9 Ways Stress Can Ruin Your Health

Stress is what you feel when you have to handle more than you are used to. When you are stressed, your body responds as though you are in danger. This is called the fight-or-flight stress response. If stress happens too often or lasts too long, it can ruin your health nd even bring on an early death, says Edward Group.

... 9 Ways Stress Can Negatively Affect Your Health

The following list offers some of the ways in which on-going stress can negatively effect your health

1. Increased Heart Rate

When we enter into the fight or flight mode, the heart-rate naturally speeds up. While this may be a great thing if we need to run quickly, overtime this can significantly tire out the heart and lead to cardiovascular diseases, increased cholesterol and even excess belly fat. Read more

Sex: The Natural Way to Stress Relief

When stress is at its worst, sex can stop you fretting. It reduces cortisol, lowers blood pressure, improves moods, and bonds people emotionally.

... Recessions cause high levels of stress, which reduces people’s sex hormones and lowers their libido. When a couple are lying in bed and the man is worrying about his job and the woman is fretting about her savings, neither of them is properly primed for sex.

It is a pity, because sex offers a host of beneficial effects. Read more

Intimacy Fights Stress

Researchers have found that the more physical affection couples engage in, the lower their level of the "stress" hormone cortisol.

Couples who hug, kiss and otherwise find ways to get close everyday may have fewer stress hormones coursing through their bodies, a new study suggests.

The findings, reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, point to one potential reason that close relationships -- and marriage, in particular -- have been linked to better health.

Researchers found that among 51 German couples they followed for one week, those who reported more physical contact during a given day -- whether it was sexual intercourse or just holding hands -- generally had lower levels of the "stress" hormone cortisol.

This was especially true of couples who reported more problems at work, suggesting that some physical affection between mates may be a buffer against work stress. Read more

2 Little Steps to Less Stress

Relief from stress doesn't have to mean downing a drink or popping a pill. It can be as safe and simple as taking a deep breath.

Inhale. Exhale. Ahhh…

“This is the first moment in weeks I’ve had to take a breath,” my sister declared the other day, exhaling loudly. She’s juggling an out-of-work husband, a job she hates, and the care of our 80-year-old mother. Her remark struck me so resoundingly, like a bell ringing to highlight something profoundly true for us all, perhaps, because a client had said something similar to me just a few hours earlier. “I just need some room to breathe,” said Jackie, a mother of three with a full-time job as a school principal.

Breathing room. It’s a metaphor for something we all could use more of: some space in our lives—space to catch up with ourselves, to regroup, to metabolize whatever we’ve been going through so we can know how we feel and what to do next.

Pausing to breathe is more than a metaphor, however. Consciously taking a few deep breaths is actually the quickest way to experience the body’s relaxation response. Read more

How Your Thoughts Affect You Physically

The sexual response that results from reading an erotic book is an example of how our thoughts and feelings can affect us physically. Deb Shapiro, author of Your Body Speaks Your Mind, gives an exercise to help you observe the physical effects in your body of different situations, thoughts, or feelings. Understanding how you hold issues or feelings in your body will enable you to focus on their release.

Did you ever wonder how the power of your thoughts can affect your body? Dr. Bernie Siegel, the author of Love, Medicine and Miracles, was giving a talk to a room full of skeptical doctors when he brought out a copy of Lady Chatterly's Lover and proceeded to read the most erotic part. As he put the book down he said, "Just as reading a book can stir our sexuality, so you can see how our thoughts and feelings can affect us physically." The doctors were immediately convinced!

There is now a whole new science called pschonueroimmunology exploring just that: the relationship between the psyche or mind, the nervous system and the immune system.

This exercise helps you understand how your own mind and body work together. Over the next week, practice watching the physical effects in your body of different situations, thoughts or feelings. Observe yourself, your reactions and your body. As you do this, you will begin to see how closely all the different parts of your being, both physical and psycho/emotional, are interwoven. Read more

Use Herbs for Natural Stress Relief

Have you had it with being constantly stressed out? If you suffer from anxiety, then you know what it can do to your productivity, well-being, not to mention your mental state. While you're dealing with the causes of your stress, you can use herbal remedies to gain some short-term relief.

... The best thing you can do to deal with stress is to deal with the underlying cause of the stress, obviously. But often there is precious little to be done, especially if things are a bit outside of your control. Modern day life can certainly add a lot to family stress! In that case, it is wise to make use of the many herbs that are safe and effective for stress control.

I will only mention 3, since these are well-known and are sure to help you in numerous ways. A very good friend of mine is a natural healer and herbal therapist. She uses these on an almost daily basis in her practice. (I think her most favorite is cognac, but that is not supposed to be one of these! Really, she does use it very moderately to help very uptight men lighten up a bit.) Read more