The Physical Symptoms of Stress

"Are you suffering from the physical symptoms of stress?"

Indeed, how often do we turn around and point to our physical symptoms as if they were the source of our stress!

Just think about it ... how many of these physical symptoms of stress have you experienced?

Headaches: An all too common complaint! Modern medicine still does not completely understand what causes the every-day, run-of-the-mill headache - but stress is often cited as a major contributor.

While stress is often the direct cause, headaches can also result from the clenched jaws and night-time tooth-grinding that afflict the stressed-out.

Digestive Problems: The body’s standard rhythms of digestion and elimination are surprisingly sensitive to stress. When disturbed the resulting physical symptoms of stress can include everything from an upset stomach and heartburn to constipation or diarrhea.

When digestion is compromised everything else in the human machine is effected - the liver is overworked cleansing the blood, as are the kidneys, while the skin steps up its role as an excretory organ, which brings us to ...

Skin Problems: Stress can often cause acne, skin blemishes, and other unsightly skin problems. Much of this has to do with increased activity of the sweat glands which increase the amount of oil on the skin, which in turn clogs pores.

Clogged pores easily become irritated or infected, and a stressed-out immune system is not as efficient at fighting these infections ... hence acne, breakouts, eczema, and other physical symptoms of stress relating to the skin. This is magnified when the skin is called upon to help an overworked system cleanse the body of waste by eliminating it through the pores.

High Blood Pressure: The classic sign of the stress-sufferer, and why many people become interested in stress management. It is amazing how often heart attacks (perhaps the most dreaded physical symptom of stress) are preceded (if not directly caused) by a stressful incident.

Less drastic but no less serious, many of us have experienced a racing heart, shortness of breath, or even chest pains - all physical symptoms of stress which allude the profound effect that stress can have on our body and health.

An increase in blood pressure from a tired, stressed heart effects the entire human system negatively (are you beginning to notice a pattern yet?!?), as the other organs struggle to keep up the pace.

Weight Gain: In simple terms, your body responds to stress by storing food as fat. It interprets the signals of stress from the brain to mean that food might be scarce in the near future.

So your body stores fat because it thinks you might need to it to survive this stressful environment that it senses. Chronic stress means chronic fat storage.

Stress also tends to encourage binge eating, for the same reasons it causes your body to store fat. Your body thinks that food is going to be scarce in the near future, so your brain sends you a signal to chow down on whatever happens to be in sight.

Binge eating plus increased fat storage equals ... you guessed it! A fat body.

Muscular Tension: It is a natural human response for muscles to tense in response to stress. It's the same kind of instinctual reaction that protects your body from physical trauma - like a car accident or falling down the stairs.

The problem is that your body can't tell the difference between the different kinds of things that stress you out. For example, having your boss ambush you screaming at work every day is not much different than being chased through the forest by a hungry tiger, as far as your body is concerned!

Your muscles go on to cramp and spasm as a direct result of the tension they are holding from chronic stress. This is the root of an incredible variety of physical maladies, ranging from the minor deterioration of posture to complete incapacitation from ...

Joint Pain: An entire industry exists to cater to those of us who suffer from chronic back pain, and other kinds of joint & skeleton related physical symptoms of stress.

Your muscles are attached to things - when they knot up from chronic stress, they pull on the bones and ligaments and tendons that connect everything else together. When those bones get pulled in the wrong way, pain and dysfunction ensue.

From your chiropractor to your orthopedic therapist to your deep tissue masseuse, all of these professionals work to fix these physical symptoms of stress.

Wouldn't it be better to take care of all that before it happens? That's where HARDCORE Stress Management™ comes into play.

Sexual dysfunction: I think the subject says it all! Perhaps one of the more worrisome physical symptoms of stress, if not the most life-threatening.

The image of the tired and stress-out husband or wife coming home from a long day and work and "just wanting to go to sleep" is almost a cliche.

It is as simple as this - as stress levels go up, performance levels go down. And a “bad performance” tends to have a stressful effect on its own, reinforcing the cycle and worsening the situation.

Fatigue: Stress is draining. It sucks you of energy. And the problems it causes your body result in an even greater draw on your energy reserves.

The effect is a chain reaction, and is the equivalent of putting your health in a downward spiral.

The desire to have more energy is one of the most common goals in the world of stress management. But it's like taking money out of the bank ... if you don't put some back in, eventually you're going to run out!

So where can you find some "money" to put back in your "bank"? I thought you'd never ask!

My HARDCORE Stress Management™ program is THE solution to the physical symptoms of stress.

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