Natural Way Health Blog

3 Ways in which stress affects your health

3 Ways in which stress affects your health

Any change in your normal routine or health is called stress. If you look around, one of ten people that you see at work get stressed at some time or the other. Scientists are of the opinion that stress causes certain chemical changes in the brain which adversely affects your health. Women are very vulnerable to stress due to hormonal changes. There are certain negative effects on your health. Have a look at the different effects that stress has on your health.

1. Behavioral effects: When you are under pressure, your behavior changes to worst. You incorporate bad and harmful habits like smoking and drinking as a way of getting immediate relief from stress. Others who are too much busy with work, may not exercise daily or eat regularly. They may also cut down on sleep to cope up with their work pressure. All these are likely to harm your health.

2. Leads to heart disease: There is a strong link between stress and heart disease. If the stress is intense and if the stress hormones are not used up by physical exercise, our heart rate raises. This puts tension in the arteries and causes damage to them. As the body cures this damage, the artery walls thicken which can lead to less amount of blood flow to the heart.

3. Loss of immunity: Too much of stress leads to loss of immunity. It damages the immune system to a considerable extent which is why you catch cold more when you are stressed. It also leads to headaches and irritable bowel symptoms. Doctors are of the opinion that stress may also lead to cancer.

Regular exercise can reduce the amount of stress and the harm that it causes to your health. This strengthens your heart and increases the blood flow to the heart. This helps you to become immune to diseases and lead a healthy life.

Prostate Cancer and Stress

Although more men may be saved from dying of prostate cancer due to advances in screening and treatment, a new study suggests that emotional stress (which causes an increase of metabolic acid in the blood and then tissues) from being diagnosed with the disease carries deadly risks. A study of more than four million Swedish men over the age of 30 found that the diagnosis of prostate cancer, which occurred in more than 168,000 of them during the study period, amplified the risk of fatal heart problems and suicide.

In men who were diagnosed before 1987, the risk of a fatal heart attack during the week following diagnosis increased 11-fold, and the risk of suicide increased 800 percent. After 1987, the risks of suffering a non-fatal heart attack during the first week of diagnosis fell to 300 percent. But the risk of suicide, although small, held steady. During the year following diagnosis, the risk of both heart attacks and suicide diminished but did not disappear.

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Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Systemic Mistake!

For many years I’ve been following the work of several pioneering Doctors in the US and here in the UK who are concerned that the approach we’ve taken to heart disease is not only ineffective but actually causes more problems. Well here is another medical doctor who has gone on record to say that the system is broken. More importantly he’s quit his medical practice to focus on nutritional efforts.

Our medical care system is ‘broken’ mainly because it focuses on the problem (i.e. the ‘war’ on cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.), and war is quite profitable but it acts as a parasite that is feeding on its ‘host’ (that would be the population at large in this example).   For any ‘healthcare’ system to work we must focus on ‘health’ which by nature will ‘starve’ the parasite.  Unfortunately that ‘parasite’ has money, power, lobbyists and the government that is all too susceptible to those influences in order to be re-elected.

Real change must happen from the grass roots and move up and it begins with people knowing the truth.  Politicians rarely ‘see the light’ until they ‘feel the heat’ and an educated public is needed to ‘bring the heat’.

Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake!

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong.  So, here it is.  I freely admit to being wrong.  As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled “opinion makers.”  Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake.  The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease.  Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

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Water – I’ve Had enough

We all know we should be drinking at least 6-8 glasses of water a day.  How are you doing?  If you aren’t there yet, set a concrete goal for yourself to add a few more glasses.  We have found it helpful to make it really clear (example: 3 glasses by noon, 3 by 6 pm).  Also, drink a glass first thing in the morning your body will thank you for it.  Here are some essential water facts:

About 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water.  With all this water out there, why are most people not drinking as much as they should?  Water is vitally important in order for humans to function properly, since every system of the body depends upon this sustaining substance.  In fact, about 50-65% of your body is made up of water.

A person can only survive for about 3 days if they don’t drink any fluids.  Drinking soda, coffee, or juice will keep you alive, but you need pure water if you want to be as healthy as you can be.

Reduces the Risk of a Heart Attack
A study at Loma Linda University discovered that people who drink 5+ glasses of water daily were less likely to die from heart disease than people who drank less than 2 glasses a day.

Helps with Weight Loss
Water helps your metabolism to work properly.  One of the main jobs of the liver is to convert the fat your body stores into energy.  If the kidneys aren’t getting enough water, then the liver has to do their work along with it’s own and the result is that it can’t metabolize fat as efficiently.  Water also gives you the energy and hydration needed for exercise.  If your muscles have the proper amount of water, they will contract more easily which means your workout will be more effective and beneficial.  It’s also true that many people think they’re hungry when their body is actually thirsty for water!

It’s Good For Your Body and Brain
Your body is constantly using up water.  Even minor dehydration can result in headaches, fatigue, lack of concentration, and irritability.  Drinking water can wash these symptoms away!

Keeps Your Skin Healthy
Water is important for preventing dry skin and acne.  It flushes impurities out of your skin.  As a result, your complexion is clear and your skin is healthy.

Keeps your Muscles and Joints in Good Shape
Your joints and muscles are mainly lubricated and cushioned by water. You can prevent fatigue and muscle cramps by drinking plenty of water before, during, and after hard work or exercise.

Cuts down on Disease and Infection
Drinking water can help you to avoid kidney stones and reduce your risk of getting urinary tract infections.

Helps Maintain Proper Digestion
If you don’t drink enough water, the pancreas doesn’t work efficiently, acids in the stomach are not properly neutralized, and intestine functions are hindered.  This can lead to constipation, false appendicitis pain, colitis pain, and hiatus hernia.   Drinking a glass of water, at least a half an hour before mealtime will greatly help the digestion process.  Also, proper water intake can prevent heartburn.

Apples

Traditionally, apple peels have been considered healthy because of their fibre content, as the peel contains about 75 percent of the dietary fibre in an apple.

But a recent study has shown that the peel also contains most of the beneficial phytochemicals responsible for apples’ anti-carcinogenic effects.

Scientists processed more than 200 pounds of Red Delicious apples, and extracted phytochemicals from about 24 pounds of peel. They screened the compounds for anti-cancer effects in laboratory cultures of human liver, breast, and colon cancer cells, and identified a group of compounds with potent anti-cancer properties. Specifically, 13 triterpenoids from the peels of Red Delicious apples were identified and confirmed to be highly effective against cancer. Exactly how and why these biochemicals seek and destroy cancer cells is still unknown.

Apple consumption has previously been linked to a reduced risk of lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

Source: Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Vol. 55, No. 11, May 30, 2007: 4366-4370