Not really! Some amount of stress is actually good for our body and mind. Stress readies us for any eventuality and protects us. It is only when stress gets prolonged and repetitive, do we get into problems.
What exactly happens when we undergo stress? Bear in mind, the cause of this stress could be either physical or psychological. The mechanisms are similar.
At an animal level, the body readies itself to face the events that caused the stress. It could be an attack from the enemy. What do you do when an enemy attacks you? You either runaway from the scene or face the enemy by fighting back. This is called the “Flight or fight” strategy adopted by the body.
When you want to runaway from the scene, you need more energy in your legs. More energy means more oxygen to be supplied to the muscles in the legs. That in turn means more blood supply to the legs.
More blood supply with the blood rich in oxygen can happen when your heart pumps faster and the lungs breath harder. So, your breathing rate as well as heart rate have to increase.
Similar things happen when you choose to face the aggressor and fight back. You need more energy to fight back. In the fight, you may get injured. So, the body has to increase its immunity to infections during that period of vulnerability.
Basically, the body puts itself in a high state of alertness. Whether the stress is physical or psychological, very similar mechanisms trigger into action.
Actually, all these happenings in the body are for the good of the body. To protect it from any eventuality. So, what is bad about stress?
Stress becomes bad when it stays for prolonged duration or it happens over and over again. The state into which the body puts itself is only for emergency. That is not the normal state. So, sooner or later the body has to revert back to ‘normal’ state.
But prolonged stress or repetitive stress does not give an opportunity for the body to return back to normal. That is when the problem starts.
The high state of alertness the body managed to put itself is a result of secretion of several hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol and so on. These hormones have a long-term adverse effect on the body if their secretion is prolonged beyond a safe limit. They need to be stopped once the stress passes off.
But long-term stress or repetitive stress does not allow that to happen. And this will have several adverse health implications on the body. So, these emergency saviors become the enemies!
Most of the health problems that we face today, whether it is diabetes, cardiac problems, hypertension, arthritis, insomnia, obesity, depression, are all attributed to this prolonged condition of stress.
In many cases these disorders are caused by stress. In some cases, stress may aggravate an already existing problem. The stress also brings down our immunity and makes us more vulnerable to infectious diseases as well.
Just to give a simple example, let me take the case of heart attacks caused by prolonged stress.
When one repeatedly goes through stress, as you may have observed, his heart beat increases. There is more adrenaline secreted. This would try to pump more blood from the heart to the limbs. But other hormones such as cortisol that are also secreted, harden the arteries over a period of time.
On one hand your heart tries to pump more blood, and on the other hand the hardened arteries are unable to carry the blood at that rate. So, naturally the blood pressure increases. The heart finds it difficult to pump the blood in such a constricted situation.
It is like trying to close the outlet of a hose pipe when high pressure water is forced through it. What happens? The hose ruptures ultimately, especially if it has become hard. That is what exactly happens to the heart. It ends up in cardiac arrest or internal bleeding.
Similar chain of things happen in other cases of ailments also. Please refer to my book “How and Why of Yoga and Meditation” Chapter “Stress is the prominent cause of problems” for a more detailed discussion on stress and its effects on our health.Rather than resorting to emergency measures, it is always prudent to avoid the situation that has caused all the mess. That means you need to keep yourself free from stress as far as possible.
Does Yoga help in doing that? If so, how does it do that? That is what I am going to discuss in the next episode. Please join me then.
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King 2019
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