How does stress affect us?

Stress is universal and ugly. It causes headaches, digestive problems, sleeplessness, high blood pressure, aches and pains and fatigue. The majority of doctor visits stem from these complaints. And how many diseases begin with stress as it weakens the immune system. It follows that if our society were not stressed, our doctors would be half as busy and the costs of medical care would go way down.

When stressed, humans were designed to produce the hormone hydrocortisone or cortisol for short. This was designed to help the fight or flee response. However, if continued stress elevates cortisol for too long, it exhausts the glands that produce it and the body loses the ability to increase cortisol. (like becoming emotionally numb in a war scenario---shell-shock)

Constant stress is a heavy-duty long term type of stress, as the loss of a loved one, financial ruin or a nagging responsibility that you can't cope with that continues to hover over you like a dark cloud. Daily hassles such as flat tires, children's scrapes and burnt potatoes you can manage because they are temporary.

The question is how do we deal with the effects of stress?

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