stress

Be kind to yourself in these difficult times (written during the fires in 2019)

Be kind to yourself in these difficult times (written during the fires in 2019)

Spectrum Blog, stress , , ,

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

These fires are very stressful for everyone. The fear of not surviving is a really visceral one. Even if you haven’t lost a loved one or property, or if you haven’t watched the news, you are still breathing in the smoke and have probably been down to the shops and noticed the subdued atmosphere. We all seem to just want to curl up under a rock and hide till it’s all over.

And that would actually be a very good thing to do. Remember that the only actual remedy for stress is rest. So allow yourself to feel tired, give yourself extra rest and sleep. It’s likely you won’t feel the exhaustion until after the fires have subsided and you are out of immediate danger.

Make sure you replenish your water. The air is very dry at the moment and being dehydrated just makes everything worse and stops your body from working optimally or even well.

Try not to overdo the quick fixes – alcohol/caffeine/sugar etc – because you are doing it on credit and will have to pay back that energy with interest down the track. If you need caffeine go for green tea, which isn’t quite so hard on your adrenals.

Allow yourself to feel the emotions – grief, sadness, anger, rage, loss, fear are all normal responses to the events. When you are in immediate danger, they get suppressed because you have to concentrate on survival. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t in your being-ness, however, and stiff upper lip will only lead to these emotions being trapped in the body and are likely to make you sick down the track. Let the tears flow- the tears of anger and joy and fear and grief all have a different chemical composition, so as far as I am concerned it’s the way the body can literally wash the emotions out of itself. Don’t harm yourself by trying to pretend you are superhuman.

Music! Sing your heart out, as if no-one is listening. It’s also a great way to express emotions. Music in general is wonderful, especially if you are the maker of it, such as playing an instrument or singing. But just listening to music that makes your heart happy will help too.

Movies – watch a funny film, or read a funny book, and allow yourself to laugh out loud as often as you can. Refill your tank so you can keep going.

Hug those you love. For at least 21 seconds, ideally longer. Allow yourself to really feel that warmth in your heart as you hold the ones you love.

Pat your pet.

Take deep breaths.

Walk in bare feet on grass or on the beach.

Remedies – there are lots of wonderful remedies that can help. A good generic one is rescue remedy (Bach flowers) or emergency essence (bush flower remedy). Herbs that are useful are ones like Withania and Rosehip. Take up drinking rosehip tea. Lavender is a lovely calming essential oil, and the citrus ones are uplifting (use good quality). We have found NAC really useful to help the body clear the smoke toxins out of the body.

Nourish your body – choose real food. That means the kind that doesn’t have GST on it. Your body easily gets depleted with this much intense stress going on, and each mouthful should ideally be a nutrient “bomb” so your body can replenish itself.

Do gentle exercise – like walking or swimming or dancing – something that you can sustain for hours without getting exhausted. This is the kind of exercise that switches on the “rest and digest” part of the nervous system and it’s really good to move to actually get the adrenaline shifted. Also keep in mind that it’s easier to get injured when you are stressed (for a variety of reasons), so be mindful if/when you move heavy objects etc.

Have some body work. I haven’t encountered an adult recently that doesn’t have a tight neck and even possibly headaches. This is because of the posture we hold when we are stressed. Whatever works for you – chiropractic, massage, acupuncture etc.

Meditate. It’s not hard, and there are gazillions of guided meditations out there if you, like me, have the kind of mind that likes to be kept busy.

Do something kind for someone else, and really feel the gratitude when someone else does something kind for you.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. And for the big stuff, break it down into small, manageable bits. Ask for help if you need to, and allow others to help you. It makes them feel good, so it’s a total win/win!

And mostly be kind to yourself. This is a tough time, and if you have sustained a heavy loss, it can take up to two years to process fully. So don’t judge or compare yourself. It is what it is, and you are at where you are at. Beating yourself up as well isn’t going to make anything better.

…. In re-reading this, it’s actually excellent advice for life in general. I think it’s an invitation to make today the beginning of the rest of our lives and give it all meaning by increasing the compassion and love and gratitude in our hearts and therefore in the world.

