Stress: The Good, The Bad

It’s been a long day. You woke up, hit the snooze button. You stay curled up until the alarm goes off again. After moving in a zombie-like fashion through your bathroom routine, you head downstairs and make a quick breakfast. For some, you prepare the kids for school while drinking a cup of coffee. For others, you’re grabbing all your personal belongings and running out the door. Some of you take the QEW to work, which means you have to leave another hour and a half just to move two kilometers ahead of whatever every other rubbernecker is looking at. You get to work and sit at your desk for 8 hours; your posture declining in the process. Lunch is bought, more coffee is drank. Let’s not forget the hour drive home on the same QEW. You get home and prepare a quick dinner, probably something that’s not very healthy. Oh, and you haven’t got to the gym yet. You’ll do it tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the weekend. Rinse. Repeat.

Sound familiar? Or does this sound relaxing compared to what you actually go through. Even if your day isn’t this chaotic, we all experience some degree of stress. Stress is very often the root of many people’s problems, whether they recognize it or not. You’ll often head that someone is “under too much stress”. You, too, may feel this way. How can some withstand more stress than others? Is stress always a bad thing? Let’s take a look.

What is Stress?

Once again, we turn to Paul Chek and his book “How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy!” for the answer. The following is a selected excerpt from the book. Stress is not always a bad thing. Just as bones and muscle need exercise to stay strong, we also need certain amounts of stress to stay healthy. A complete lack of stress would not be a good thing. Let’s visit the six types of stress.

Physical Stress

The Good: Movement and exercise is very beneficial. The actual stress comes from loading the muscles and bones of our body under the influence of gravity. Adequate movement and exercise also helps us to maintain an optimal metabolic rate (the rate at which all physical and chemical processes take place within your body), keeping us from becoming overweight.

The Bad: Over-exercising can be every bit as bad as not exercising enough. While under-exercising can contribute to becoming fat and sluggish inside, over-exercising can cause immune system suppression. This can lead to increased incidence of upper respiratory infection, chronic fatigue and a number of other maladies. Another form of adverse physical stress is poor posture. Posture has a significant influence on breathing, muscle function, joint health, circulation and internal organ support. When the body structure is out of balance, the rest of the system follows.

Chemical Stress

The Good: Our bodies are full of chemicals – naturally produced chemicals that are essential for health. The work of producing these key chemicals is a necessary stress for the body. For example, when your body systems are working correctly, exercise results in chemical adaptations in the form of hormonal changes that alter your biochemistry to increase protein synthesis, energy production and myriad other chemical reactions. The action of sunlight on the skin results in the production of Vitamin D and the regulation of the hormones melatonin and cortisol – both chemical reactions (see previous article). Plant and animal foods are made up of organic chemicals – vitamins, enzymes, proteins and fats that we need to survive.

The Bad: Today we are bombarded with thousands upon thousands of chemicals that were not around one hundred years ago. Many of these chemicals are synthetic, and our bodies do not have mechanisms to neutralize them. Synthetically manufactured medical drugs, such as aspirin, are among the most common form of unfavourable chemical stress. Other examples of dangerous chemical stressors include pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and certain fertilizers. These chemicals are often made from the same formulas used to make biological weapons, yet nearly two billion pounds of these chemicals are sprayed on our foods. Many health problems have been linked to this form of chemical stress.

Electromagnetic Stress

The Good: Sunlight. Without sunlight, we wouldn’t be alive. The electromagnetic field of the earth is also a good form of this akind of stress. This invisible field helps control the rhythm of our hormones and other physiological functions. A common example of the earth’s electromagnetic effects can be experienced when weather patterns change. At the onset of thunderstorms, many people feel changes in their joints, muscles nd even their moods.

The Bad: The most obvious is over-exposure to sunlight which results in a sunburn. Most people know that overexposure to radiation such as medical X-rays can also be harmful to your health. Often overlooked is the extremely low frequency (ELF) pollution emitted by electronic devices such as computers, cell phones, microwave ovens, electric motors, your TV and even an electric blanket. Many of these forms of stress are insidious, causing dysfunction in your hormonal and autonomic nervous system.

Psychic or Mental Stress

The Good: Thinking and using your mind productively represents good psychic or mental stress. Having a plan or setting goals in your life and doing the work to achieve them is also a positive form of this stress. Other examples include overcoming adversity to become a stronger, better person. Without psychic stress, our minds would not develop fully.

