Stress - The Inside Story

Stress has always been with us.  In ancient days, stress was most often experienced in reaction to an immediate threat, commonly known as the fight or flight response.  This type of stress, called Acute Stress, was called into action during basic human activities such as hunting or in response to danger.

Join our Newsletter! Email: First Name:		During phases of acute stress, more blood is delivered into your muscles, which sends more oxygen to your brain, heart, and lungs.  Blood flow may increase up to 400%, preparing your muscles, lungs, and brain for additional demands.  The amount of sugar, or glucose, increases in your blood as well, accelerating your metabolism, in preparation for immediate action.  Your blood thickens, increasing the oxygen in red blood cells and causing white blood cells to function better in order
to prevent infections. Your spleen emits red and white blood cells, allowing more oxygen to be transported. And finally two hormones are generated, adrenaline and cortisol. In most circumstances, once the Acute threat passed, the levels of stress hormones return to normal, called the relaxation response.

In modern times, we experience acute stress less often.  However that has been replaced with a different kind of stress called Chronic Stress.  This pertains to more long-term situations where the urge to act (flight or flight) must be suppressed.  Common chronic stress points can include financial worries, loneliness, relationship problems, and career.  However, the body responds to chronic stress similar to how it responds to acute stress.  When chronic stress continues unabated, and the body continues to respond as if it were acute stress, very negative effects can occur.

Negative Effects of Stress

The physiological response to stress is ingrained deep in our makeup.  The physical changes that take place in our bodies in response to acute stress are instinctual and almost impossible to control.  In our modern world, physical responses to stress can be a good thing; they can raise levels of performance or allow us to focus on a critical event.  However, if the response becomes active for chronic stress, and is persistent, the body will become over- or under-activated.  This results in physical or psychological damage over time.

The negative effects of stress are far-reaching.  These can include

As you can see, the long-term effects of stress, when unchecked can be catastrophic.

Stress Problems Run Deep

How effective are we as a society at dealing with stress?  Not very.  Consider this:

And the problem doesn't stop there:

Prescription Stress Relief and Antidepressants

Prescription medications to treat stress and depression are generally labeled SSRI's - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors.  Through various formulas, these medications work to increase levels of serotonin and neurotransmitter activity in the brain.  The biggest problem, besides the high cost for these drugs, is the wide range of side effects that can occur.  Since the drugs introduce chemicals that are not naturally occurring, the body reacts to these chemicals.  Just some of the side effects for the major SSRI's - such as Prozac, Celexa, Lexapro, Paxil, Wellbutrin, and Zoloft - include the following:

There are many more side effects; too numerous to list here (for more information on side effects for specific medications, visit The Truth About Prescription Psychotropic Drugs ).  Not only must you suffer the side effects, the drugs are also expensive.  Furthermore, the body eventually builds up an immunity to most of these drugs, thereby forcing you to spend more money on higher doses (and expose yourself to more side effects) to get the same result.  To top it all off, many of the prescription drugs are addictive; meaning your body starts to need and depend on the prescribed medication.  If you decide to go off the drug for any reason, you can expect to suffer through withdrawal symptoms that rival the side effects!

Stress Relief - Herbal Treatments

Because of these factors, many doctors today are endorsing the use of herbs to help long term treatments of stress, anxiety, and depression.  Herbal treatments are less expensive, more effective, and less intrusive than the foreign SSRI's.  Plus, since the formulas are all 100% natural, there are no known side effects!

Just as there are a variety of prescription medicines available for stress relief, anxiety, and depression, so to are there a variety of herbal treatments available.  The companies that make these herbal treatments use a wide range of naturally occurring ingredients.  Through rigorous testing they determine the proper mix that they believe is best suited for their solution.  Of course, some ingredients work better than others, and some are more expensive than others, so no two products will work exactly alike.

With this in mind, it's important for you to identify what you need out of a solution.  Do you suffer primarily from stress?  Look to one of the products (including the top-rated Relora Max) that target that issue.  Are you battling rounds of depression?  There are some excellent products in our review (such as Anxius) that have been developed primarily to combat that ailment.

Finally, when selecting a treatment, be careful about the advertising hype.  As we find with all our product reviews, sometimes a manufacturer's claims are exaggerated.  Herbal companies are no different in this regard, as you may find out in our product review section.  Look for information from a source that provides you with honest, reliable information before making your purchasing decision.