Ease Stress with Exercise

In these days of high technology and increased ways of enjoying our free time, increasing numbers of men and women suffer from the effects of stress. Stress can make itself known by way of headaches, sleepless nights, nightmares, high blood pressure, irregular pulse and/or frayed nerves.

Stress is described as any challenge to the body or mind and can be classified as "good" or "bad." Any minor interruption to our daily routine, such as running late to an appointment or a sick child, causes stress, as does a divorce, death or other very serious event. How we deal with these unexpected challenges plays an all-important role in our ability to deal with stress without causing harm to ourselves.

Many doctors prescribe various forms of prescription drugs which are meant to help us handle the more extreme effects of stress. However, David S. Holmes, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Kansas says, "I've spent most of my career studying stress and ways of modifying it, and I have never run across any stress-relief method as strong as aerobic fitness." He claims that counteracting stress by improving the cardiovascular system and stimulating certain chemicals in the brain through exercise has "much more impact than psychotherapy, meditation, stress management, and biofeedback."

When our body is faced with any type of stress, it responds with what is known as the "fight or flight" reflex. This causes the body to prepare for action. Stress hormones are pumped into the blood stream, the blood sugar level rises and our muscles tighten up. Along with all that, the heart rate speeds up, our breathing becomes rapid and shallow, and the blood circulation to the skin and digestive system decreases. When all these reactions come to a peak, our body is ready to face whatever is causing the stress. Once the challenge is met or dealt with, the body returns to normal until called into action once again.

In our modern society, with its time clocks, high-rise office buildings and rush hour, snail's pace traffic, we never really deal head-on with the myriad stress-causing factors. We're educated members of society, after all! We hold the stress inside, which eventually expresses itself in one or more of the above symptoms. When this happens we have the option of deciding how to deal with it!

Although drug therapy is the most common method of treating stress, it does have its downside. Any drug taken into the body has the potential of causing disruptive, irritating or even dangerous side effects. Some of these can cause problems which aggravate or worsen the original symptom of stress and we may end up with even more serious health problems.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic