Ken Ward's Health and Nutrition Pages

Effects of Stress on the Body

One of the effects is to use up protein, at first from lessential tiessues and later from important organs, such as the digestive system, the lungs and the heart.

In stress, protein is used up to provide a source of energy. Of course, at first, the body uses the stored glucogen in the liver to provide glucose, but when that is used up it starts to use the proteins, rather than fat, because proteins are easier to convert into energy than fat is.

At the onset of stress, the pituitary, starts protective action by secreting chemical messengers, or hormones, Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH). These hormones travel in the blood to the adrenal glands, and stimulate their cortex to produce cortisone and other hormones.

These hormones quickly prepare the body for emergencies. According to Selye, this is called the alarm reaction.

1. Proteins from the thymus and lymph glands, are broken down into sugar for immediate energy.

2. The blood sugar soars.

3. The blood pressure increases,

4. Minerals are drawn from the bones,

5. Fat is mobilized from storage depots,

6. An abnormal amount of salt is retained (in the initial phase of ALARM).

This stage, called the ALARM REACTION. Proteins are taken from less important sites, to supply essential ones. This reaction varies with the degree of stress. If the body can obtain sufficient energy then it can cope with a vast amount of stress without harm. However, if insufficient energy is available, the the body begins to damage important tissues, organs and the immune system.

If the stress continues, the body sets up a STAGE OF RESISTANCE wherein the body repairs itself with available materials. With an adequate diet, a person may go for years withstanding tremendous stress with few signs of harm.

Should the raw materials be insufficient to meet the needs, however, there comes a "STAGE OF EXHAUSTION." At this stage we see illness and perhaps death.

The stages can occur in minutes, as in anaphylactic shock. Or may occur over many years, as in chronic diseases.

 The Effects of Prolonged Stress

The adrenal and thymus glands are particularly affected by stress.

In ulcerative colitis, the linings of the intestines are damaged by the body using them as a protein source.

Short-term stress can:

1. Feelings of nausea

2. Rapid Breathing

3. Tense Muscles

4. Faster heart beat

5. Diarrhoea

Stress can effect performance in the following ways:

1. Makes it difficult to take the time to make good decisions.

2. Reduces your enjoyment of your work.

3. Where you need good physical skills it gets in the way of fine motor control.

4. Promotes negative thinking.

5. Disrupts focus and concentration and makes it difficult to cope with distractions.

Long-term Stress Can Effect the body:

1. Tiredness

2. Pain

3. Colds and influenza

4. Increased by weight

5. Skin diseases

Long-term stress can affect the mind:

1. Tiredness

2. Insomnia

3. Mood Changes

Long-term stress can affect the mind in the following ways:

1. Being error prone.

2. Being accident prone.

3. Neglecting personal appearance.

Cause of Stress

There are many causes of stress including:

• parasites, such as bacteria and viruses
• injury, including x-rays, etc.
• external toxins
• inappropriate food or drink
• life events or lifestyle

Mental Stressors

Life events, such as unemployment or the death of a close relative, and lifestyle which may involve, for example, lack of sleep, lack of exercise and worry can produce poor eating and drinking habits and further exposure to toxins. So the 'psychological' causes of stress can produce more physical stressors as well as creating stress themselves.

Extreme fear, for example, could damage the body, especially if it occurs over a few hours. It could also cause death through its affect on the heart.

Less extreme fear, over a longer period, may stress the body by requiring an increased amount of protein with consequential stress on the liver and kidneys, for example. Also, the stressed person may try to deal with the stress by drinking alcohol (which further stresses the liver, even though it provides carbohydrate energy). The stressed person might also fail to eat properly and eat when tense and anxious. The stressed person might smoke excessively. The 'psychological' pain stresses the body, and this in turn results in more stress from, for example, poor eating habits, drinking alcohol and smoking.

Furthermore, a person who has had a frightening experience may carry this experience around in their minds and continue to relive the experience, therefore producing more stress.

