Welcome to The Complementary Way – where you can find complementary, alternative ways for treating common ailments.

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STRESS

We have all heard about it – the 21st Century’s favourite word - STRESS. Just ask anyone if they’re stressed, and the likelihood is that their reply will be in the affirmative. So what is stress – is it an illness, is it dangerous, is it catching?

Most of us do not understand the meaning of stress even though we are inundated with information in the press on how we should manage it. We live within a body that responds to stress in a world that produces it.

The potential for stress is all about us - in our friends, family, work, in every part of life. Our bodies are intricately designed to respond to stress in such a way as to help us cope with it, at least initially.

Stress is just a word meaning that you have problems – hasn’t everyone? The important thing about stress is learning how to handle it and not to be frightened of it.

Stress is the formation of adrenaline - the fight or flight hormone. When we were Cavemen, living on our wits, life was simply about killing or being killed - in knowing whether to stand one’s ground or whether to run. To help us decide we produced a complex array of hormones and instinctive responses that ensured our survival, one of these hormone is called Adrenaline – the flight or fight hormone. The stress response increased heart rate, breathing rate, sending more blood to the motor muscles and away from digestive organs, and caused the bowel to empty. This enabled the Caveman to prepare for fight or flight, by oxygenating his muscles and by lightening his body weight.

However, we no longer live in caves, kill our food or enemies for survival – this is where the problem lies – we still have this fight or flight response, but in most situations, no movement is required so the adrenaline remains in the body!

What most of us are unaware of is the fact that stress damage lays not so much in the problems of life, but in our attitude toward time and the excitement and pleasure we derive from interesting challenges and demanding schedules. The stress response is a natural form of arousal. In moderation, it is healthy, even necessary. But continuous over arousal leads to stress disease and it doesn't matter whether this is the consequence of overwork, unhappiness, or plain, old-fashioned excitement. Long-term over arousal and excessive flow of these stress hormones will eventually lead to illness, and possibly death.

Recent research has made it very clear that hyper arousal of the adrenal system is the main cause of heart disease. That doesn’t mean we have to lead stress free lives - we just need to know how to control or manage our stress levels. Athletes, actors, musicians all learn to use adrenaline to improve their performances – they also learn how to stop the adrenaline when they have finished.

However, anything, pleasant or unpleasant that arouses our adrenaline system for too long and mobilizes our body for 'flight or flight' predisposes us to stress disease. Our body simply adapts to living in a constant state of emergency and we feel no discomfort until damaging results occur.

HOW STRESS DOES ITS DAMAGE TO YOUR BODY

The heart is a remarkable organ. Your whole life depends on your heart – without it you are dead. central to survival. Every day the heart pumps about two thousand gallons of blood through sixty thousand miles of elastic tubing. But the heart is no mere pump. . . . The heart is actually an incredible intelligent organ. When you walk up a flight of stairs, when you get nervous or excited, or when someone scares you, your heart immediately responds with changes in rate, force, and contraction. It also responds with changes when you become fearful or fall in love! Its rate, force, and contraction all respond with amazing sensitivity to what is needed in the moment.

So how does the heart know what to do? The heart responds to signals from complex chemical messengers which are carried in the blood stream, one of which you have probably heard of is the stress hormone adrenaline. This hormone is called the fight or flight hormone and prepares the body to either fight or run away by increasing the blood supply to the heart, reducing the blood supply to the digestive organs, increasing the breathing rate and thus the supply of oxygen and lightening the body by emptying the bladder and bowels in preparation to run away.

Because the heart is so sensitive to these messengers, excess chemicals can actually damage and over a period of time can even destroy the heart. Besides the mobilizing of your body for flight, the chronic increased flow of adrenaline produces a number of other less helpful and more serious consequences which include · An increase in the production of blood cholesterol · A narrowing of the capillaries and other blood vessels that can shut down the blood supply to the heart muscle. · A decrease in the body's ability to remove cholesterol · An increase in the blood's tendency to clot · An increase in the depositing of plaque on the walls of the arteries In short bursts, elevated adrenaline is not damaging or dangerous. In fact, that is what it is designed to do.

But when sustained at high levels over a period of time, it can be very harmful. Adrenaline arousal can be compared to revving up a car engine, then leaving it to idle at high speed. . . .The most serious effect of elevated adrenaline, when persistent and unrelenting, is its damage to the heart and arteries.

SO WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?

1. Fistly, become aware of your stress and notice the effect that its having on your body.

2. Recognise what you can change within your life style to reduce your stress.

3. Reduce the intensity of your emotional reaction to stress by checking that :- – You are not over reacting – You are NOT trying to please everyone – You put the situation into perspective – You are not making mountains out of mole hills.

4. Learn to moderate your physical reaction to stress by learning breathing techniques, how to relax, how to meditate, having massage, exercising, and if necessary medication.

HOW CAN WE RELAX OR DESTRESS?

There are many ways to relax – it really means picking the way that’s right for you. Below are some ideas that may work for you:-

Exercise – taking a walk somewhere that you find restful e.g near water, in the countryside: going for a cycle ride, dancing, swimming, walking the dog, sroking the dog or cat. Many people use the gym to reduce stress levels, but it is possible to become addicted the pleasurable effect that this exercise has on the body, thus replacing one sort of stress with another!

Reading - find a nice quiet corner and get your head into a good book.

Music – listen to the kind of music that makes you relax – classical, meditation music, sounds of nature. And believe it or not – a great way to relax is listening or dancing to Indian Drums! And if you’re lucky enough to be a musician – you can’t beat playing your own music!

Meditation - there are many ways to meditate – see my section on Meditation and visualisation