Don’t mess with stress
SIGN OF THE TIMES: POSSIBLE CAUSES MORE FAR-REACHING THAN YOU MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT
It is quite suspicious to see so many people coughing, sneezing and whimpering around with near aimless pace. How can so many people be so sick during the best time of year? Surely having the flu is for winter and if you think about it, could there be something sinister about this. Could the culprit that is responsible for your sore joints, dizziness and coughing be stress?
When you are stressed either from external or internal factors, your body releases short bursts of the stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol in small doses is good for you since it helps prime the body for the fright-or-fight response.
It sort of shakes up your inner system by tapping into the bodies protein stores via gluconeogenesis to fuel the blood stream with glucose to respond to the stress.
The body reacts to the stress and burns up the cortisol before going back to a normal homeostasis state. The problem arises when the stress is prolonged, in other words chronic.
Your body pumps too much cortisol into your system because your body believes it needs it in the current situation. There is just too much to get rid of and this becomes problematic for you.
Your body can’t function on “go go go” all day, every day. Soon the protein-building blocks that are needed to keep you strong and healthy are being depleted, by trying to bring your body back to a normal state of operating. Your immune system takes a pounding and this could be the reason why at this time of year you are sick.
Your body has been going for an entire year and now this time of year, you need to push harder for deadlines, arranging stressful family gatherings, trying to find out where you are going to find the money to buy all the presents you need for Christmas and the stress list continues.
In order to realise how stressed you are, you need to understand what type of stressors there are and then you need to look at the symptoms to see if they match up to the type you chose.