April is Stress Awareness Month. During the Month Health Care Professionals across the Country join forces to increase Public Awareness about Both the Causes and Cures for our modern Stress Epidemic.
Sponsored by the Health Resource Network (HRN), a Non-Profit Health Education Organization, Stress Awareness Month is a National, Cooperative Effort to inform You about the Dangers of Stress, Successful Coping Strategies, and Harmful Misconceptions about Stress that are Prevalent in Our Society.
Our World is Becoming increasingly Complex, Our jobs are More Complex as the Business World has Become More Competitive, and the Demands on Our Time and Attention are increasing, Sound, Air, and Water Pollution have All Worsened over the Last Century, and because of the Internet and Social Media, We are now also Aware of Troubles and Tragedies around the World that Previous Generations would Never Have Known About, Creating Anxiety. Taken together, these Assaults on Your Senses Create a Physical and Emotional Reaction and The Word for this Overwhelming Feeling is called Stress.
This Will Be a Four Part Series Posted Weekly Thought the Month of April to Help inform You of Stress Awareness Month.
This First Part, Will Define What Stress is. The Second Part Will Discuss How Stress Affects Your Health and Will Be Posted Sometime Next Week. Followed by, The Third Part That Will Discuss What You Can Do to Reduce Your Stress and Then the Final Fourth Part That Will Answer the Question: What Can Chiropractic Care Do to Help You Reduce Your Stress? The Following Couple of Weeks After That.
If You Don’t Want to Miss this Series just Subscribe to the Email Updates HERE. Or You can Subscribe to the RSS Feed HERE (See: What’s This?). You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIN.
What is Stress?
The term ‘Stress’ is borrowed from the field of Engineering and is used in reference to ‘physical forces upon mechanical structures’. The term was First Used in the Modern Medical Sense around the beginning of the 20th century by Walter Cannon, a Harvard physiologist. Cannon also first described the “Fight or Flight” Syndrome, and noted the Damaging Physical Effects of a Continuous Stress Response. Modern Healthcare is increasingly recognizing that Many illnesses are Caused by Stress, or Worsened by Stress.
You Perceive Stress from These Three Sources:
- Your Environment (Noise, Weather, Physical Threats, Time Pressures and Performance Standards).
- Your Body (Disease Processes, Organ Malfunction, Poor Nutrition, Poor Sleep, and Physical Injury).
- Your Emotions (Your Reactions, in Thought and Emotion, to Environmental and Physical Stressors. Criticism, for example, is devastating to some, while others seem unaffected).
So, for Health and Wellness Purposes, I think the Best Definition that I Have Found for What Stress is This:
“A Reaction to Any Internal or External Stimulation to a Physical, Chemical, or Emotional Factor that Causes Bodily or Mental Tension that Upsets Normal Functioning and Disturbs Physical or Mental Health and is a Factor in Disease Causation” (via: Merriam Webster Dictionary).
Question: What Are Some Other Examples of the Three Sources of Stress Discussed Above Do You Think Affects Your Health the Most?
I Would Love to Hear Them! So Please Share Them in the Comments Section Below.
And so You Don’t Miss the rest of this Series or any Future Posts, just Subscribe to the Email Updates HERE. Or You can Subscribe to the RSS Feed HERE (See: What’s This?). You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Chiro Feeds, BelvidereChiro . BelvidereChiro said: New Post: What is Stress? – National Stress Awareness Month (part 1 of 4) http://goo.gl/fb/L78B1 […]