I never really understood stress until I was older. When you’re younger you don’t have as many worries. You’re not thinking about how you’re going to pay your bills, take care of the kids, manage a personal life and work life, and just get through your days without any issue. No one prepares you well enough, not even your parents. You can watch and learn all your life, but until you experience it first hand, you never realized how much stress everyone is under.
When people think of stress, they imagine this big project or this major deadline or something family related, etc. that is causing stress in their life. What I didn’t realize was just how much a single thought could stress someone out. Just starting to think about my to-do list stresses me out, and I may never show that stress, but it is there whether I realize it or not.
I would like to think that everyone, in their own way, understands stress. We may not not always know what is causing it, but we all understand it in our own way.
“Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you sense danger—whether it’s real or imagined—the body’s defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction or the “stress response.”
The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life—giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid a car accident.
Stress can also help you rise to meet challenges. It’s what keeps you on your toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the game-winning free throw, or drives you to study for an exam when you’d rather be watching TV. But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, mood, productivity, relationships, and your quality of life.”
“The adrenal glands are the quarterback to the stress response and your ANS is the coach. They will speed up your heart rate, blood pressure and blood and oxygen to the brain and will hamper the areas of the brain that can input short-term memories and learning.” -Dr. McCall
If our adrenal glands are the quarterback to our stress response, what is the best way to help our adrenals out to help the stresses we may get? Is there a supplement, treatment, or better nutrition form that can help? -Jessica
“Yes (Eating Well) can help. Eating well involves removing carbs, adding more protein and drinking filtered water. Supplements can also help. Standard Process’s Adrenal Dessicated, Drenamin, Ligaplex I, and Ligaplex II are the best for helping in this case.” -Dr. McCall
We always perceive stress as a bad thing, but stress in our lives is good. It isn’t until stress becomes too overwhelming in our life that we even notice we have stress in the first place. As much as we all wish there could be less stress in our lives, we need stress to keep us focused and to maintain a balance in our lives.
When stress does get too overwhelming, there are ways to help. We have all heard of many ways to try and alleviate/manage stress, some may work better for others, and some just don’t work at all and tend to stress us out even more because it isn’t working. I may not have a doctor’s education or degree, but I myself have had plenty of stress in my life and I have had my own successes with handling/managing stress.
I handle stress in many ways. I have been around doctors or nurses the majority of my life and I have learned a lot from being around them, Dr. McCall being one of them! I have learned the usual, but probably the most beneficial is to increase your water intake. It may sound like it won’t help at all, but you’d be surprised. As soon as I increase my intake of water, I don’t feel like my stress is so overwhelming, it’s there, but it’s manageable. I have also tried meditation, keeping positive, setting limits for myself, eating healthier, making time for my hobbies/interests, getting enough sleep, and talking to someone who just listens. Some days, any one of these methods work and other days some don’t, it depends on my stress. You are going to find what form of stress management works for you, and then your life will be more manageable with everything you have going on in it!
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
*This Blog with a collaboration between Dr. McCall and Jessica Carn
