We’ve long known that stress can negatively impact your health. The same natural body responses designed to heighten awareness and improve reaction time in an emergency, can, if uncontrolled, wear the body systems down and result in a variety of health-related issues including chronic headaches, gastrointestinal distress, lowered immunity, sleep and fertility problems, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart attack.
Yes, you read that right. Stress is a key risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. And if you already have heart disease of any type, it can be made dramatically worse by emotional stress.
During February, National Heart Health Month, we’re emphasizing the importance of controlling stress, along with blood pressure, cholesterol and other risk factors, as a means of maintaining cardiovascular health.
How Stress Affects Heart Health
When the body is confronted with stress, it initiates a fight-or-flight response, resulting in an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, a restriction of the blood vessels, and a rush release of certain neuropeptides to the heart. Along with all of that, there is an outpouring of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol that accompanies anger, fear, grief and other strong emotions. These things together require the heart to work harder than normal.
While this response is extremely effective in helping you cope with a perceived threat or trauma, is intended as an immediate emergency response, and not sustainable over long periods.
People under chronic psychosocial or mental stress — or those living with unresolved past trauma — operate on high alert all the time, with a full-on fight-or-flight responsetriggered by seemingly trivial stressors of everyday life. Bad traffic, a heated argument, or unexpected change in plans can create anxiety or panic on a regular basis. This causes the heart to work too hard for too long, causing inflammation, oxidative stress and other damage that increases the risk of stroke and heart attack.
At Whole Body Health, we use the Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) to help determine if your longstanding health issues might have an associated stress component.
What is NET?
Based on the meridian points used in Acupuncture, NET involves the use of a manual muscle test as a tool to cross-check emotional triggers against specific points on the body associated with emotional and stress responses. This technique identifies involuntary physiological responses triggered by various physical and verbal stimuli that are connected with unresolved trauma and stored stress responses. Once the negative stress response patterns interrupting the body’s ability to heal itself are revealed, we are able to address them directly through pulse correction or spinal correction and restore you to health.
Because it’s totally safe, 100 percent natural and scientifically proven effective, the Neuro Emotional Technique is our preferred means for holistically addressing chronic or recurring health issues that have an emotional overlay. Let us help you find out if your specific stressor is keeping your physical health from improving.