Most of us feel stressed out at least some of the time and many of us feel stressed out most of the time. We often wear stress as a badge of honor, but too much stress can lead to very detrimental results; just look at these statistics:
- Stress contributes to 50% of all illnesses in the US.
- 43% of adults suffer adverse health effects due to stress.
- 75-90% of visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints or disorders.
- Stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis and suicide.
- Stress is responsible for more than half of the 550,000,000 workdays lost annually due to absenteeism.
- The cost of job stress in the US is estimated at over $200 billion annually, including the cost of absenteeism, lost productivity and insurance claims.
- 47 million Americans exhibit excessive abdominal fat due to a stress-related condition known as “metabolic syndrome.”
The simple fact is that the human body was not designed to deal with the intense, chronic stress many of us face every day. Our ancestors were never bombarded with the wide array of day-to-day conflicts that are a “normal” part of our daily lives. They were more concerned with short-term stressors, like running away from a predator. Whether it is running away from a tiger or dealing with a crying child, short-term stressors initiate a response that is often referred to as “fight or flight.”
The “fight or flight” response is designed to help us deal with an immediate threat by either preparing us for battle (to “fight”) or by removing ourselves from the situation (to take “flight”). Once there is no longer a perceived threat, the “fight or flight” response diminishes and the body returns to its normal state. However, in today’s fast-paced world, we’ve created a situation where we are constantly faced with stressors and are continually in a “fight or flight” mode. This causes numerous hormone imbalances that alter your metabolism and lead to detrimental changes in your health.
Learn more about stress and your health:
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