It is an anti-spasmodic and has anti-inflammatory properties.
3. Chive is said to have some natural antibiotic properties to help the immune system under stress.
4. Echinacea is said to improve immune function and stamina, especially the body's ability to fight off viruses and colds, by boosting the power of white blood cells to destroy invading organisms. It has long been a popular remedy among Native American peoples.
5. Ginko Biloba is said to increase blood flow to the brain, improve neurotransmitter function, and improve the metabolism of brain fuels. It also is said to scavenge free-radicals from the circulation, thus helping to slow aging. As such, it is being touted as helpful for holding off symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. For the healthy population, it is used to increase alertness and concentration.
Alternating Stress For Better Release
If you're under a great deal of daily stress, it is not good enough to lie down and stare at the ceiling or rattle around the TV dial all evening. Your mind continues to rehash the day's problems and thus perpetuates your stress. In 1960, a researcher in experiments on sensory deprivation, showed that, even when paid $20 per day, student volunteers could not stay in bed for more than two or three days without any activity. Going from too much stress to too little stress is obviously like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
The best way to unwind, it has been found, is to switch to something else that is also stressful. This alternate stress should be something that requires full concentration, but that involves different circuits of the brain and body. Thus, such obviously stressful activities as roller coaster rides, mountain climbing, white water boating, parachuting, racket sports, and surfing can all have a tremendous value in the reduction of your ordinary stresses. An activity of this nature forces you to completely forget about your routine stresses. The alternate stresses for your mind could well be sedentary, such as music, reading, or crafts, but make sure you still leave at least three hours per week for the alternate stresses for your body.
The important point is that what you choose to do should be an alternate exercise. A professional baseball pitcher, on a day off, would not be reducing stress by playing more baseball. The main benefit comes from using different circuits. The tennis pro, for example, may get some relief from stress by tackling a desk job such as financial management or playing the stock markets. On the other hand, the professional financial expert would benefit more from playing competitive tennis as a break in his or her routine.
Another aspect of this in connection with longevity is that, without an interest in some alternate activities, you may well have little else of interest in your life when you reach retirement age. Furthermore, senility can set in at any age with the absence of stimulation. Being dull and boring is certainly not restricted to the elderly, as anyone who has ever attended a cocktail party can attest to.
Exercise in itself is extremely important. Your body is a finely tuned instrument, but the muscles will not retain their tone, shape, or function if you are slack about exercising them. It has been shown that cardiac function in seventy-year-olds who have been keeping fit all their lives is actually better than that in untrained twenty-year-olds. If you leave fitness until your retirement years, you can still improve upon the odds of survival and give your heart the function of an untrained forty-year-old, but obviously it would be better to stay in shape all along.
 Physical Effects Of Stress
It is not possible to experience stress of any kind without its affecting us in some way. Even the mildest change in our lives like going on a vacation or winning a prize adds to our total stress and can have an adverse effect on our bodies or psychological stability.
Consider what happens to animals when they are frightened or in other ways put under stress. Usually they either run or attack. When they "freeze" in one spot, this is only temporary. Let the stress continue or get worse and the animal eventually will run off or attack. This has been called "the flight-or-fight reaction," and it is not limited to animals. When the stress is great, human beings also have a desire to get out of the way or to fight off the pressure as best they can.
This running or fighting puts an added strain on the body. Because of the effort involved, we must be mobilized physically for the extra action, and this is precisely what happens, automatically. Whenever stress comes along, more sugar flows into the blood to give us energy, our senses become more alert, our muscles get tense, we breathe faster, our hearts beat more rapidly, and our whole bodies get geared up. This can be useful when we are in real danger - on a freeway, for example, or facing a sudden crisis which demands all of our skill and alertness.
But what if the stress is more subtle? What if it comes from noisy kids or struggling with a tense home situation? At these times the body still gets aroused physically, but it is inappropriate for us to react by flight or tight. We must control our emotions and clamp down on our reactions. The body therefore begins to fight against itself. It is aroused for action, but the action is squelched. Naturally, our systems can't take this for long. As a result there may be inner tension, physical disease, or mental breakdown. The body's automatic reaction, which once was a lifesaver for hunters and warriors, has in our age become a crippler and sometimes even a killer.
Consider, for example, the problem of ulcers. Everybody knows that business executives are supposed to get ulcers, and sometimes men even joke about this being a badge of masculinity or an indication that they have finally reached the pinnacle of success in life. It would be more accurate, however, to say that ulcers are a mark of worry, tension, and the inability to control our stresses.
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