Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

Common results of long term chronic stress are:

• Digestive problems
• Heart disease
• Pain of any kind
• Depression
• Obesity
• Autoimmune disease
• Sleep problems
• Skin conditions such as eczema

 

Wondering How To Reduce Stress?

Balance and Harmony offers several ways to reduce your stress level and reduce overall pain. One of the main benefits of reflexology is that it reduces stress. It signals your body to move out of “fight or flight” response into a parasympathetic response or “healing mode.” It is not unusual to actually see the person relax during a reflexology session, and as the body relaxes it is able to release tension in the muscles which may be an underlying cause of some pain.

And according to Arlene Green two of the Top Ten Pain Releasers are Auricular/ear reflexology and Brazilian Toe acupressure release. Either of these techniques can be added into a regular reflexology session at no charge or both can be added as an extra half hour treatment.

The Brazilian Toe acupressure release takes 15 minutes and helps to open the six meridians in the body that flow through the feet – spleen, liver, stomach, gall bladder, urinary bladder and kidney.

So What Exactly is Stress?

Stress is a normal physical response to events that makes you feel threatened or upsets your balance in some way. When you sense danger – whether it’s real or imagined – the body’s defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, or the stress response.

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life – giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

The stress response also helps you rise to meet challenges. Stress is what keeps you on your toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the game-winning free throw, or drives you to study for an exam when you’d rather be watching TV.

But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.

The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When you’re stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency stress response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body’s stress system is activated, the easier it is to trip and the harder it is to shut off.

Let Balance and Harmony help you get stress under control and get your health back on track. Schedule a session today: 309-692-7834.