Stress, poor health and sore throats

31 October 2006

Sore throats are just the tip of the iceberg

I was doing some research into endorphins – our own amazing, free happy drug only secreted when we smile, laugh or do exercise – and discovered lots about other things that I wasn’t expecting like smell, sensitivity, muscles and believe it or not stress. It goes something like this. As part of our development, we hunted animals and they hunted us. Also, when we lived in tribes, we had to defend ourselves, our families and our villages. Our bodies developed the necessary wherewithal for fight or flight or in another words eat or be eaten: options were so much simpler then weren’t they. Part of that process involved the development of scent, one of our oldest senses, because as an early warning system scent travels longer distances than sight and is especially useful when one cannot see the enemy round corners or at night.

In order for the ability of fight and flight for one’s very survival, it was necessary for the body to make chemical changes to help run away or grapple with one’s assailant or predator. For these rather stressful situations, the muscles had to be able to work at peak power, which needed the heart and lungs to pump more blood and oxygen around the body to deal with the new and often sudden life or death situation. And so enter Adrenalin, which includes the naturally produced Cortisol, which is not water-soluble i.e. cannot be urinated away from our bodies.. it has to be burnt away.

In simple terms, miraculously the adrenalin and cortisol involves: -

• Reducing the diameter of the arteries so there is less blood in areas like the brain and this is the reason why under stress our brains literally seize up
• Increases the diameter of other arteries, in leg muscles to enable flight or fight
• Increasing the heart rate to pump more blood to allow fast muscle response.

Modern day situations
Nowadays we don’t normally have such life or death situations, at work, home or when we are socialising or playing sport, just feels like it. The thing is though that if one does not get rid of Cortisol with exercise, it builds up in the body and has the effect of attacking the weakest part of our bodies .. digestion, muscles, knees, fingers, joints, back, throat, ligament, head, etc. As all of us have parts of our bodies that are not as resilient as strong as other parts, we tend to have odd aches and pains that appear when we are under stress, that disappear as quickly as they have appeared. One of the other findings is that sensitive people produce more adrenalin quicker than others and are therefore more susceptible to this attack.

The classic work situations where all this appears involve: -

• Continuous tight deadlines – deliveries, project completion, marketing material, advertising deadlines, catching planes and trains
• A very demanding, driving, dominating boss
• Difficult financial situations – cash flow, budgets, project costs
• Carrying an ineffective team
• Public presentations

Of course there are similar stress creating situations in the home, that a lot of people ignore: -

• Financial difficulties caused by redundancy, illness (the vicious circle continues)
• Emotional breakdown of families, often at their highest after Christmas
• Balancing the needs of a family and holding down a job
• Moving
• A death in the family

Dr. George Solomon at the University Of California after 40 years of study has proved that ‘stress can be immunosuppressive’ and has found about thirty-five hypotheses, for which now exists a varied amount of “hard” evidence. Further research by Candace Pert in her excellent book “Molecules of Emotion” writes that: -

• All body functions are affected by our thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
• The brain’s chemicals create a flow of information messages translating thoughts and feelings first into chemicals and then into body responses that unite the mind and body
• All this has drastic and dramatic effects on the ability of our cells to allow the entrance of viruses or not, depending on our state of health
• As a result, how one thinks and feels has a profound effect on cholesterol and Cortisol levels, blood counts, stomach acids, immune functions and on the levels of endorphins (the body’s pain relieving chemicals).

As you would expect in any situation that involves the breakdown of the mind and body body, ill health will be the result, which takes its toll on our performance such as our effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, communicateability, creativity, aggression, emotion, etc. All this can lead to mistakes, poor decision-making and even accidents at work.

The tell tale signs are not just arriving late or having days off, but the signs of staff who are ill and who cannot afford to lose income:

• The cold or flu that never goes away
• Ever present headaches and/or migraines
• Repeating sore throats
• Ongoing indigestion
• Aching joints (ankles, knees, fingers) or painful muscles
• Tightening of the throat, often feeling one has a lump, sometimes called Globus Hystericus
• Pressure in the chest
• Backache
• Coughs
• Tests by the doctor or hospital and nothing wrong is found

Unfortunately because the majority of illness is psychosomatic, we tend to focus on a symptom and make it worse by creating the illness in our mind. The end result is that if the stressful situation continues or even gets worse, the illness will as well.

One of the most important aspects of illness is to be aware of the warning signals that our bodies send us. Research by Gary E. Schwartz has demonstrated that people who are tuned into their mind-body signals of aches, pains, soreness, indigestion, increased sensitivity and hints discomfort, pain, fatigue, distress, sadness, anger, and pleasure cope better psychologically and have a better immune profile and a healthier cardiovascular system. It is therefore absolutely crucial that if something isn't right then suppressing it is not going to cure the root cause. Also James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D has shown that individuals who confide their secrets, traumas and feelings to others have livelier immune responses, healthier psychological profiles, and far fewer incidences of illness.

Obviously it is important that we reduce the stressful situations that we have in our lives and play to our strengths, which is often easier said than done. So apart from finding a work or family environment that is more suitable for our minds and bodies here are some suggestions to help with our modern-day life:-

• the use of various relaxation - yoga, tai-shi, meditation, breathing techniques can lessen depression, lower stress, and allow for better sleep. “The Little Book of Calm” is a good start
• cancer patients who practiced better coping skills had a greater sense of control and had a 60% reduction in death rate. The Journey” by Brandon is an excellent and useful read
• the more positive one’s mood is, the greater immunity one has against colds and odd illnesses going around.
• those who attend church have one-half the risk of heart attacks than non-church goers
• just by the simple relaxation technique of the playing of Brahm's Lullaby to premature babies showed greater health gains.
• Laughter secretes our natural happy drug called “Endorphins” that strengthens our mental, physical and psychological immune systems
• • Healthy diet and regular exercise

As Cary Cooper CBE points out in his recent article in “Rapport” with faster change and more of it, more downsizing, more to do with less people, faster turnaround times needed to remain competitive work or business stress is not going to go away.

At this point it is worth reminding company owners and directors to look at one's corporate culture and identify the work-health balance of your people, bearing in mind that the less sensitive people can handle a lot more stress than the more sensitive person.

Suzanne Ouellete, Ph.D suggests that those people who are able to assert their feelings and needs by recognising the following three Cs, suffer far fewer chronic illnesses and have stronger immune systems:-

• a sense of Control over one’s quality of life, health, and social conditions
• a strong Commitment to one’s work, creative activities, or relationships
• a view of stress as a Challenge rather than a threat

©William Barron
Creating Insight
October 2006
 

---

First 1 Last