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The stress effect - McDowell's Herbal Treatments

What does the word 'stress' mean to you? Is it a negative word for you? Maybe stress is unknown and broad and open to interpretation depending on your circumstances?...

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I feel that it would be fair to state that the term stress is used mainly to signify a problem for most people and this is where it usually ends. Understanding stress and it’s effects on the human body can help each of us to better relate to our reactions which may or may not signify a problem.

What is stress??

Stress is something that triggers a response in our body to take action. It is any demand placed upon the body that requires it to adjust. This demand may be a fearful or challenging situation or it may be related to being in love and celebrating special moments with loved ones.

Our physical and emotional body is involved in the natural process of ‘fight and flight’ mode during times of exposure to stress. A positive response, like acute, short term exposure to stress, provides a short term increase in blood pressure, blood flow, rapid thinking, muscular tension and a host of other symptoms triggered by our sympathetic nervous system and hormones released via our adrenal glands. In this scenario, the body will return to homeostasis – balance or normal function within a reasonable time frame.

A negative response, like chronic, long term exposure to stress, the body can remain in fight and flight for extended periods of time, hormones become elevated and inflammation can occur elevating prolonged symptoms.

The Stress Effect…

Problems begin to emerge due to chronic, long term exposure that provokes wear and tear of our body’s essential functions. Bood pressure may remain high, mood begins to be altered as agitation and irritability becomes a daily occurrence. Feelings of being overwhelmed, unmotivated, out of control now exist, sleep begins to be disturbed, physical and mental fatigue and memory loss starts occurring more regularly and fear and worry takes over thought processes. But wait, there’s more; food choices and lifestyle habits can change as the brain craves sugars to feed the loss of feel good hormones.

This ongoing reliance on our heightened stress response for extended periods eventually disrupts biological processes causing suppression of hormone production, glucose dysregulation, electrolyte imbalances and disorded patterns of behaviour, gut motility, sleep cycles, menstrual cycles and lowered immunity.

Hopefully you can see now that with this summary of effects that stress is a major contributor of illness and should not be ignored.

Unless interventions come in to play and bring about positive change chronic illness may prevail.

Restoring balance

The body requires support to enable recalibration of cellular processes in a manner that offers enhancement of function whilst reducing troublesome symptoms. Many body systems are involved in the healing process, therefore, careful considering of all aspects of the body and mind is crucial for a successful outcome.

Mind health and stress

Chronic stress can form habitual behaviours resulting in profound effects on the individual’s outlook on life, friends and relationships. Consideration of a person’s emotional wellbeing and mind health is another major component in moving forward from the effects of stress.

The physiology of our emotions really does affect our physical health and whilst we may not see how our emotions affect our health when we are young and resilient to setbacks, the truth is that long term suppressed emotion and disassociation with unpleasant emotions will cause us long term health issues.

Pioneers in a new paradigm of health are now beginning to recognise the obvious link to physical disorders that are made worse by an emotional cause.

One link that is very clear is between weight gain and stress, particularly in women. Catecholamines (stress hormones by the adrenal glands) are well known to cause inflammatory process in the system and will show up by weight gain around the middle.

We all know about emotions. We feel them every day in response to many things, we observe, we judge, we feel our response, and we move on. The problem with this is that we then keep running away all the time, and we never really get to understand what the prime motivator in our life is. Every time we feel anxious, it is because some of these unpleasant emotions have been triggered in us by an external stimulus.

Stress is an inevitable part of life, but it does not need to be your life’s work to control it!

Herbal Medicine

As professional herbal medicine practitioner at McDowell’s Herbals, we aim to help you become physically and mentally resilient by improving your immediate and long term responses to stress.

The art and skill of mixing herbal medicine formulations is unique to our training and experience using rich traditions and wholistic principles to provide a clinically-effective result.

Although there is a lot of similar symptoms, stress impacts each individual differently in terms of severity and duration so it is important to have an evaluation of symptoms, lifestyle, dietary habits, length and type of exposure, age, medication history, existing illnesses – as a guide.

In chronic cases there is usually a need for rehabilitation and additional body system support, whereas, acute onset may result in a different formulation in need of adaptation with more symptom relief.

Herbal medicine will target a range of needs related to The Stress Effect on your life:

Low energy, Insomnia, Anxiousness, Irritability, Menstrual changes, Low mood, Headaches, Constipation, Diarrhea, Bloating, Brain Fog, Pain, Immune dysregulation (frequent colds/flu).

Herbal medicine is also applicable for children of all ages, especially from 3 years of age and they have just started pre-school for the first time. Stress affects kids too and gentle support can provide relief for the mother, child and carer during transition.

Seek help today & regain balance - Free Consultation Link

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Have a question? Contact McDowell's Herbal Treatments

McDowell's staff Herbalists can not diagnose your disease or illness. What they can do is offer a herbal program to assist with healing, after you have had advice from your doctor or specialist. If you have unexplained pain or symptoms, seek medical advice.

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