Tag: Chronic Stress

Stress, High Blood Pressure, and Acupuncture

When a person is under stress, their body starts what is known as a stress response. A number of chemicals are released into the bloodstream, the heart beats faster, breathing becomes more rapid, and muscles tense up. If the person is planning on running away from a large animal, these are all very good responses. For the businessman at his desk taking a phone call, these are not good reactions. The body easily takes care of an occasional response like this, the chemicals are cleaned out, and the body becomes relaxed once again. However, when this reaction occurs a number of times a week, the stress starts to affect the resting state of the body. Muscles no longer entirely relax, and the frequent release of these chemicals create other problems. Chronic stress can cause such problems as sleeplessness, stomach and digestion problems, panic attacks, and pain of some sort (such as frequent headaches). Long term problems related to stress include strokes, high blood pressure, and colitis or other bowel problems.

A person may try to handle stress on his or her own, by finding something to mask it. Alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes, and even lots of sugar can make the person feel better. One of the most common “pills” after a stressful moment is a cup of coffee and a doughnut, or possibly a cigarette. Physicians can also prescribe medications to combat some of these symptoms, both psychological and physical. Antidepressants, one of the more common medications for this, only offer short-term relief at best.

The obvious answer is to remove the source of stress. However, many times that simply is not possible. Is there another solution? One of the most successful results from acupuncture is the relaxation of the patient, followed by the removal of tension from the body. This relaxation response produces a decreased heart rate, lowered blood pressure, and increased energy and possible tissue regeneration. There is frequently a feeling of well being and self-confidence. As the acupuncture treatment stimulates and redirects the vital energy of the body, each muscle and organ system begins to function the way that it should. Acupuncture is not only used to relieve the stress response of a patient, but also in a number of cases it has made the doctor prescribed antidepressant unnecessary. With wider use of acupuncture, there could be a substantial reduction in the consumption of drugs such as Prozac.

Standard acupuncture techniques using needles are very effective to combat chronic stress. If this were more widely accepted by Americans under routine stress, we would have a much healthier population. In addition, acupuncture treatments that use low levels of electricity have been found to be even more successful in lowering blood pressure. Several researchers that use electric stimulation have been able to regrow tissue in animals, and this without any scars. The combination of using acupuncture therapy for blood pressure management and possible healthy tissue regrowth is a very exciting topic for people with heart and circulatory problems

Acupuncture is one of the most successful treatments for this American problem. Not only do the symptoms decrease, but the acupuncture treatment results in a healthier body as well.

Learn if You are Predisposed to Anxiety-Related Diseases

Anxiety has been the subject of many studies and researches, scientists are agreed that anxiety is still not fully understood even today. However, as a result of their researches, they have been able to help people effectively manage and avoid anxiety.

The first step to managing or treating anxiety is the recognition that one suffers from such attacks early on. However, it does not suffice to just say that you suffer from such a condition for it to qualify as such. While there are symptoms and signs the point to this ailment, you can also take this quick stress test to see whether you are at risk of suffering from chronic bouts of anxiety.

The Anxiety Stress Test
This stress test will help you find out whether you exhibit the symptoms of an anxiety-prone person. The more questions to you answer yes to, the greater the chance you will suffer from anxiety-related illnesses.

1. Do you feel irritable all of a sudden, even without reason or provocation? Most life experiences evoke differing amounts of anxiety. However, does anxiety becomes for you a chronic and even uncontrollable experience? Also, do you suddenly experience feeling terribly anxious for no reason at all?

2. If you were to describe how often you feel irritated, would you say it was often? Do you wake up grumpy or irritated? Are you always tired even after just waking?

3. Do you feel paranoid all the time? Are you always suspicious that people are talking about you? Do you have a low sense of trust for anyone?

4. Do you exhibit any repetitive, obsessive behavior? Ask yourself if you catch yourself counting tiles, wringing your hands often, biting your lips, washing your hands or uncontrollable mannerism.

5. Do you always feel guilty? Are you weighed down by guilt? Do you fell troubled often either because you had done something you regret or for no reason at all?

6. Do you have low self-esteem? Are you unsatisfied with who you are and find yourself wanting to be like other people instead? Do you feel helpless, unwanted, and useless to other people? Do you often wonder if people like you or if they even know that you exist?

7. Do you have suicidal thoughts? Are you lonely, thinking that life does not matter anymore and that the best way to go is to let go and end it all?

8. Are you sometimes breathless? Do you experience such physical manifestations of anxiety such as palpitations, wet or clammy hands, butterflies in the stomach, and others? Does a particularly stressing situation cause you to be paralyzed with fear and hard of breath?

9. Do you drink or take drugs? Do you smoke, drink alcohol or coffee, take drugs or any other mood altering substance?

10. Have you noticed a change in you diet? Are you able to eat regularly? Have you noticed an increase in the amount of food you eat, a change in the schedule of your eating?

11. Do you overwork yourself? Do you catch yourself working overtime, or working more, and accomplishing less? Do you pull all-nighter after all-nighter?

If you answered yes to most of the questions above, you will want to seek professional help regarding depression and anxiety. You do not have to be ashamed of your situation; it is an illness like most illnesses, with specific causes and cures. A qualified professional will help you find emotional and physical support to combat your anxiety.

Tips to Better Your Brain Performance

It may be true that as you get older, your memory also deteriorates. But this does not mean that if you are younger, your brain is not capable of memory deterioration. Aging is just one cause of memory loss, but there are other factors. Thus, if you want to prevent this, you may want to read these tips to a better your brain performance.

