Two Types of Stress

Many people don’t know there are actually two major stress categories that affect us everyday of our lives. Most have already heard of the term “emotional stress”, but it seems that few people have heard of the term “oxidative stress.” We understand emotional stress to be that fight or flight response, when the body releases adrenaline and cortizol hormones to help us deal with challenges and threats; however, what few understand is how much damage emotional stress does on overall health and wellness. Another term, with which many people are becoming familiar, is “free radicals.” While many of us have heard this term, because of the extensive coverage of this topic in the media, I wonder how many of us truly understand the concept of free radicals, in detail. Could you explain the definition of a free radical if asked? Do you understand how they are produced in your body? Do you understand how much damage these little monsters can actually do to you? In the old days, the average person was not familiar with germs. People often died from simple infections just because they did not know about germs. Doctors did not know what caused infections, fevers or influenza. Germs were not something that people could see, since microscopes hadn’t been invented, so people didn’t know they had to wash their hands and clean dirty utensils or medical instruments. Once scientists discovered the germ for the first time, a completely new chapter in medical history was written. Doctors and scientists then knew what they were fighting against and so were eventually able to find a treatment that would eliminate the problem. From a preventative standpoint, people were taught to wash their hands, cook their food properly and wash their dishes. From a treatment standpoint, penicillin was invented to kill the dangerous bacteria that caused infection and illness. People also learned to use improved sanitary measures to deal with human waste and garbage disposal. As a result, of this new knowledge, death and illness rates dropped rapidly. Well now, there’s a new kid on the block and it’s called a free radical. Just like the germ of days gone by, we can’t see it and we don’t really know what we’re fighting against, but doctors and scientists are learning more and more about free radicals and just as, in the days of germs, we are learning new and different solutions to solving the problem with free radicals. In retrospect, hand washing seemed obvious, if you wanted to avoid infections, fevers or illness; after all, hindsight is 20/20, and the solution to dealing with free radicals today is becoming more and more obvious as well. Simply put, the most important thing people need to understand is that uncontrolled emotional stress causes free radicals to be produced in huge quantities in our bodies and when too many free radicals are produced and left unchecked, severe oxidative stress occurs and this oxidative stress leads to serious chronic degenerative disease. Significant scientific data, accumulated over the past 30 years has proven that more than 100 chronic degenerative diseases, including Cancer, Diabetes, Asthma, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Cardiovascular Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Migraine headaches, Alzheimer’s Dementia, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Chrohn’s, Colitis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Hypercholesterolemia, and many others, are all caused by the oxidative stress, brought on by overproduction of free radicals. Emotional stress is not the only thing that causes the production of free radicals, but it is one of the key factors. My website is dedicated to helping people learn about emotional stress, free radicals, oxidative stress, chronic degenerative disease and the cure to the problem, effective stress management and antioxidants. Please visit my site to learn more.