What Happens to Our Body

When our body experiences stress by being physically or emotionally overburdened the following changes take place:

• Pupils dilate this lets in more light and helps us see better
• Heart rate increases enables increased blood flow to muscles and essential organs
• Airway muscles relax to enable greater intake of oxygen
• Breathing becomes rapid again to intake more oxygen
• Liver increases the blood glucose levels increases our energy
• Adrenal glands secret more adrenalin and cortisol to deal with pain/stress
• Blood is directed away from less active to more active organs and muscles

This reaction is fine and harmless enough if we intend to run away or stay and fight (physical activity) but they are only meant to be temporary to get us out of the situation. All the above happens at the expense of other vital systems in our bodies which we don’t need in emergencies, such as digestion, reproduction, saliva, temperature control. In most cases the stress reaction is wasted as fighting or running away is rare these days; therefore the body is left with no outlet. The prolonged strain of trying to rebalance the systems has the long term effect of chronic stress and the associated diseases such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, depressed immune system (more colds) as well as depression and IBS.