1) More Relaxation Period, Better Thinking

If you want to protect your recent memories, you should stay away from stress. Stress can trigger the release of cortisol, a neuro drug which can interfere with the brains performance, especially with handling recent memories. Furthermore, with chronic stress, the part of the brain which handles recent memories may even shrink. If you want to prevent this from happening, you should learn to relax a little and release the tension from your body. You should never let stress overwhelm you.

2) Refrain From Cigarette Smoking

Cigarettes affect the flow of blood in your veins. Because of this, there may be a chance of reduced blood flow to your brain; and reduced blood flow means reduced oxygen. With lesser oxygen to consume, the brain may not function well as expected, hence the memory may be prejudiced.

3) Stay Away from Brain Toxins

As you may know, illegal drugs may cause harm to your brains functioning. However, you should also know that prescription drugs, if misused, may also have the same toxic effect to your brain. Thus, you should always follow the prescription given to you be your doctor, and never self-medicate. This may affect your brains normal performance. Prolonged use of drugs may cause memory loss.

4) Eat Healthy

Your brain functions according to the nutrients that it receives from the food that you eat. Thus, if you are deprived of certain nutrients, then it may have an adverse effect on the functioning of your brain. You most certainly would not want this to happen. Thus, as prevention, you should eat a healthy and balanced diet so that you will absorb all the vitamins and nutrients that your body needs. Also, you should stay away from junk foods.

5) Exercise Your Brain

Find ways to use and improve your thinking skills. Some mentalists propose techniques which are designed to improve mental skills. We all have the potential to possess a good functioning memory, thus it should be something that we can all improve. All we have to do is to find ways and try techniques that can effectively help us develop our potentials.

Most people believe that by engaging themselves into educational activities, they are improving their mental faculties. This is true, and you can try this even at home. Simple activities like crossword puzzles can exercise your brain. This may help your brain functioning to get better, if not, to prevent it from deteriorating easily.

6) Shield Your Brain

There is no point of improving the brain if you cannot protect it physically. You should always protect your head from injuries because trauma may affect the functioning of your brain. Even simple injuries should be avoided, because repeated minor injuries, if accumulated, may cause damage to your brain. Thus, you should try simple prevention, like putting helmets when bicycling, in order for you to avoid situations that may damage your brain functioning.

If you want to be able to think better, your brains health is the key. Thus, you should keep it as healthy as possible and avoid all those factors which may expose you to mental deterioration.

The Different Kinds of Stress

Have you ever wondered what exactly is up with stress? This informative report can give you an insight into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about stress.

The Many Faces of Stress

Stress affects each individual differently, according to the cause and its effects. Therefore, there are different kinds of stress as recognized by clinical and research studies. It is important for an individual to recognize the cause of stress in order to know how to deal with actual, and hopefully reduce stress levels. Moreover, each type of stress have different approaches to treatment.

Basically, there are three proclaimed types of stress: acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress. However, a fourth kind psychological stress is also becoming larger prevalent and is considered as a actual type of stress.

Acute Stress

This is the most common form of stress, which results from the pressures one is subjected to in their everyday life. In small doses of acute stress, it can actually be helpful to an distinct. Think of athletes that are about to compete in an event. They experience acute stress, which triggers the production of adrenaline and giving them a convulse of energy needed to seal their best.

The symptoms for this type of stress are easily recognizable and mostly affects a person only in a short term. Common symptoms include back or canoodle pain, muscular tensions, headache, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, cold hands or feet.

Episodic Acute Stress

As mentioned above, acute stress is quite common to most people. However, there are a few others who experience it more often than others. These people are the ones who are so focused on achieving organization and yet always fail when it comes to performance. Therefore, it is not surprising that they often become irritable, if not with themselves then their initial environment. This also explains why they find the workplace quite a stressful environment.

Other forms of episodic acute stress are those people who keep worrying. They have become therefrom pessimistic about the environment that they always linger something wrong would happen. Inasmuch as, they pole up feeling awful, tense, or anxious gone astray having sunny reasons for feeling that way.

Chronic Stress

This is the type of stress that wears one out. Rectitude, it builds up over time and can produce long – term effects on a person, whether emotionally or physically. Most forms of chronic stress are caused by trauma that they find difficult to let go and so it continues to disrupt their everyday lives.

One problem with chronic stress is that people often believe that corporeal is something that is innate to them and that they cannot get rid of. Thus, factual makes treating this condition difficult being it is often ignored by the circumstance affected by it. It can, however, be treated through stress management procedures and behavioral treatment.

Psychological Stress

Stress has its own set of complexity. With the different types stated above, psychological stress concerns more of a person’s ability to respond to a given situation. To be specific, the grave of that ability. During dangerous situations, your body produces hormones known as adrenaline and cortisol that prompts the body to make a response.

Compare this to charging a battery that produces high voltage that must be discharged. In the case of a person shot from psychological stress, the body fails to discharge that burst of energy that is produced. The stretching stand in your heart rate and the production of adrenaline could result to fatal problems in your heart.

There are distinct reasons as to how one acquires psychological stress but it can include trauma suffered from an emotionally disturbing event in the past or other emotional anxiety. The problem with people suffering from psychological stress is that they tend to induce more stress in their lives by subjecting themselves to stressful situations. Today, several groups hold counseling to help those who suffer from this condition and regain guidance over their life.
Sometimes it’s tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I’m positive you’ll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.