Stress is no longer just the result of external circumstances beyond your control, but how you perceive the circumstances and your ability to cope with the stress response. Stress affects your health and the effects are cumulative. Emotional and physical responses are set in motion by a series of chemical releases and reactions. If not handled properly, these reactions can have a harmful effect on your body, causing you to degenerate prematurely.
Stress Facts
• Millions of Americans suffer from unhealthy levels of stress at work. (A study several years ago estimated that number to be 11 million, and have since more than tripled.)
• Stress contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, and other illnesses.
• Stress also affects the immune system, which protects us from many serious diseases.
• Tranquilizers, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medications account for one fourth of all prescriptions written in the U.S. each year.
• Stress also contributes to alcoholism, obesity, suicide, drug addiction, cigarette addiction, and other harmful behaviors.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, tired, unable to sleep, with cravings for carbohydrates and sugar, then you are experiencing symptoms of adrenal fatigue. This is a condition where your adrenal glands are not functioning at an optimum level. It is the result of every day stress that can make your adrenal glands secrete cortisol and adrenaline into the bloodstream. These two hormones, when compromised, can affect the body’s ability to metabolize glucose properly, regulate blood pressure, and release insulin for blood sugar maintenance. This results in insomnia and a nervous condition.
If adrenal disease is not corrected, it can lead to fibromyalgia, diabetes, poor thyroid function, and in severe cases, even death.
At Smart Aging ®, stress levels are checked and measured using the latest diagnostic tools. A customized plan will be developed which will include a wide range of exercise programs, including yoga, tai chi, meditation, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises. These are further complimented with supplements and proper nutrition.