Stress Effects Body

Every day I saw how stress effects body as I worked for over seven years as a stress consultant at a local hospital.

To some, that may suggest that, “It’s a hospital. What do you expect?”

And, to a certain degree, that is true. But, for years physicians have been saying that 80-90% of patient appointments were stress related.

stress and ambulance


It is important to fully appreciate what may happen to anyone the negative effects of stress when it is not managed effectively.

Stress 101

It is not acute stress that is the problem.

It is chronic stress that, overtime, begins to wear out the body and creates damage.

Here’s a snapshot of what happens...
  • The autonomic nervous system has two arms, if you will, - the sympathic nervous system (stress response), and the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response).


  • The body naturally fluctuates between these two operating systems throughout the day in response to the plethora of normal life stressors that you encounter.


  • The normal cycle for these systems is to react to a real or perceived stressor…adapt to that real or perceived stressor…relax and rejuvenate the body.


  • The body has a natural innate sense of balance that it needs in order to function optimally.




How does stress negatively effect the body?

The human body WAS designed to adapt to an acute stressor.

It reacts….adapts…relaxes.

But, when the body is not given an opportunity to come into balance and relax for a significant amount of time each day then acute stress becomes chronic stress .

It is chronic stress that creates the problems physically, emotionally, and in relationships.

The human body was just not designed to function in the stressed and out-of-balance state. Aside from all the problems that chronic stress causes, the real problem is that most people were never taught how important balance is to health.

Stress Effects Body and balance


Ways stress effects body

Many may first start to notice physical stress symptoms of:

Chronic headaches
Neck and back pains
Muscle tension
High blood pressure
Elevated heart rate
Sleep deprivation
Fatigue
Can’t get pregnant
Losing or gaining weight
Dizziness
Nausea

As time goes on, these symptoms can escalate into:
  • Heart attacks
  • Strokes
  • Cancer
  • Diabetes
  • Autoimmune diseases
Unfortunately, it is when chronic stress impacts your body that it finally gets your attention. No one likes to be in pain.

And, for many, the loss of independence that many of these health conditions creates is very very difficult to deal with.

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Does stress have to become chronic?

No, it does not.

One of the things I have learned over the years in talking with my clients is that the majority of them had very little understanding of how the physiology of stress really works. Nor, had they ever learned how chronic stress would affect them in time.

That’s fair.

We live in a world that values stress. It seems like the expectation is to always do more, and to always take on more than you can do without being stressed.

I don’t have any hopes that the world is going to change those expectations anytime soon, so the need to teach people about how stress effects body has become very important.

And, equally as important is the need to help people identify the stress management techniques that “fit” for them so they can more effectively reduce stress and give their body more time operating out of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Stress effects body, and it also effects your entire life.

Even with clients who had a recent heart attack, and also had been struggling with anxiety, and some depression issues, once they had the knowledge they needed to create more balance for their body…change does happen.

The body has an amazing ability to not only endure stress for too long, but to also recover from it.

There is hope.







Share Your Tips, and Ask Questions Too

There are lots of ways that stress can impact your life. If you have a question about how stress may be affecting yours, please share it here.

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Stress Tip Of The Day!

Throughout each day, the primary cause of stress is because of threats of uncertainty.

It is thoughts of fear and worry that are triggering the stress response.

Staying focused on maintaining a positive attitude is an important stress technique.



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Testimonials

“Ms. Churchill is the unique health care worker everyone hopes to encounter, but rarely does. She has an extraordinary gift that allows her to do much more than diagnose and treat.”
Abbie K. – Minneapolis




K., age 45, is a long term chronically PTSD disabled patient. She has had daily headaches for 20 years. Two weeks ago she reported that she had had 4 days of pain free time, and was having the exceedingly odd sensation of "smiling all the time". She and Cathi have made extraordinary fast progress together.
Dr. Cole




I referred C.L., age mid-forties, to see Cathi after a life of suffering the post traumatic stress disorder of parental sexual abuse over many years of her childhood, with major dysfunctions of alcohol and drug abuse, and with the disabling symptoms of migraine that have for more than twenty years become chronic.

She has lived with daily headaches that have not responded to any of the several drugs which have benefited many such suffering patients. She has needed chronic opiate treatment of her chronic pain syndrome.

In the few weeks that Cathi has worked with her, C.L. has begun to experience days without pain, periods of happiness, and a reduction in her opiate dosage requirements that represent a breakthrough in her stalled-out life as a single mom raising a teen-age daughter with only social security income resources.
Dr. Racer








“I first met Cathi Churchill eight years ago when she effectively helped my work unit through the stress of a hospital-wide layoff. I was impressed with her clear-minded approach and willingness to listen.”
Andy R.




N., age 60, is a hard driving attorney twenty year patient of mine who hit the wall with chronic fatigue four years ago, and began to realize she had to learn to rest. She recovered enough to return to her workaholic lifestyle when she was stopped by a herniated cervical disc and resumption of her chronic colitis.

Working with Cathi, she is discovering "the way she does life" and learning to make choices about it. She came in last week, having "danced until dawn". She is learning to dialogue with her body in effective ways.
Dr. Cole




“I stumbled upon Cathi after my recent heart attack that was brought on by stress. I was scared of having another one, and didn’t know what to do. I had lost hope. Working with her has changed my life. I’m so grateful."
Debbie – Canada




M.S., a woman in her late forties with progressively more and more disabling rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, whose most recent problems have arisen over the last two to three years as complications of immunosuppressive therapy for her disease. The complications have been associated with the severely disabling chronic pain of recurrent herpes neuralgia for more than three years, and for the past 15 months, recurrent osteomyelitis in her right lower mandible.

The second, more alarming (even life-threatening) problem has caused months of diagnostic and therapy confusion among her many consultants, three successive resections of the bone over the last six to eight months, and the still ongoing threat of more relapses of the smoldering bone infection and chronic pain only made bearable by chronic, massive doses of opiates.

In the few months since M. began to work with Cathi with several modalities: stress management, therapeutic touch, guided imaging, and others, her life has become more livable, as she has become able to bear the pain and the discouragement of unresolved disease.

She has relied on many of the methods for maintaining hope and getting through overwhelming discouragement by using the inner resources she has learned with Cathi.

My hope as her primary physician, is that Cathi and M. will be able to continue to work together to maintain that inner strength and hope as she faces yet more months of pain, and further repeated surgery.

Thank you for the healing guidance you've been able to give her thus far.
Dr. Racer




“I sought out the help of Cathi during my divorce, and found her to be an insightful and compassionate coach. Her ability to see deep into the heart of an emotionally stressful problem is, I believe, unique and I would highly recommend her service to anyone.”
P.R. – Brooklyn Center




S., age 48, is a Laotian patient of mine with 15 years of chronic abdominal pain. She has had an extensive medical worked up, and nothing ever worked. Cathi saw her over several months.

S. has improved! Cathi established a trusting relationship with her, and helped her to effectively break through her wall of silence and grief about her son's mental illness, and taught her how to "change her thinking".

S. now comes in smiling, notes some unusual continued symptoms, but no longer has chronic abdominal disabling pain.
Dr. Cole




“Control My Stress is so amazing. I want to thank you, again, for such a valuable resource.”
Tony.


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