Thank you for joining me again this evening for our nightly podcast. I am Dr. Harrison Campbell owner and chiropractor at Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. In tonights podcast we will be discussing stress, How you can decrease stress and the effects of stress upon your health.
Stress is to some people an unavoidable part of life. While they are correct in some instances, they or incorrect in other instances. First we will cover the good stress then move into the bad stress followed by the health impacts of stress. The good stress is known by sugar land chiropractors as eustress. This is the stress which provides a positive benefit to the body. It keeps us productive, it helps us stay sharp and on top of our game. The trick is knowing what is eustress because this good stress can quickly become bad stress and negatively impact our lives if we are not careful.
Bad or negative stress can be in the form of anything in our lives. There is not always a tangible factor to stress. We can create stress without meaning to. Last nights podcast was on organization. As we covered, being disorganized creates stress in our lives. In this particular instance we are not under pressure by a job, there is no project due date looming, there is no financial worry happening. There is only disorganization causing unneeded stress in our lives.

There is also the stress placed on us by the examples just names. Jobs, projects, finances. These are some of the most stressful situations which people face on a daily basis. The key is to managing the stress at our jobs. Whether you run the company or were just hired today, there will be stress at the workplace. As a premier sugar land chiropractors office I myself feel stress on a daily basis. I routinely have people health care needs in my hands and have to ensure they are receiving the care they need in order to get better. I have to maintain my employees to ensure they are providing the level of care I expect my patients to receive.

Projects can also be stressful. Procrastinating can elevate this stress but even being on time with an important project can lead to stress building in our lives. Landing a huge deal for your company or putting the finishing touches on your end of year school project or graduation or doctorial thesis is a stressful situation.
Money is probably the number one stressful situation for the American populace. Buying food, keeping the clothes on your back, having transportation, having a home. All of these things require financing. If you own a business as many sugar land chiropractors do this adds another layer of financial requirements to your life and this in turn adds another layer of stress.
There are many more examples of stress, but these are some of the bigger universal stresses in peoples lives. Now let us switch to the health effects these stresses place upon us. As sugar land chiropractors will tell you stress releases cortisol in our bodies. This is a steroid hormone which allows us to cope with stress. In normal levels this hormone is very beneficial for our lives and bodies allowing us to repair, stay focus, and get the task at hand done. Should these levels leave the healthy range or be elevated for long periods of time, termed chronic elevation our health will be negatively impacted.

First and foremost let us address the immune system. The initial burst of cortisol will actually increase our immune system. Making us more resistant to disease and help avoid those pesky infections. Long term cortisol will in turn decrease our immune systems, Thus what initially was beneficial for us turns around and makes us vulnerable to infections whether bacterial or viral.
Second let us discuss blood pressure. For this case we will only talk about the blood vessels and pressure for the sympathetic nervous system or flight or flight. The parasympathetic nervous system or rest and digest is dampened or decreased when under stress and thus we will assume they are non existent in this equation. This is not completely accurate as sugar land chiropractors will tell you but for the sake of this discussion we will utilize this argument.

When cortisol affects the cardiovascular system, the body prepares for a fight or to flee. Thus fight or flight. What this means is the heart will pump faster increasing heart rate but it will also pump harder pumping more blood more forcefully which each beat. The blood vessels will in turn vasodilate meaning they will become bigger allowing for an increase blood flow through them. This is preparation for the muscle to me more active, for our brains to process information faster, and thus preparing us ultimately to survive whatever is about to come our way.
As you can imagine in short duration this is very beneficial and sugar land chiropractors as a whole would agree with you. For long periods of time however this negatively impacts our lives. Our heart beating harder and faster places unneeded stress on this valuable muscle. Heart problems is a very common problem in America and a part of the reason for this is the constant stress people place themselves under. Have you ever known anyone who was on blood pressure medication and then when they retired, they were able to come off this medication. That is because the stress of their job was activating their fight or flight and elevating their blood pressure. You remove them from this stressful environment and their fight or flight system decreases and allows their blood pressure to come back down.
Thank you for joining us once again. I do hope you found this podcast educational and are able to implement this information into your daily life. As always should you or someone you know require the services of sugar land chiropractors please give restoration Health a call today. We will be happy to work with you on returning you to optimal health. Thank you once again and have a good evening.