Mental and Emotional Stress: The Role They Play In Your Physical Well Being

A lot is being said these days about mental and emotional stress. From the millions (possibly billions) of people suffering from depression, anxiety attacks and other mental conditions to the overall poor quality of life that people experience when the stress simply becomes overwhelming.

However, its important for you to know that mental and emotional stress play a crucial role in your physical health too.

Underlying Physiological Effects of Stress

They say that no man is an island, to demonstrate the effect that we have on each others lives. However, no area of you as a person is an island separate from the rest of your life. In other words, the thoughts and feelings that you harbor arent just ethereal musings that have no ramifications on your physical well being; quite the opposite actually.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and every bit of mental and emotional stress has an equally negative physical reaction that soon follows suit.

All you have to do is take a quick timeout the next time youre feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Youll notice that your pulse is fast, your body temperature elevates, sweat begins to pour, and probably a few other physical manifestations are taking place. And those are just the things you notice on the surface.

Underneath it all, even worse things are taking place; physiological reactions to mental and emotional stress factors that can have long lasting even deadly ramifications.

How Bad?

If theres one condition that we all agree upon as being deadly it has to be cancer. And as important as it is to eat right, rest and get the right amount of exercise, it turns out that reducing the mental and emotional stress in your life is just as important when it comes to fighting off cancer.

In fact, some experts believe that excessive stress is every bit as much a culprit for causing cancer as any diet or any other environmental factor.

In other words, if you want to reduce the likelihood of cancer claiming you as a victim, its time to start doing something about the mental and emotional stress levels in your life.

Long bouts of stress known as episodes of distress actually cause your bodys adrenal glands to secrete excessive amounts of the hormone known as cortisol. As cortisol levels continue to elevate, the body reacts by shutting down the immune and digestive systems. This cycle happens day in and day out for people who rid the mental and emotional stress roller coaster.

And its only a matter of time until that ride abruptly ends in a full-blown case of cancer or some other potentially terminal condition.

Avoiding negativity and keeping your mind set on positive, calming thoughts isnt just a bunch of nonsense. Every thought you have ends up triggering a very real physical reaction.

Yes, thinking right will make you a happier person, but more importantly it will help you to get rid of excessive mental and emotional stress that causes so many deadly physical problems too.