I Know Stress Affects Health ... But HOW?

White Blood Cells - Your Body's Last Line of Defense

Everyone remembers learning about the immune system when they were children in school – it’s our body’s line of defense against infection and disease. When the immune system is compromised, the body can’t keep up the fight against infection and illness occurs.

But what is the immune system, really?

For the purposes of HARDCORE Stress Management™ it will suffice to think of the immune system as an army. Your own personal army of little soldiers (specialized cells with scientific names like "white blood cells", “T Cells”, “lymphocytes” and “phagocytes”) whose job it is to defend their fortress (your body) from assault.

The enemies that your immune system soldiers defend your body against are the bacteria, viruses, parasites and other things which can make you sick.

When your army is healthy and well-organized there aren’t a whole lot of problems they can’t handle.

In fact, as you walk around and participate in your day-to-day life, you are practically swimming in an ocean of different little particles, many of which could potentially make you very sick. But your immune system soldiers protect you!

It’s when your troops become disorganized, or weakened, or confused - that is when they can be defeated.

Now think about what happens when you get stressed out. There are a whole range of physical changes that can occur as your body responds to the stress perceived by your mind ... you can read more about what specifically can happen when stress affects health here.

What it all boils down to is that when you are under extreme or chronic stress, your body responds as if it was being physically assaulted. This is the secret to understanding how stress affects health.

Not only do your muscles tense up, and your heart rate increase, and your adrenaline kicks in – but your immune system soldiers go on high alert, scouring your body for their enemies!

And what do you think happens to your immune system when you experience this sort of stress chronically, over time?

It’s like putting human soldiers on a forced march with little food and little sleep. They get tired, and they get sloppy, and things start to go wrong.

Stress affects health because it wears out your immune system ... stress affects health by creating gaps and breaches in your line of defense, and the fortress of your body is overrun by your enemies.

So you get sick. So you lay in bed for a few days (if not longer!), get some R&R and maybe some TLC, and you give your soldiers a chance to rest and get back in the fight. You get better ...

... and then you go back to your old routine and the same thing happens again not too far down the road!

If this pattern continues, eventually you are very likely to come down with something far more serious than the common cold. The more run-down your immune system gets from the daily wear & tear of stress, the more at-risk you become.

What can you do about it? First, drop the tough-guy attitude and accept that stress effects health - sometimes very seriously. Then ...

Attack the root cause. Deal with the effect that stress has on your body – directly That’s the only way to break what otherwise becomes a vicious cycle.

How? Check out my HARDCORE Stress Management™ program … I guarantee it is powerful and effective enough for the most extreme stress out there.