Stress - killing us softly

Have you ever got really stressed, and then found that you got sick shortly afterwards?

A busy period at work, a stressful family time, even too much party and not enough sleep can all stress our emotions and therefore our bodies.

In my own life I have come to realise that stress is my biggest lifestyle risk, or, as I call it, my poison. Most people have a "poison" it could be coffee, tea, alcohol, cigarettes, illegal drugs, too much food, junk food, sugar, not enough exercise. Too much meat.

I have never smoked, drunk alcohol, tea or coffee, since I was a mid teenager I have been a healthy eater, I rarely eat junk food, chocolate etc. I fell in love with exercise in my early twenties, and now I love to do something daily.

I thought I was making all the right lifestyle choices to stay healthy. But I was not on top of my stress. The start of 2006 saw us move countries and start our own business. December was a spectacularly busy time for us - I was flat out answering retail orders for one of our sites, and my husband was flat out in our consultancy business that had just taken off with a bang.

I hate healthy food (but on the run), my exercise habits slipped, I got less sleep, I hardly ever relaxed. But I knew that it would get better after Christmas, so I kept pushing.

And the work situation did get better after Christmas, but I was already sick. Talking to one doctor about what had suddenly triggered off my first Crohn's episode, he gave it as his opinion that I had the genetic tendency and that something triggered that off, turning it from latent to active.

Stress is a known activator or irritant in inflammatory bowel disease. It is also implicated in heart disease, diabetes, and just about any other medical condition you can think of. It can change our mental and emotional states to paranoia, sometimes permanently, it impairs the body's ability to heal.

Stress, when we are in fight or flight mode, leads our bodies to release two hormonesl. These are great to help you run fast, and get out of a physically threatening situation, but on a day to day basis they do other things. They reprioritise our body's normal functions. Food is expelled from the intestines (diarrhoea) and the stomach digestive process is slowed or stopped, stomach acid is not produced in sufficient amounts. That means if you are stressed all the time you may suffer diarrhoae, constipation, poor absorption of nutrients etc.

It also makes certain elements more available for the body's use - sugar being one of them. It is kept in the bloodstream incase it is needed, this has a number of potential side effects for the body.

Stress would increase your likelihood of getting and then keeping a yeast infection, as your body's normal immune system would be compromised. It also means that if you are trying to help your body by eating healthily, you may not be getting full value from that food.

Basically, being stressed all the time will probably eventually kill you, or at least contribute to poor health. So take some time to relax. Exercise helps.

And keep things in perspective. I like to ask myself, what is the worst that can happen? And what is the likelihood of that happening?