Modern times are stressing individuals to their maximum by either psychologically or by physical pressure from their career, relationship, or sedentary lifestyle.  Being able to understand the area of chaos within your life that are causing you some distress or tension are the major steps in reducing this stressful situation.

Stress indicators

Everyone will experience stress in a different way what is stressful to one person is not so to another.  This article looks at stress from the above criteria, my own research studies into the metabolic syndrome is not included within this work and it is my understanding that a dysfunction within the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis from severe physical injury is too complex to discuss at this point.

Needless to say, the circulating stress hormone cortisol levels does correlate positively with the severity of the illness and are at their highest shortly before death. Those whom survive the onslaught and recover from the trauma, a high percentage of individuals will develop Diabetes mellitus type 2

Personality appears to be important component within the individuals own traits in dealing with stress with some individuals being ambitious, competitive and will attempt to cram as much as possible into the time available. While others, have the opposite being more relaxed and easy going by taking any form of crises within their stride.

Stress response

During a normal stress response, a flurry of biochemical activity takes place, whether this invokes a physical or mental process is of little importance as the neurological reactions are basically the same.

Cortisol has been mentioned previously and adrenaline are neurotransmitters that get activated and pour into the bloodstream.  Muscles become tense and blood pressure rises to equip the individual to either attack or retreat (fight or flight action).

While the non-essential or the non critical activities like digestion are reduced to allow more blood to reach the essential components like muscles.

If this stress response continues to circulate around the body over a prolonged period of time, this will eventually have an adverse reaction upon your health in a number of ways which remain hidden for many years but the most noticeable will be fatigue.

It may be surprising to learn that exercise is the ideal solution to combat stress but if you are already stressed, under pressure, and feeling fatigued; you will be reluctant and will not feel like doing any form of exercise.

It is important to choose the exercise depending upon the effects you want and you can manage at that particular time.  There isn’t any doubt that exercise contributes in controlling stress and is able to increase your general sense of well-being and the possible reason for this will be explained shortly.

Yoga

This has a calming effect on the mind and stretching the tense muscles and exercises can be carried out in isolation or within a group activity, being more socially acceptable.

Massage

This is also used to move the muscles but non-mechanically and allows the individual to relax in most cases.  Overall, this can relaxing and reduce tension whilst removing stuck energy or “chi” However, there are a number of therapeutic manipulations and movements involved and choosing the correct therapy to gain the required result is important. Take a look at www.typesoftherapy.info to get a better picture of what is available to the individual.

Running

Running or jogging can be an excellent way to burn those excess hormones and calories in one easy session and in most cases you may experience the “Runners or Exercise High”.

Higher intensity exercises or workouts can be more beneficial when the person is anxious; the release of   the Runners High is due to the release of endorphins which has a chemical structure similar to opium.

Some individuals can become addictive to this stimulant and can be seen at the crack of dawn running to get their daily fix.  Even mild exercises have been shown to be more advantageous in combination with drug therapy in depression.

Overall, we all know that diet will not help us shed all that awkward weight effectively and stress can be a strong contributor to this problem. There is little point in turning into a gladiator overnight, one step at a time.

Even a light fitness programme like walking or joining your local rambling (hiking) club is helpful to meet people and learn about your local community / nature but if you have been inactive or have underlying health problems, it would be prudent to discuss this with your general practitioner before embarking on any fitness regime.

A word of caution, excessive exercise (over training) can be equally dangerous and experiments on cancer cells by me over 10 years ago demonstrated that the immune system can be reduced when you go beyond your limits in training.

Some International sport people are guilty of this habit and they risk their health when they take their exercise training to the extreme. Remember – everything in moderation.

Relationships

Can a relationship make you fat?

You cannot dispute that a strong support system can be the best way to find your life’s true purpose and when you are in a new or strong relationship, we tend to be walking on air. However, when things start falling apart within this relationship, it feels like everything or everyone is against you.

A healthy relationship will create an atmosphere where self – love and healthy habits are more likely to flourish.  Whereas, an unhappy relationship often results in an unhappy habit, disharmony is then manifested by eating poorly.   We have all heard of the term “Comfort Eating” and I have discussed this within a previous article but when your soul is empty, you attempt to fill this void with food.

A previous 12 year study which ended in 2008 found that marrying and getting divorced after the age of 30 can both result in weight gain which was termed the “weight shock” effect.

However there was a marked difference observed in weight gain on the hips between genders which was age specific.  Marriage or divorce had very little significance on the individual up to the age of 30 but after that point the probability of weight gain upon the waistline began to increase steadily up to their 50^th birthday.

However, both sexes were likely to gain weight within the first two years following a divorce or marriage.  This data was offset against individuals who had never married and excluded those who were pregnant or poor.

A marital transition differs between the sexes with females tending to gain more weight which was significant enough to pose a health risk.  This transition was greater in older people because the impact of marriage or divorce would come as a larger shock later in life.

Someone in their mid twenties did not show the same amount of weight gain and this study concluded that having a sudden lifestyle change in later life would be more difficult for them to cope with the stress in their advancing years.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Our work and social life has certainly changed in comparison to our forefathers, technology and computerization has taken away the intense physical work within factories and replaced them with a small isolated office workspace instead. We have an abundant choice of food but most of them are full of preservatives which include sugar and salt and a range of deadly E numbers to enable the food to stay on the shop shelf longer.

The baby – boom generation is now approaching retirement, they had the opportunity to play out in the street in safety without the fear of being kidnapped or injured by their peers.

Their former play grounds have now been sold to greedy housing developers and unlike the new generation that are labelled a juvenile delinquent for kicking a football around the streets.  Many mothers prefer to encourage their offspring to stay within the safety of their own home and entertain themselves with their new computerised gadgets.

Schools have reduced their physical education down to a bare minimum and in most cases even sold off their land to keep within their financial budgets. It’s not surprising that children today have grown up ignorant to the value of play when they have been discouraged at an early age.

I did read once that teachers wanted to take away competitive team games because it would cause some children undue stress when they lose but then subject them to a barrage of exams and academic tests at an early age instead.

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