The central theory of this book is the irony of the stress response\u2014it evolved in physical environments very different from the social and psychological ones of today. Instead of being stalked by a saber-toothed tiger, today it is traffic jams, board exams, terrorist threats, bomb attacks in the city and worries over money.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With stress, your heart pounds, chest heaves and muscles tighten. Senses sharpen; time slips into slow motion, and you become impervious to pain. Under conditions of physical stress, this would be an appropriate healthy reaction because now you are prepared to do battle. The trouble is, however, that you are probably still sitting in your car or at your desk\u2014 stewing in your own juices. It’s time to relieve your stress.<\/p>\n
Bear in mind that an appropriate stress response is a healthy and necessary part of life. As we have discussed repeatedly, one of the things it does is to release norepinephrine\u2014the principal excitatory neurotransmitter. Norepinephrine is needed to create new memories. It improves mood. Problems feel more like challenges, which encourages creative<\/p>\n
thinking that stimulates your brain to grow new connections within it. Stress management is the key, not stress elimination. The challenge in this day and age is to not let the sympathetic nervous system stay chronically aroused. This may require knowledge of techniques that work to activate your relaxation response. Here you will find a variety of techniques and fascinating studies to help you manage stress in your daily life.<\/p>\n
One of the most obvious ways to relieve stress is to do what the body was meant to do under those circumstances\u2014 physical activity. More precisely, exercise proves to be an excellent mechanism for stress reduction.<\/p>\n
Four related studies done in 1999 at the University of Colorado at Boulder looked at how regular exercise changes physiological responses to stress from the brain, hormonal system, and immune system. ‘Our goal is to understand how regular, moderate, physical activity alters the stress response by examining the entire system, from the brain to the individual cells,’ says Assistant Professor Monika Fleshner. Doctors know that people who exercise regularly are less likely to fall sick after stressful situations. On the other hand, exposure to mental or physical stress increases a person’s susceptibility to illness or disease, she said. The four studies and many others have shown that exercise helps:<\/p>\n
\u2022 to lower the level of norepinephrine released in response to stress;<\/p>\n
\u2022 to improve infection fighting capability;<\/p>\n
\u2022 to significantly reduce the negative effects of stress, in-cluding the suppression of cell division, decreases cytokines, and increases production of stress proteins.<\/p>\n
Exercise Combats Depression Studies<\/p>\n
Exercise not only defuses a stressful situation, it prepares you to better cope with future stress and helps fight depression. The World Health Organization warns that by the year 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of death and disability in the world\u2014primarily due to more stressful lifestyles, poverty, and violence.<\/p>\n
When University of California at San Diego researchers kept track of more than 900 older adults whose average age was 70, they found that those who exercised regularly had the best moods a decade later. In contrast, men and women who never exercised, or quit during the study, were more likely to develop a depressive mood. One of the study’s authors, Dr Donna Kritz-Silverstein, stated that this ‘shows there’s a beneficial effect, but to reap the benefits you have to keep exercising’\u2014especially with regular activities that break a sweat, such as brisk walking. An important point the author has emphasized is that ‘starting exercise at an older age can be just as beneficial’.<\/p>\n
A Finnish study had similar results. When depressive symptoms were compared with exercise intensity in 663 elderly people over an eight-year-period, active physical exercise was associated with better mental health. Paivi Lampinen and colleagues at the University of Jyvaskyla concluded that ‘age-related decrease in the intensity of physical exercise increases the risk of depressive symptoms among older adults’.<\/p>\n
Practical tips for using exercise to reduce stress<\/p>\n
\u2022 Do exercises that work your leg muscles.
\n\u2022 Jog in place\u2014do spot running.
\n\u2022 Climb stairs or use a stair-stepper.
\n\u2022 Take a brisk walk.
\n\u2022 Use a treadmill\u2014it works for lab rats.
\n\u2022 Use short bursts of muscular energy like the PT exercises we learned in school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The central theory of this book is the irony of the stress response\u2014it evolved in physical environments very different from the social and psychological ones of today. Instead of being stalked by a saber-toothed tiger, today it is traffic jams, board exams, terrorist threats, bomb attacks in the city and worries over money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress-relief"],"yoast_head":"\n