The Stress Cascade
Dear Journal Reader,
“Stress happens”
Never has there been a more poignant statement in my opinion.
Wow, does it ever… often and subversively.
Today, I am focusing on emotional stress and the actual impact it has on our health, in ways you probably haven’t thought of.
The truth is we can’t control everything and everybody in our lives or the people that cross our paths.
This includes not only our family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances, but it also includes people we do business with, pass on the road, encounter shopping and while going through our daily tasks.
Stress happens in regards to our finances that don’t meet our needs, aging appliances and household items that break, silly mistakes we make and things we forget to do.
Emotional stress can pack a wallop
…to our overall health, even in small amounts.
Have you read “The Effects of Stress on Your Body”?
It really depends on how much stress we have already encountered along the way throughout our journey in life how we have responded to it, and how it has basically built up in our body.
Totally avoiding stress is not an option.
However, we need to understand the impact of it on our health and our body, before we are usually willing to take a deeper look into how to avoid stress or at least lesson the impact.
The actual process of the physical stress response that we ALL experience in our bodies when confronted with emotional stress looks something like this:
If you struggle with fatigue and emotional overwhelm, hormone imbalances, digestive issues, aching muscles and joint pain and more…
The Stress Cascade is ultimately the root cause.
This vicious cycle of the Stress Cascade results in disruption and down regulation of ALL of our Body Systems, in order to focus on responding to stress at that very moment its happening and for much longer if we struggle to let go and continue holding on to the emotional response.
This Cascade effect can lead to symptoms and health complaints…
When we seek medical oversight for health issues; the focus is often on the specific symptom and it is usually linked to a specific organ or body system.
The Stress Cascade gives us a peek at how ALL the body’s systems are affected, which ultimately leads to systemic inflammation throughout the body, creating symptoms and is the precursor to a disease state.
WOW! Right?!!!
Over time the effects of chronic stress add up. This process breaks down the body at the cellular, tissue and glandular levels, leading to dysfunctions in the body’s systems and initiating symptoms.
The thing about symptoms….
They are often not directly relevant to the actual dysfunction or causal issues happening in the body.
So, treating symptoms alone, without recognizing this concept or digging deeper to connect all the dots, leads to a system of trial and error, where we try one thing and then another, getting only short term results.
As a matter of fact, just treating systems or focusing on symptoms alone, can lead to test results that don’t offer any insights or answers and a conversation with our healthcare provider
…And the conversation may end with “There isn’t anything wrong with you”
Have you ever experienced this situation before?
It is so common and so frustrating.
… And extremely sad, when we are left still feeling awful with no answers.
Where does that leave us?
Where has that left you?
What Can You Do Next?
Think about how emotional stress may have impacted you.
Journal about areas of dysfunction or symptoms in your body and relate it to the “HIDDEN” systems, I refer to in the diagram.
H=Hormone system (adrenal/sex hormones, thyroid symptoms, catabolic state, low libido)
I= Immune System (Inflammation, mucosal barrier integrity,
D=Digestion (food intolerances, digestive enzymes, acid reflux, bloating, gas etc..)
D=Detoxification (liver, kidneys, bowels, gallbladder, skin condition)
E=Energy Production (Weight and fat distribution, carb metabolism, glucose homeostasis…)
N=Nervous System (brain-fog, emotions, moods, cloudy thinking, sleep issues, stress response…)
Do any of these symptoms sound familiar?
One symptom leads to another and another as the Stress Cascade continues, reducing function in these systems of the body, and ultimately leading to a diagnosis or diseased state.
As a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Professional, I help my clients discover and find E.N.E.R.G.Y Solutions to the causal factors of dysfunction in their body systems.
Tired?
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I’m continuing this conversation in the future as we go even deeper and discuss how Emotional stress actually triggers these responses and this vicious cycle of the Stress cascade.
We will also be delving deeper into how you can learn to respond in a less damaging way to stress, and how you can actually get to the bottom or discover the causal issues that drive symptoms and system dysfunction in your body.
Have you identified some areas in your body that are being affected by the Stress Cascade?
Next time we’ll go deeper into the stress response.
Don’t miss it!
Thoughtfully,
Tess Hanke
HHP, FDN-P, CFH, HTMA-MP
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