Stress & health: wellness for body and mind
KEY WORDS
KEY WORDS
wellness, stress, reward,
acupuncture, psychotherapy
ABSTRACT
Well being means for sure to manage stress
conditions. Understanding what is stress, and how to prevent, is the first
point. Then we should improve our life styles: such as diet and physical
activity. Of course how we feel is important too, our surroundings and the
related emotions. Some advanced techniques can always help: for example,
acupuncture and psychotherapy.
More and more scientific studies and wellness
systems are examining the interactions between stress and well being, and are
trying to understand and to find some ways of treatment to be and stay at our
best.
But what is stress? Stress is a physiological
response that our body has in order to overcome a problem. It can lead to
maximal parameters in order to fight at best during a particular occasion.
Of course it has biological bases: his central
regulations take place in hypotalamus. The hormone released for such response
is the CRH, that provoques the production and secretion of another hormone, the
ACTH, from the pituitary to all our body. From that we have the production of
cortisol, secreted by adrenal glands.
The effects of stress are a lot: at first we have
an increase of the blood pressure, and of glycemia. Furthermore a chronical
stress condition leads to toxicity: due to the hyperglicemia, and determined by
the catabolic inbalance this can have as consequence, and a cellular oxydation
(resposible even of cancers).
Another consequence is that the ormonal
equilibrium disbalances toward stress hormones and not of physiological ones:
deriving from that, the mood symptoms and the sexual and social dissatisfaction.
It is common known that the immunitary system is
damaged by stress molecules: it can become both hyperactive and then
disregulated. Many diseases are spreading in these dacedes: autoimmune diseases
particularly (type 1 diabetes, reumathoid arthritis, celiac disease). Flogistic
alterations are also found in depression, so psicho-neuro-immuno-endocrinology
is becoming one of the sciences helping us understanding how we are.
Some studies are explaining how headache is
related to a raised amout of request to our brain (with till a 300% blood flux
in brain), that cannot always face to such conditions from a metabolic point of
view and the disbalance leads to molecular lacks: acting on opioids could help
(as the acupuncture headache preventive treatment contributes to demonstrate).
Even Mayo Clinic has focused the attention on the
correlation between stress and many common and diffused diseases, such as:
headache, gastric symptoms, some chest and heart disfunctions (called also
“dysautonomia”), the trend to get colds and flus, psychological disregulations,
being often angry and dissatisfied, have an unsatisfactory affective and sexual
life.
The point to pay attention is that, by regulating
our mind and ways of living, we can manage stress conditions, preventing them
and solving them as well.
Acting on the REWARD system (neural pathways),
that counteracts stress, can be done at many practical levels:
•
DIET – many studies are done about sugar
reduction or even deprivation: after 40 days rats see the first benefits in how
they feel and behave with better blood parameters at first. We should avoid
hypercalorical diets, and introduce always 1,5 liters of water at least; prefer
vegetables and fruit, to guarantee the correct amount of fiber intake
•
SLEEP – a good regular sleep is one of the main
elements to improve to reduce the stress amount. We always say that 7 hours of
sleep are a good quantity, or even more
•
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY – doing a fitness training
everyday for at least 45 minutes is good in inducing both relaxation and
improvement of physical body shape (from which happiness). It is known that
physical activity is good in the prevention of Alzheimer disease, and it acts
both at a mental and somatic level
•
RELAXATION TECHNIQUES – we can distress our mind with
yoga sessions or tai chi trainings. Even meditation, in every form, is useful
to relax mind and soul. Mental training could help particular needs, such as
those of sport persons, based on both relaxation and visualization
Of course we could also manage stress
consequences in great ways:
•
ACUPUNCTURE – this very old system involves
amazing theories developed through centuries in Asia (mainly in China, but also
in Japan and Korea), and it is proved by the newest studies understanding how
the stimulation of the opiate system, by needling specific cutaneous points,
leads to a rebalancing of many molecules, particularly hormones and
neurotransmitters
•
PSYCHOTHERAPY – if well done, and taking in
consideration the whole person, it can help you find a good mind approach to
life after a stressful period (particularly if there are even body symptoms,
that can be a physical expression of a more general spiritual bad feeling).
Helping your psyche and mind will bring you more happiness, a better social
life and a satisfying sexual life: of course love and sex are the main keys to
see life in the right way, they bring to the increase of many molecules, such
as oxytocin, that are related to how we approach to other people, and they of
course also act at body level, by reducing pain and inflammation, and on the
whole by improving how we feel and we are.
www.mayoclinic.org
Maciocia, The foundations of chinese medicine
Dragoni D., Reward Pathway and Metabolism,
Neuroscienze.net
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