The Bad: A common form of bad psychic stress is focusing on things you don’t want in life instead of what you do want. Other forms include verbal abuse from others, studying so much that your mental faculties begin to diminish, and challenging religious or spiritual beliefs that are imposed upon you – even if self-imposed. Being rushed or taking on more work or responsibility than you can manage will also produce unhealthy psychic stress.

Nutritional Stress

The Good: Eating in accordance to your metabolic type (see much earlier article) and not over – or under-eating are all representatives of good nutritional stress. In these instances, the term stress is used to indicate the stress of digestion, assimilation and metabolizing of foods. For example, your body must be stressed with the challenge of extracting nutrition from food or it will become lazy, much like a person’s muscles become lazy if you put them in a sling or cast and don’t use them.

The Bad: Eating too much, too little, or eating the wrong food proportions for your metabolic type are unhealthy forms of nutritional stress. I love bananas. Always have, but they are not the best fruit according to my type. When I stopped eating bananas, I noticed an immediate change in my body’s composition.

Thermal Stress

The Good: Maintaining your body temperature at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees Celsius) is the most obvious of the good thermal stressors. When it’s hot or cold outside, the thermoregulatory system is stressed in order to keep your internal temperature constant. It’s good to stress this system now and again to maintain its dynamic capacity.

The Bad: Anything that burns you is a form of adverse thermal stress! In addition, the opposite thermal stress would be anything that brings your body temperature too long for an extended period of time.

What Stress Does to Your Body

External Stressors

External stressors are things that stress the body from the outside, such as sunlight, physical pain (caused by injury or other external forces) emotional trauma and toxic chemical exposure.

Internal Stressors

Stress is perceived or interpreted by key control systems of the body – limbic/emotional, hormonal, visceral, nervous, musculoskeletal and subsystems. Internal stressors come from within the body and are most often the reaction of external stressors. Chronic stressors cause elevated stress hormones in the body, leading to immune suppression, the inability to heal and eventually to disease.

CHEK Points for Managing Stress

1. Identify your primary stressor: Focus on reducing stress in the area that is causing you the most stress. Generally, these include security, sustenance, and sex. Alleviating the chief stressor in your life often creates a domino effect wiping out or dramatically reducing other stressor in succession.
2. Make a plan: Make a realistic plan to address your biggest stressor and a set a series of achievable short-term goals, allowing you to clearly recognize progress as it’s made. Look for current books, videos or audio tapes that address issues related to your key stressor and how to overcome it. Another effective method is to find someone who has already been successful at overcoming the challenge you now face. There is no better teacher than experience.
3. Eat and drink right: Internal stressors only serve to magnify external stressors! Regardless of what your primary stressor may be, if you aren’t eating according to your metabolic type, you will not be able to effectively replace the stress hormones you’re using on a daily basis, which only causes more stress to the body. Dehydration is a common cause of internal stress. A reduction of as little as 1% of water content in your central nervous system can cause significant psychological disorders. Reducing your intake of coffee, tea and sodas, plus drinking more high-quality water, is an easy way to start reducing the internal stress on your body.
4. Move and exercise: Regular exercise can be a major tool to reduce stress. When performed correctly for your particular needs, exercise in the correct dose stimulates an anabolic (tissue growth and repair) environment.
5. Mental exercise: Many successful individuals give credit to the power of positive thinking. Try harmonizing your thoughts, words and actions with your goals and you may find that this will help decrease stress. Doing so is a good example of beneficial mental stress. Make sure you’re talking and thinking about what you do want, rather than what you don’t.

It’s one thing to actually read this article. It’s another to implement the things this article and the previous ones have suggested into your current lifestyle. As a trainer, I know from experience (both my own and my clients), that these methods work and have allowed everyone involved to live happier, healthier lives. One male client has lost 60 lbs. and is forced to buy a new wardrobe. Another has reduced over 20 inches on her body and is fitting in clothes she wore in her 20's. Both are reaping the benefits of a controlled, thoroughly planned out fitness regime. They are working to their goals one day at a time, and you can too, if you act now.

Email your questions or setup an appointment with Adam at adam.kania@goodlifemakesiteasy.com or leave a message at the front desk.