The following is a brief explanation of how the above disorders affect your health.
Stress is a normal part of life and we all deal with it daily. It is normally a healthy response to difficult situations whether they be physically dangerous or emotionally/socially/mentally difficult.
In a healthy state the body responds to situations by increasing stress hormones that prepare you for fight or flight. When the situation is over, the body quickly adapts and goes back to a calm state.
Most of us are exposed to many stresses daily. Stress can be caused by environmental pollution, eating the wrong foods too often, sedentary life, physical stresses such as intense and prolonged exercise, family and social problems, relationships, work, lack of sleep – I am sure you can think of more.
When the body is exposed to continuing stress as most people experience in daily life, the stress system does not adapt fully and stress hormones continue to be produced in amounts that become detrimental to your health. This is especially true of people who have suffered separation from loved ones whether through death or otherwise, physical and/or emotional abuse in the past or current.
Prolonged release of stress hormones decreases the Hydrochloric acid (HCL) content of the stomach. HCL is needed for digestion, destroys detrimental microorganisms and stimulates the release of bile and digestive enzymes.
Decreased HCL in the stomach leads to decreased absorption of nutrients from the diet and the proliferation of detrimental organisms. This condition creates many problems including inefficient functioning of the nervous and hormonal systems, the digestive system, the immune system and affects your entire health – Your skin ages, your fat mass increases and your muscle and bone mass decrease, so you start to look a lot less than your best.
Stress also causes the expenditure and excretion of nutrients that are needed for calming and energy production as well as other functions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop this cycle that is very efficient and quick.
Nutrients such as amino acids, vitamins and minerals are necessary to make stress hormones and for energy production; for making calming neurotransmitters and for many other functions. The manufacture of stress hormones takes precedence over all bodily functions and so can deplete what nutrients may have been available for other functions e.g. energy and calming. Therefore chronic stress will also lead to fatigue as well as feelings of anxiety, depression and cause digestive problems which fuel this cycle leading to more stress and decreased digestion and so on.