Stress Management - Hypertension and Stress, Is It A Virus?

Are you one of the millions of people worldwide trying to manage stress and / or stress related high blood pressure? If so, you may find this study interesting!

A recent study indicates that high blood pressure due to stress may actually be caused by your immune system reacting to the stress as if the stress were a virus. It is well known that stress can raise the heart rate and blood pressure, which may further leave a person predisposed to stroke and heart disease. But exactly how stress increases the blood pressure has not been well understood.

In a new study from Emery University, scientists showed that hypertension from stress does NOT occur in mice who have no T cells. T cells are a major part of the disease-fighting immune system. Mice who lack these special disease fighting cells were placed in stressful situations alongside mice who had T cells. The mice without T cells showed no increase in blood pressure while the normal mice did.

The scientists went one step further and introduced T cells to the previously T cell free mice. When the mice, with their newly completed immune system, were stressed again, their BP showed the same increase as the normal mice. So when the mice with no T cells were stressed, they did not have an elevated BP. When those same mice were given T cells and stressed again, they DID develop an increase in blood pressure. These results demonstrate the profound effects the immune system and stress can have on blood pressure.

Recent studies on stress-induced blood pressure rise has hinted to an inflammatory reaction by the immune system as the reason behind the phenomenon, but this is one of the first studies to actually show a direct link between the two. It is suspected that the body's T cells interpret the psychological stress as an assault by a pathogen. The T cells then mount an inflammatory attack which elevates blood pressure.

Based off of this study, and others, scientists are developing new approaches to hypertension management. One emerging treatment taken from this research uses stress management to improve blood pressure as well as other indicators of overall health.

The thought behind this new approach is that by reducing stress and burnout, we can suppress the inflammatory response our immune system has to stress. The benefits of stress management and avoiding the ever-dangerous 'burnout' (which significantly elevates BP), go far beyond lowering blood pressure too: stress management also helps reduce the buildup of plaque in arteries and improves the health of the heart and brain.

If you are an individual who has hypertension and feel stress may be causing it, then the Burnout Breakthrough! program may be just what you need! The comprehensive Burnout Breakthrough! program will not try to change your daily routine or ask you to quit your job. It will instead focus on teaching you how to let go of unhealthy behaviors, and how to change your emotional response to stressors; situations which cause you stress.

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The Stress Connection

So, you say, "I have heard that stress is bad for me and even causes disease, and when the doctors can't find a reason for why I am feeling ill, they say, 'It's probably stress'."

But do you actually know what is behind all the claims that stress is bad for you and causes disease? Some stress, stress that is motivating, can even be good for you. Well, I've believed in the stress connection for many years, but I never really got the physical reasons. The fact that stress is now being accepted as the basis for many illnesses, told me I might look into what's physically behind it all. I did, and here's what I've found.

Simply put, stress comes from perception. Stress only exists because we perceive something to be more than we can handle.

What is perceived as stress to one person can actually be considered joyful or exciting to another. How about giving a speech at a political convention? --Some people thrive on this, while others would feel sick for a month if they had to even contemplate the idea. It is not the event. It's not the situation. It's not the environment. It's not even the traffic---or your neighbor---that cause your stresses. It's simply how you see 'it'. Even in major disasters, there are those who can allow the energy to flow and see the event from a higher perspective, not letting themselves be caught up or affected, even if they are in great hardship themselves.

So, does this look like stress may indeed be within our immediate control? It appears so, but there's a little more to it. I'll take you through that now.

Let's take a look at the brain, starting with that part called the amygdala. The amygdala decides where our experiences should be sent for processing. Its big job is to keep us safe. It actually searches out items that are similar to past experiences so they can be avoided or dealt with as we did in the past. If it perceives danger, it alerts the hypothalamus, and this is where we arrive at an elegant cascading effect in the body called the "HPA Axis" or the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis. This is where the body receives the effects of our perceptions---where it gets hit by our stresses. The HPA axis is necessary for our survival, but evolution has not yet caught up to our present day lifestyle. Instead of acting, saving ourselves and releasing that stored up energy, as the brain is programmed to do, we remain in a state of tension, with worries and emotions stuck inside and no outlet for release.

So, when a threat is perceived, (Here we are talking about anything from major assault, to the boss being in a bad mood, to someone just giving us a 'look.') the amygdala needs to initiate protective action. It sends a signal to the Hypothalamus which alerts the Pituitary that something needs to be done -now- for personal safety. The pituitary then sends a signal to the Adrenals which release their hormones to constrict blood vessels to the internal organs and to the front of the brain which enables the extremities to be ready to fight or run and allows the back of the brain to act on instinct. With these hormones circulating throughout the body, the blood pressure and heart rate rise. Digestion shuts down. Immune function, hunger, thirst, reproductive ability and ability to sleep decrease. Cortisol and sugar are released into the blood. We hold onto weight. (Yes, holding onto stress does cause weight gain.)

