Stress

THE ROOT CAUSE OF PAIN

Over the years many different conditions have been identified to account for pain. We have distilled them down to their root cause. Therefore the simplified breakdown for pain comes about due to one root cause … STRESS.

Let’s take a closer look at how stress is the catalyst that underlies the four main causes of pain…physical, nutritional, emotional, and spiritual.

WHAT IS STRESS?

The mere fact of being alive involves some form of stress. Stress can either be physical, emotional, or a combination of both. Stress is considered to be an event or demand that forces us to adapt. Sometimes the stress is to much for us to handle and our body or mind is brought to a breaking point. These events or demands can occur from external or internal factors and involve both good stress (eustress) and bad stress (distress).

Eustress involves situations with the following criteria:

Being challenged in a healthy way (i.e. job promotion)
Having some control and choice over the situation (i.e. getting married)
Having the resources to deal with the challenge (i.e. optimum health)
Having sufficient time to recover between challenges (i.e. exercise)

Distress involves situations with a much different set of criteria:

Being challenged in an unhealthy way (i.e. death of a spouse)
Having no control or choice in the situation (i.e. accident victim)
Do not have the resources to deal with the challenge (i.e. health imbalances)
Problem is complex and seemingly cannot be resolved (i.e. back pain)

When you become stressed the body can go through 1400 chemical and 30 hormonal changes some of which can linger for hours after the incident. Throughout human history many of these changes were necessary for our survival. As a species we needed to adapt to the extreme environmental conditions and dangers that were present. Our modern conveniences make it easy for us to forget that central heating was once considered a group of people huddled around a fire in a mud hut with grass roof. We also no longer have to deal with the imminent danger of being attacked by wild animals. Although we will admit that a trip to the grocery store can still be as daunting as trying to hunt down wild game.

Problems with stress occur when our physical and mental ability to cope is overwhelmed. As a species we are well adapted to short term acute stress but it is the unrelenting low grade chronic stress of our modern world that has become the enemy. Our adaptive coping mechanisms are not designed to deal with stress on a long term basis.

To deal with stress takes energy and when stress occurs over prolonged periods of time we deplete our energy which in turn causes a cascade of health problems — one of which is chronic pain.

You may have been diagnosed with disc ruptures, spinal stenosis, disc degeneration, or some other physical problem that is linked to your pain. What we are trying to impress upon you is that the pain you feel is made worse by stress and that stress can cause pain.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET STRESSED?

Over the millennia the human body has developed a unique and effective way to deal with acute stress. When we say acute stress, we are talking short term “fight or flight” stuff. Let’s say you step off the curb at a stop light, and look up to see a bus barrelling down on you. In this case the “fight” part doesn’t really apply but “flight” would be a good option.

This situation elicits a first level stress response which we’ll call the Alarm Reaction or mobilization of energy. The brain recognizes danger and gets you out of the way. Assuming that you’ve survived to live another day it will take several hours to clear out the chemical and hormonal changes that saved your life. This stress response system can be credited to our survival as a species.

The second stage of our stress response is called Resistance. Many of us are currently in this state. Our modern world has many stressors that we are unable to fight or flee from. A good example of this would be time pressures. Most of us work in environments with long work hours and performance expectations that create inconveniences in our social and emotional life. We generally have no control over work related expectations, so our body responds with chemical and hormonal changes which help us remain balanced and/ or improve our performance. The problem arises when the stressors don’t go away.

The primary hormones excreted from the adrenal glands during the Resistance stress response phase is cortisol. The positive short term effects of cortisol are:

metabolism of glucose for energy
mobilizing amino acids from protein for energy and immune system support
breaking down fatty acids, body fat, for energy
reducing inflammation
maintenance of connective tissue (bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and skin)
stimulating mental function

When the stress response continues over prolonged periods of time these raised levels of cortisol in the system actually have a negative effect:

metabolic imbalances that lead to weight gain/ hypertension/ diabetes/ and high cholesterol
fatigue
breakdown of connective tissue (bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and skin)
alterations in brain chemistry that lead to depression/ anxiety/ memory and concentration problems
hormone imbalances
immune system suppression
increased inflammation

As you can see stress is both a critical aspect of maintaining health but if left unabated can disharmonize our body thus increasing our triggers to pain.

Are You Stressed?