 

“with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world” (from Desiderata)

 

Here’s an article on how to ensure your priorities support your wellbeing https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/wellbeing-of-mind-body-and-spirit/

 

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Flu Season Survival Guide

Flu Season Survival Guide

Spectrum Blog , , , ,

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

NSW is experiencing a significant flu season this year. Chances are that you or someone you love has been affected by it. So what can you do to avoid or minimize the flu?

Orthodox medicine has long gone with Pasteur’s “bug” theory – basically, if there’s a bug going, you just may catch it. Natural therapies are more in alignment with Bechamp’s “host” theory. Bechamp stated that if the host was strong, you would not get sick regardless of what bug was floating around. Legend has it that he drank a glass full of cholera to demonstrate that it would not make him sick (it didn’t). Even the black death killed “only” 40 – 60 % of the population, meaning that the remainder either didn’t get sick, or got sick and recovered.

So what’s the difference between those of us succumbing and those of us staying well? Well, it’s most likely stress. If you are stressed, your body is in fight-or-flight and your immune system is suppressed, making “rest-digest-heal” a tricky proposition, seeing that the internal organs don’t get prioritized in terms of blood flow.

So what can you do to improve your odds? All of these are pretty common-sensical bits of advice that are actually useful any time of the year:

  • Rest. I.e., get plenty of sleep and times-out meditating, reading a book, listening to music, staring into a fire etc.
  • Have bone broth soup. This builds the gut and as you know, gut and immunity are closely linked.
  • Ditch the caffeine (tea, coffee), sugar, alcohol and junk foods and drinks. All of these require reserves from your body – reserves better spent on nurturing your body.
  • Have ginger, turmeric, garlic and cinnamon that warm your body and help it detoxify.
  • Have plenty of warm water (add ginger or lemon for flavour).
  • Get some sunshine to create Vitamin D and lighten your mood.
  • And have a chiropractic visit! Why?
    1. Firstly, come in and get an adjustment when flu first shows up on your radar. The brain runs the whole body, including immunity, via the spinal cord, and if you are “out”, its function is highly likely to be affected.
    2. Firstly, we can help you pinpoint which specific remedy your body needs in order to strengthen immunity. Some of the favorite remedies this season so far have been colloidal gold or silver, liposomal C, zinc and probiotics to name a few. If you are recovering from the flu, it’s still smart to find out which remedy is good to ensure your body can finish the job fully. There have been quite a few people whose only flu symptoms have been achy joints, so it’s worth checking that line of enquiry if that’s the case for you, too.
    3. Thirdly, we have studied techniques that can help you with the emotional aspect of stress.

And finally, getting a cold or a flu is actually not such a bad thing. It’s the same part of the immune system that deals with colds and influenzas that also deals with cancer, so your body is getting a cancer-cell clearing-out in the process. So count your blessings and rest!

Oh, and PS: one of our esteemed teachers, Dr. Chris Astill-Smith (he’s the author of most of the charts in our rooms) said when the swine flu was going around during the GFC: “Every time you hear the words “GFC” or “unemployment” just think of chocolate. This will make you smile and strengthen your immune system.” Thanks, Chris!

Check out this article on why having a cold might not be such a bad thing

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/you-have-a-cold-congratulations/

Here’s how to avoid winter dry skin

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/how-to-prevent-winter-dry-skin-and-stimulate-your-metabolism-too/

Here’s an article on how to stay hydrated in winter https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/how-to-avoid-winter-dehyrdation-a-factor-in-how-susceptible-you-are-to-the-flu/

 

Image by Tania Hardianti from Pixabay

The Hibernation Hormone

The Hibernation Hormone

Spectrum Blog , , , ,

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

We are currently finding ourselves in the part of the year when the days are shortest. Do you find yourself wanting to sleep more? Are you feeling less energetic and putting on a little weight? What happens in this time of year is that we have less exposure to sunlight, which means that we make less Vitamin D, which in turn means that our bodies are starting to produce RT3 (reverse active thyroid hormone) instead of T3 (active thyroid hormone). RT3 acts like a brake on the metabolism – which makes perfect sense in winter, when we need to conserve our stores and don’t burn up fuel trying to hunt and gather food.

I actually think that the pineal gland – a tiny gland right in the middle of the brain that responds to light and runs most of our daily, lunar and yearly cycles – is involved, but the pineal gland is still very much a medical mystery, with hormones as yet undiscovered and the discovered ones yet to find out what they do. So let’s give medical research a couple of decades to back this statement up ;).