As Dr. Bruce Lipton states in his book, The Biology of Belief, we can be in either growth-and-repair-mode or we can be in protection-mode---not both. As you see above, stress puts us in protection mode. If we have to run or fight, we can't spend time repairing, sleeping or enjoying and digesting our dinner and, for that matter, reproduction and sexual function aren't top priority either. So, what else happens when we are under stress? Along with not sleeping, our muscles don't relax. Thyroid function decreases. The cells, being in protect-what-we-have mode hold onto toxins and don't take in nutrients. We don't need to think, we need instinct so the back of the brain--sometimes called the reptilian brain--is activated, while the front of the brain is turned down. Our thought processes get muddled. We function in a fog.

Now, as you know, survival is #1 on anyone's life list. We may just not be all that effective on the planet if functioning from the outer realms. But because our subconscious brain perceives threat or no threat with no in betweens, all of these survival processes are activated each time we have that fear of the boss's moods or get into a traffic jam, or our computer breaks down just when we need it most. The fight/flight reactions come up but with no immediate outlet. We no longer live in a run-to-safety or fight-our-way-out world. So we hold ourselves in a state of tension, always waiting to leap off the starting mark. These hormones keep circulating in our bodies. In the long run, waiting at that start signal, we exhaust ourselves.

In a constant state of fight or flight, our adrenals become exhausted, our tolerance is lowered, past traumas surface, anxiety, panic attacks and headaches are exacerbated, leading to low self esteem and to depression. Feeling down, we reinforce this with negative self talk, we perceive more things negatively, so anxiety goes up, stress goes up, which can lead to poor diet, poor self care, substance abuse, more lowering of immune function, cutting down gut flora, inhibition of white blood cell production, a depletion of minerals and nutrients, causing the body to become acidotic. With that, minerals are taken from the bones to reakalize the blood. Along with this, the immune system can become confused. Autoimmune diseases and allergies can develop because the immune system no longer knows what it is protecting.

So, folks, is all this in your immediate control? I won't go that far, but I will say that your best choice may be to clear as much stress as you can from your mind and body. Allow life to carry you as if on a soft cloud. EFT/Matrix Reimprinting energy work is one direction which has been scientifically proven to make a difference.

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Think, Are You Lying To Yourself?

-Quote of The Week-

"The naked truth is always better than the best-dressed lie."

-Agnes Landers

The most common thing my clients say is, "This Body Just Isn't Me!" So I ask you the question are you lying to yourself? You say this body isn't you, yet you are making decisions from the place of where you are (in the body that you claim isn't you). Trust me, I get it... I did the same thing and it's a common mistake. The truth is (and you know how much I LOVE the truth) that body isn't you, neither are your limiting or negative thoughts, beliefs and patterns. So the question becomes who's are they?

Your Mom

Your Dad

Your Spouse

Your Teacher

Your Priest

Your Childhood "Frenemy"

It could be anyone's, but they certainly aren't yours. Let's define a false versus true identity:

Your Current "False" Identity: It is that voice in your head that says you can't do it. The feelings of being lost, scared, and unsure of what do next. The constant obsession over pounds, inches, calories and everything that is weight related. It is that nagging feeling that something has got to change and the realization that this body your in just isn't the real you.

Your "True" Identity: That little voice that tells you to do something and you chicken out. The voice that says you are worth it. The voice that says it's time to move and you ignore it. The voice that says it's time to feel and you stifle it. It is the voice that expresses the deepest, most authentic version of you that is dying to come out and help you create an incredible life of health, wealth and transformation.

Which identity are you currently living in and why do you keep saying, "I know what I should be doing I just don't do it?"

Usually when you are struggling with weight you will say that you know what you need to know but you just don't do it. There are one of two things happening here:

1. You are not listening to your true identity that knows how to live naturally thin
2. You are holding yourself to unrealistic expectations to live your life and lose weight. In other words, the "things that you know you should be doing" really aren't in service to your true identity and they just frankly suck

So you have to look inside and figure out which one you are operating from.

If you are simply not listening to your inner guidance, then it's time to figure out why. Your goal is to lose weight right? So why are you ignoring the one person that actually knows how to do it... the highest, most authentic version of yourself.

If you are holding yourself to forceful, punishing, down right crappy expectations to be thin.... STOP IT! Really, who is that serving and no wonder you don't want to do it!

Your assignment for the next couple of weeks is to turn up your true identity voice to max volume and mute your false identity voice to find out what the heck you truly want and desire. If you need help, that's exactly why I created my group program!

See you on the other side (the true side!)