In addition to fear, anger and guilt are powerful emotions that stress our bodies. Anger and guilt are probably emotions that take longer to seriously affect our bodies. Anger can be a habit and has been associated with heart problems. Guilt is especially an emotion that affects us over time, continually stressing our bodies.

When we carry around an emotion in our minds, mostly using our physical and psychological resources to keep them at bay, and occasionally allowing them to have their full reign, then we are experiencing stress that may last for a long time and stress that is likely to cause illness after many years.

Microorganisms

The body is extremely good at fighing off microorganisms, and they are not necessarily the cause of illness. Elaine Marieb says  "Faced by a hostile army of microorganisms swarming on our skin, and invaded by airborne bacteria and ravaging viruses, we stay amazingly healthy most of the time."

However, when our immune system becomes less effective then we are less able to deal with invading parasites, such as bacteria and viruses, and we succumb to disease.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, diseases are considered to external - acute and short lasting - or internal - longer-lasting and more serious chronic illness.

Serious acute illnesses

Sometimes an externally caused illness is extremely serious. The body is relatively quickly overwhelmed by the external cause and becomes seriously ill. The sufferer may need emergency medical care in order to survive. However, if the body can mobilize its resources and the medical doctors can treat the condition (or keep the patient alive long enough for nature to cure) then the sufferer may recover fully. In this way acute diseases are contrasted with chronic diseases, from which the sufferer may not recover, or do so over a long period.

Example of Anaphylactic Shock

When something gets into the body and the body does
not like it, then the body tends to produce adrenaline
as part of the process of dealing with the situation.
Of course, the 'attacker' doesn't have to be a germ or
something, but can be an external threat such as a
tiger.

Part of the bodies first response is the production of
adrenaline, and this can be illustrated with
anaphylactic shock, for which the medical remedy is
adrenaline.

The stages are:

1. Itching or a strange metallic taste in the mouth.

2. Swelling of the throat and tongue.

3. Difficulty in breathing -due to severe Asthma or
throat swelling.

4. Difficulty in swallowing.

5. Uticaria anywhere in the body.

6. Generalised reddening of the skin.

7. Abdominal cramps and nausea.

8. Increased heart rate.

9. Sudden feeling of weakness (drop in blood pressure)

10. Sense of doom.

11. Collapse and unconscious.

The interesting thing is the gradual depletion of
adrenaline in the body until there is little left. And
this makes step 10 (sense of doom) important.

Why the sense of doom? Biochemically, a deficiency of
dopamine brings about a depressed state. And dopamine
is used to make adrenaline in the brain. When there is
big trouble and every drop is needed by the body, the
amount of dopamine is depleted and a sense of doom
arises.

This example isn't meant to be too exact, but quite
clearly the effects can be viewed holistically as a
common factor that affects both the body and the
brain. It is so easy to ignore the role of the brain in
this.

Chronic Illnesses

The internally caused disease is one where the body has been stressed over a long period of time and when it finally breaks down and, depending on what area is weakest, manifests a disease associated with that weak area. For example, where the liver is weak, then diseases of the liver appear. When the kidneys are weak, then diseases of the kidneys appear. When the brain and nervous system are weak, diseases related to these organs and tissues occur.

Often, chronic illnesses are not associated with any parasitic organism, and are due to a breakdown of the immune system. Where they are associated with microorganisms, the immune system has kept the germs or bacteria under control until the immune system finally breaks down, allowing the disease to manifest.

Summary

When the body is under stress, it uses up its protein resources to convert them to energy. The body cannot store protein, so it must use what has been eaten, and tissues, organs, immune system, etc. Because the body is 'eating itself', the digestive system may be damaged - physically through ulcers appearing or through poor digestive due to lack of enzymes, or malfunction of other organs of digestion. This reduces the nutrients entering the body and, consequently, the amount of protein that the body can get to produce energy. This vicious circle leads the body to consume more of its own protein.

In addition, the liver has to work harder converting protein to energy and disposing of the unwanted byproducts, including urea. In turn, the kidney, too, is overworked. It is these effects that bring about the stage of EXHAUSTION. What actually fails depends on various factors, including genetics.