Although many people may associate stress with a small headache or other minor or mild annoyances, unchecked stress can actually deliver a huge array of negative health impacts that can contribute to disease and, ultimately, early death. Here is a brief overview of the way stress impacts your body and what you can do to minimize harmful stress effects in your life.
What is stress?
Stress is the body’s natural and helpful reaction to environmental and mental triggers. In actuality, stress is an extremely important biological process that catalyzes problem-solving, facilitates new muscle growth, aids in recovery from illness or injury, and improves an organism’s ability to survive in its environment.
The key difference between healthy stress and unhealthy stress is the amount and intensity. Unfortunately, in today’s modern world of fast-paced movement and nonstop action, many Americans find themselves victims of chronic, systemic stress. Add into the equation the unhealthy diet common to the West, and the results can be disastrous.
How Stress Works on the Human Body
As mentioned earlier, stress is natural and a certain amount is even desirable. However, the chronic stress that medicine has identified as so harmful to health has a number of telltale signs. Physical effects of stress include chest pains, high blood pressure, inability to fall asleep and stay asleep, digestive problems, intense headaches, and more. Mental health can suffer just as drastically from stress because of higher anxiety levels, more depression, and less motivation to make necessary lifestyle improvements. Studies have estimated that nearly half of all American adults experienced negative health impacts because of their stress levels.
Remedies for Stress
The most critical strategies for minimizing unwanted, chronic stress are eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and ensuring you have plenty of sleep. All three of these exert anti-inflammatory action on the whole body. Because inflammation is one of the most dangerous by-products of stress, reducing it is crucial to restoring your health. Diets rich in crucial vitamins and minerals replenish the body’s natural supply of stress-fighting compounds. Exercise releases a range of beneficial hormones, among other effects, that quiet the mind and promote relaxation. Sleep is the body’s natural repair process where cells damaged by unchecked stress are repaired or recycled, so getting enough is vital.
In addition to diet, supplements can be effective. Herbonaut produces CBD oil which has been proven to combat stress effectively. The ability of CBD, an extract of the cannabis plant which stands for cannabidiol, is a focus of intense scientific research into its healing properties, particularly its ability to promote sleep and reduce anxiety. Study after study has proven its ability to promote resultful sleep while reducing anxiety (stress). The most exciting angle of this new treatment is that, unlike pharmaceutical competitors, there is no risk of addiction with CBD supplementation.
Just because high-stress levels are rampant in today’s world does not mean that unhealthy stress levels are normal or acceptable. If you are serious about reducing the stress in your life and its associated health impacts, consult an experienced provider and set up a plan to combat it. You don’t have to accept chronic stress in your life.