So if the above is your situation, you’re in tune with the season! Don’t worry, once the days lengthen, you’ll pick up again, get active and lose that extra bit of weight. Do what the people resident in the Northern hemisphere do in midwinter: Have a rest!! This is why they invented midwinter holidays. In Australia, we just keep going as if it were any other season, and then we wonder why we’re exhausted by Christmas.

Do make sure that you get yourself into natural daylight, having said that, especially if you are one of the people who has to work in a fully enclosed space lit by artificial light sources, getting to work and home in the dark. (Being of Danish origin, this is still a mystery to me – I guess in Denmark, sunlight is often in short supply due to the days being short in winter and/or the skies being overcast, and Danes have therefore become extremely good at building as to capture any stray sunlight in the vicinity.)

It is, of course, more complicated than that for a lot of people. RT3 can easily become too high, usually in times of extreme and prolonged stress. This leads to elevated stress hormones in the body, which favour T4 (the much more inactive thyroid hormone and precursor to T3 and RT3) converting into RT3 rather than T3. I think of this as the body’s way to force you to rest, as this really is the only cure for stress – remember stress is supposed to be short term! Also, if you have a latent underactive thyroid issue, it will often show up in winter, just by virtue of the fact that we need to create more heat in our bodies.

The tricky thing about RT3 is that it is not usually tested for in a thyroid blood test. It is, in fact, counted as a T3(!!). So if you have low thyroid symptoms (such as tired all the time, high cholesterol, depression, unexplained weight gain, cold-sensitivity, difficulties concentrating and remembering, hair loss ….) but your blood tests are “normal”, chances are RT3 is at fault!

 

So what can you do to restore your RT3/T3 balance?

Rest.

Get some sunlight every day.

Eat foods rich in iodine, such as seafood, seaweed, and rosemary (makes a nice tea, too).

Eat coconut oil.

Avoid the foods that are bad for your thyroid, such as gluten, unfermented soy foods and alcohol.

Avoid chlorine and fluoride (as found in tap water and toothpaste) as they displace the iodine from its place in the thyroid hormone molecule.

Address any issues that cause you stress, especially long-term stress (we can probably help with that).

Only do very gentle exercise. No heart-pounding, sweat-pouring activities, please! They will only deplete you further. Stick with walking, yoga, swimming and other gentle exercise.

Check out this article on the adrenal glands

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/stress-the-glands/

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

The Vagus nerve. Does it act as a sort of radar and does it influence how we relate with others and our world?

The Vagus nerve. Does it act as a sort of radar and does it influence how we relate with others and our world?

Spectrum Blog , , , ,

by Chiropractor  Dr. Graham Taylor

How do we know that the person we just met is ok? What tells us how welcoming to be towards someone? How do we decide if this new activity is safe to do? And what is the mechanism for close bonding?

With mental and emotional health hand in hand as key drivers of health, and apparently increasing numbers of children (and adults) affected by anxiety – I want to share with you my current literature research on how to help stay well from the inside > out > in. What I mean is to have a healthy regulatory and self – feedback system that guides us towards the right people, foods, activities, music, culture, foster-worthy thoughts, and stories that are just right for each of us. That is to say, to the things that ADD TO our energy, robust health and vital life force when we engage with them. As we know, when we take on things that are wrong for us, especially over a long period, we run ourselves down. So, as adults we want to choose what is good for us AND help guide our young ones in those choices – remembering that we are all unique individuals with individual needs.

Many current wellness researchers are now highlighting the importance of the vagus nerve that provides a major pathway for self awareness and self regulation. The vagus is a huge nerve that starts at the base of the brain on both sides, exits the skull and supplies the sinuses – throat – then travels through the chest and into the gut, supplying the lungs – heart – diaphragm – stomach – spleen – kidneys – liver – pancreas – intestines. Wow! What a big job the vagus nerve has! To quote a Dad-joke from one of the researchers: “What happens in Vagus does not stay in Vagus” – that’s because there are so many organs “on the grid” that can be affected in either a good or bad way by vagus nerve activity. The vagus nerve promotes healthy bowel activity and slows heart rate when it’s too high. Low vagus nerve “tone” (or function) can cause problems…….

