it’s not stress that kills us ~ it is our reaction to it

having your car broken into is a legitimate cause of distress

Today I’m at home in the garret after a week in hospital.  While there I saw, among others, an oncologist and a nutritionist ~ after they talked together I was given detailed dietary instructions to help heal my kidneys, liver, and pancreas.  Strangely, at the top of the healthy eating / life style instructions, right above where its says No Alcohol, it reads No Stress.  Now, I know what my oncologist and nutritionist are getting at and it isn’t no stress whatsoever, because without some good stress we would die ~ that’s sensory deprivation.  What they are getting at is no bad stress extreme enough to cause me Distress, because distress is a killer.

Fear and anxiety, distress and confusion, frustration and insecurity; these are the causes of more illness than all the bacteria, viruses, and parasites in the world.  ~  Dr. Vernon Coleman.

Our bodies are hard-wired to react to stress in ways that were meant to protect us from predators and other dangers ~ today the threats are different but the physical responses are the same.  The first thing that happens in the face of a perceived threat, like a serious problem in your relationship, is that your hypothalamus tells your adrenal glands to surge a release of fight-or-flight hormones including adrenaline and cortisol.

These hormones cause huge changes in the way your body works ~ increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, increased blood sugars, enhances your brain’s ability to use blood sugars, and increases your body’s ability to repair wounds.  On the downside ~ your digestive system shuts down, your reproductive system shuts down, your growth processes shut down, and your immune system mostly shuts down.

It’s actually much, much worse than that, all these fight-or-flight hormones also attack something called Telomeres, which are protective casings at the ends of each and every strand of your DNA, in each and every cell of your body.  It’s a bit complicated, so if you really want to know about this you will need to do your own research.  But, the practical upshot of damage to the telomeres at the ends of your DNA is very bad indeed; cancers, all kinds of other nasty diseases, ill health, early death.

The thing is, for some people, the distress never goes away, so their body is in fight-or-flight mode all the fucking time, and this will make you very ill, (I was), and then it will kill you.  You will suffer from;

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Digestive problems like ulcers
• Severe headaches
• Severe nosebleeds
• Heart and circulatory diseases
• Insomia
• Cognitive impairment and dysfunction
• Liver, kidney, and pancreatic diseases
• Cancers
• Mental illness

The medical profession are not good at diagnosing and treating stress, mostly because they’re not interested.  They will be good at treating your heart problems, (for example), but not good at helping you with the real issue, which is your constant Distress.

Some say that they never worry about what could happen.  And that they’ve never done anything wrong so why should they ever get stressed?  All I know is that some people are so used to being distressed, that they think it’s normal.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

an extreme reaction to stress