Categories: Your Body
Date: Dec 11, 2008
Title: ironguides Health Tips - Dealing with Stress
Economic meltdown, work, holiday shopping, bills to pay, family, training, etc.... Wow! High levels of stress ahead.... What to do? Have no fear! Here are a couple of tips to help you avoid destroying yourself...
Economic meltdown, work, holiday shopping, bills to pay, family, training, etc.... Wow! High levels of stress ahead.... What to do? Have no fear! Here are a couple of tips to help you avoid destroying yourself...
The funny thing about stress is that our bodies don't know how to distinguish between a life threatening situation like falling off a cliff or everyday stressors such as getting yelled at by your boss. Your body, in both situations, will cause stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine to spike, causing your attention to narrow and your body's inflammatory reactions to elevate. This would help you to avoid infection if, let's say, your boss hits you in the head with a baseball bat. The constant reactions of inflammation on your body can be really detrimental to your health, leading to increased risk of heart attack, stroke, depression, and diabetes. Chronic stress can even shrink your hippocampus, a part of the brain that supports learning and memory. Basically, you need to avoid stress! Here are some tips from ironguides:
Get in the pool for some ALL OUT 25's - New research shows that heart rate elevating exercise promotes neurogenesis, the growth of new nerve cells, creating an effect similar to that of antidepressant drugs. The goal here is to significantly elevate your heart rate. Studies suggests that with high intensity workouts, you'll promote mood-improving brain cell growth. We all know how important exercise is to our hearts but it's getting more clear now that it's equally important for our brains. So get in the pool and do a short workout. After 400 to 600yds of a very easy warm up, do 6 to 8 intervals of 25yds with 15 or 20s rest and you'll feel better!
Group training with ironFolks friends - Now that you have joined our social network - ironFolks , you can plan swims, rides and runs with your friends to catch up and, most important, to get in some good laughs! Another effect of chronic stress is that it lowers the potency of your body's virus and cancer fighting cells. Research conducted in 2006 found that merely anticipating laughter boosted the production of mood-elevating hormones called endorphins and the immunity-enhancing human growth hormone. Additionally, laughter caused a decrease in cortisol and epinephrine levels in participants. So grab a group of friends for a workout to help decrease stress levels!
Keep your life balanced, stay healthy and stress free!
Sergio