The thing is, because the vagus nerve covers so much territory, there are many chances for it to be adversely affected along its course by two key things:-
1. Physical pressure: nerves DO NOT work well with excess pressure. Excess pressure can be exerted where the nerve travels through restricted anatomy, eg where it exits the skull (through a very small hole), or in the throat region.
2. Chemistry: nerves DO NOT give good information back to the brain when there is inflammation. The vagus nerve plays a big role in managing inflammation and our immune system response. To respond for our best health, the brain needs accurate information.

 

Retained Neonatal Reflexes treatment addresses the vagus nerve

It continues to amaze me that science often takes a while to catch up with time-honored wellness practices. Dr. Keith Keen (founder of the Retained Neonatal Reflexes (RNR) technique) developed a treatment aimed at helping better vagus nerve function over 20 years ago. If you have been to one of my talks you will recognize that a practice of releasing pressure on the vagus nerve is addressed in the integration of the Fear Paralysis Reflex. I have used this treatment for more than 10 years with very good results helping mostly children (recently now there are more adults coming for the treatment too) reduce anxiety and modify their stress response to become more situation -appropriate. In that time, new developments have been added for greater effect.

Some people having RNR sessions may take longer to settle than others. Colleagues and I think this is a reflection of the brain > gut connection I mentioned, and some kids have more challenges with this than others, depending on birthing and other factors that may have caused trauma. Imagine the following scenario: A small child who has met you several times and likes or loves you, comes to visit. Recognition means they are happy to see you at first but they then run away or hide their face. Their higher brain has let them know you are familiar and safe – but because of lower vagal tone the vagus nerve has not kicked in sufficiently to regulate their heart rate – so the excitement they feel at first seeing you has not been “hand-braked”. Their system then performs as if it is a first meeting. Their heart keeps pounding in their chest to the point their survival system over-rides any initial “ok” feeling and puts resulting increased energy into the flight mode – they take off. This leaves us scratching our heads and feeling perplexed as to why………..

From stressed out towards chilled out: natural at- home solutions.
Do you know someone who struggles with :
• Fear of or big resistance towards change (especially of routine).
• Tantrums
• Being withdrawn
• Anxiety
• Immune system chronically run down (constant infections)
• Chronic gut problems?

Experts’ advice on how to help balance your vagus nerve
There are practices that change or influence structures through which the vagus passes can balance nerve function via scientifically evidenced mind-body feedback loops. Indirect vagus nerve stimulation can be done in the following ways:
1. Humming – hum your favorite tune. Yoga people might want to do the “Om”. These exercise the throat muscles and vocal chords.
2. Conscious breathing – move the belly and diaphragm, slow your breath rate from the normal 10-14 breaths per minute to 5-7 bpm. Do this by counting to 5 as you inhale, holding briefly, then exhaling over 10 counts. As you exhale, breathe as though you are trying to fog a mirror.
3. Connection – call a friend. Allow yourself to be playful. Do your favourite creative thing.

Other things that can help
Activate your diving reflex! Yep, get that cold water on your face from the lip line to the scalp line. This slows the heart rate, increases blood flow to your brain and reduces anger! (Brrrr)
Having very gentle massage on the face and neck with a favorite essential oil while listening to Baroque music or your favorite relaxing music. ( I think I’ll choose that one please).
Dr. David Snarch says “Hug until relaxed”. “Stand on your own two feet, place your arms around your hugging partner, focus on your self (breathing) and quiet your self down, way down”.
Eat food that is gut friendly: That means the food is non inflammatory and promotes lots of healthy gut bugs. Please ask us about that if you need guidance.
Gentle rocking, known as rhythmic rocking: if the person, you or your child; lays prone on a Swiss ball with knees on the floor, arms to each side and gently rocks in a forward – back motion while breathing with awareness, this may calm the person and help them feel safer to listen to their body’s feelings. Otherwise known as feeling more “grounded”. Swings and rocking chairs can also be used. It is thought the rocking motion activates the relaxation part of the nervous system and releases lots of “feel-good” hormones.

As you can see, there can be a lighter side to de-stressing, it can be flipped to fun mode; in fact if possible, that’s where it works best. I know that some people face big challenges in this area so taking first steps can be the most difficult part. That’s when professional help can be indicated and where possible, I and we at Spectrum are committed to helping people restore balance in their lives.

