by Jenna Pope

Created on: October 02, 2009

When I was a young mother, working full time, it seemed like I was always sick. I felt under the gun, continuously, to get something done. I wanted to be a good wife and a good mother. My job was demanding, and so were my kids when I would pick them up from daycare. There was housework to do and homework to monitor and yard work to finish. Everybody wanted a piece of mom, the master juggler.

One evening when my husband picked me up from work, my kids came in to get me. We were at the tail end of a St. Patrick's Day office party, and my three-year-old son marched up to the company president and announced, "My mommy had stress throat!"

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

The answer to the question, "Can stress hurt my health?" is a resounding yes! Here's why:

When a person is under stress, his body adapts. This adaptation is called General Adaptation Syndrome, and it consists of three phases.

1. Alarm Phase:

When confronted with danger or threat, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, creating the "fight-or-flight" response, which is a throw-over from early man. The alarm phase had to kick in at the first inkling of threat so cave man could escape the jaws of the sabre tooth tiger who happened to be out looking for dinner. In this phase, the amygdala of the brain causes epinephrine(or adrenaline) and cortisol to be released. The release of these two hormones helps us to deal with stress in the short term, but long term, they are bad for us.

In mobilizing the body for fight or flight, the hormone epinepherine causes increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. Muscles and energy use become more efficient, and strength increases. The liver's release of sugar increases for more immediate useable energy. Cortisol increases production of energy from glucose and also becomes an anti-inflammatory for physical injury.

2. Resistance Phase:

In the body's ongoing attempt to compensate, cortisol, epinephrine, and other hormones continue to be released over longer periods of time, elevating blood pressure and heart rate, along with decreasing immune function and glucose storage.

3. Exhaustion Phase:

Now the body's resources are depleted, and if the stress is still present, this can lead to formation of stress-related illness, i.e., high blood pressure or a weakened immune system; multiple organs/tissues can break down; there is damage to the hippocampus (where memory cells are stored). Cortisol destroys memory cells and white blood cells,

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