References:
1. Keen, Keith. “Retained Neonatal Reflexes”. Their part in learning and behaviour. 2011.
2. Porges, Stephen. “The Polyvagal Theory”. Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. 2011.
3. Schwatrz, Dr. Arielle. “The Complex PTSD Workbook. A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole” 2016.

Check out this article on the adrenal glands

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/stress-the-glands/

 

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Science catches up!

Science catches up!

Spectrum Blog , ,

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE ESTABLISHED FOR NEURO EMOTIONAL TECHNIQUE (NET)

by Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

Evidence for NET stress reduction technique used at Spectrum
Isn’t it fantastic when science actually catches up with our lived experience or ‘reality’? A recent scientific study in PubMed (a pre-eminent international medical journal) has added solid evidence behind a long used Chiropractic method called Neuro Emotional Technique or NET. Uncountable people worldwide have experienced relief of stress related to particular memories of negative experiences. Now there is measured scientific evidence to reveal insights as to the mechanisms.

History of NET
NET was discovered in the late 1970s, after the founding in 1964 of Applied Kinesiology (or AK) that is based on muscle testing as a form of health diagnosis. NET was designed from that original foundation.

How and where does stress manifest in our body?
NET uses muscle testing to find where in our body a stressful experience may have created an unresolved stress pattern. That unresolved stress pattern can keep on having a negative influence on our health because our brains respond in the same way to the memory of the event as to the actual event, meaning that our bodies will go into fight and flight mode, changing our posture, blood flow, how our organs work etc. The body-memory can be triggered by simple things such as a tone of voice, a colour or a posture, and often we are actually not consciously  aware that it has happened. A simple example of body stress is the way we hold our shoulders up higher when we are super busy or feeling threatened. Another example is the way we feel tightness in the solar plexus (stomach) when we feel overwhelmed. Everyone is unique in how they respond to stress, and some of us are more sensitive to it than others. More extreme cases of unresolved stress are known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This problem afflicts many military and emergency services veterans, but you don’t need to be in that line of work to go through a traumatic stress event or suffer its’ debilitating effects well beyond the original event. With an unresolved traumatic event as a back-drop, this usually means we over-react in a situation instead of responding more appropriately or from a position of authenticity and confidence.
Some of you are aware of NET and have experienced this at our clinic and/or perhaps another clinic. The practitioner identifies stress held in the body and asks the patient to use focused breathing to release the stress while stimulating specific points on the spine.

Results of the NET study
Researchers used MRI imaging of the brain of participants in this research project. They compared neurological activity (intensity of nerve messages) in the brain stress circuits of those treated with NET with the group not treated. Activity in key emotion related centres in the brain – the hippocampus, anterior cingulate gyrus, brainstem and insula – was far less when NET-treated participants were again confronted with stimuli related to their original trauma event. Researchers also found that the people treated with NET were thereafter experiencing significantly less generalized anxiety than those who did not have the NET treatment.

Take-away message from the NET study
What the results in this study show is that emotional centres of people receiving treatment were calmed. Furthermore, the dynamics demonstrated by this study are probably representative of those dynamics in people all over the world whose stress is less and health better for having experienced NET.

Annika and Graham both use NET and you can call on 65501223 to find out more or drop by for a brochure or mention this newsletter at your next visit.

Reference: Neuro emotional technique effects on brain physiology in cancer patients with traumatic stress symptoms: preliminary findings. J. Cancer Survivor. 2017 Feb 8

 

Image by 👀 Mabel Amber, who will one day from Pixabay

Can stress be good for you?

Can stress be good for you?

Spectrum Blog

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

When we say “stress”, we generally mean mental-emotional stress, but technically, stress is anything the body has to adapt to. There is this concept in physiology called “homoeostasis”, where everything is in perfect balance in the body. As we know, achieving perfection is a pretty elusive thing, so the body is constantly adapting, sometimes in big ways, and sometimes in small ways.

There are three different stress states:

1. Too much stress (aka overwhelm):

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. This is when we need more than we have, essentially, be it time, nutrients, rest etc.

2. Just enough stress or “eu-stress”:

This one’s fabulous! It’s when you have enough stress to keep you interested, but not enough to get on top of you. This is the best place to be for learning, or for achieving the “flow” state, where time just disappears and you get completely absorbed in your activity, for the body to stay healthy.

3. Not enough stress:

Yes, there is such a thing! This is also known as “boredom”.  Boredom emotionally has to do with lack of stimulation or interest. One of today’s pitfalls in this context is interactions with screens. Screens (tv, games etc.) provide us with a spike of interest about 5 times as frequently as real life does, and hence if you spend a lot of time in front of a screen, real reality can look rather dull and boring. So please limit the time your children spend in front of screens!

The other aspect of this is that in order to learn, children need to move, and time in front of screens usually means less time outside moving. A bit of boredom is actually not a bad thing, it tends to open us up to creative pursuits and daydreaming, which is actually a crucial activity for sanity, much as nighttime dreaming is.

Physiologically lack of stress means that the body starts to break down. For example, people who hang out in zero gravity for a period of time (for as little as three months, if memory serves me right) end up with osteoporosis or brittle bones, because bones need the stress of gravity to remain strong.

 

Check out this article about the adrenal glands

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/stress-the-glands/

Check out this article on stress management

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/stress-management/

Can stress be good for you?

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/is-there-such-a-thing-as-not-enough-stress/

 

Image by Dr. Annika Jende

 
Stress: The Adrenal Glands

Stress: The Adrenal Glands

Spectrum Blog ,

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Normally when we talk about glands, people think of the kind of glands that swell up in your neck when you have a cold, or the ones that get taken out when there is cancer surgery. Those are lymphatic glands, and have (almost) nothing to do with the stress glands. There are many different kind of glands in the body, and what makes them glands is that they secrete something that affects something else.

The technical term for the stress glands is the adrenal glands (aka “adrenals”), and if you are familiar with the term “I am running on adrenaline” you know where the term comes from: Adrenaline is the hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. (In America they call it epinephrine, because someone was using the term adrenaline commercially. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?).

The adrenal glands are two small glands that sit on top of the kidneys (ad= next to; renal = kidney). What makes the adrenal glands special (according to AJ) is that the inside of them, the medulla, is actually nervous system tissue that has changed to become a hormone-secreting tissue rather than a bundle of nerve cells that stimulate a specific end organ. (This is why sometimes when we want to support the adrenal glands we end up giving something you’d normally think of as something to support the brain). In effect what that means is that you have that quick, sort-term action of the sympathetic nervous system reinforced by the longer-lasting action of the hormone adrenaline.

Stress: What happens?

There is a “one size fits all” response that the body has to any kind of stressful situation (whether perceived or real). The interesting and at times (for some people, a lot of the time) unhelpful thing is that the body reacts in the same way, whether you are in a life-threatening situation or “only” in a situation that you perceive to be threatening.

For example: the way your body feels after you have put your foot on the brake to avoid an accident is not all that different to how your body feels when you’re about to go and have a job interview, or do a presentation (assuming those situations make you nervous). Once upon a time, being expelled from your community would mean almost certain death, which is why for humans disapproval by important others can be deeply stressful. In those situations, however, the fact that the brain shuts down the logical, thinking part in favour of the fast, subconscious part can be very counterproductive. But I am getting ahead of myself. Hold that space.

So what happens when we are in a threatening situation?

Recall that it’s also called the fight-or-flight response. So the body is getting ready for fast, short-term, physical action. So when the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal glands fire, this is what happens:

  • the heart beats stronger and faster
  • your blood pressure increases
  • the blood vessels in the organs constrict
  • the blood vessels in the heart and muscles open up
  • the airways open up
  • digestion slows way down
  • the pupil of the eye opens
  • sugar and fat are released into the blood stream (for fuel)
  • the sweat glands activate
  • the brain is more alert
  • the neocortex, the part of the brain that thinks logically and creatively, gets less blood than the part of the brain that runs automatically. (In a situation like the accident mentioned above, this is a good thing, because you will have braked before you consciously realize that there has been a threat. But when you are in the middle of an argument, the old recommendation of taking a deep breath and counting to 10 is actually really valuable, because you buy yourself time to think, rather than just to react.)

I am sure you can all recall a situation where your body was reacting in this way. Personally, I remember many an exam when my body was doing just that!

To be continued….

 

Check out these articles on whether stress can be good for you

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/what-is-stress/

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/is-there-such-a-thing-as-not-enough-stress/

Check out this article on stress management

https://spectrumchiropractic.com.au/stress-management/

 

Image by Dr. Annika Jende