We all have heard on TV, magazines, the news and from friends that stress is bad. Stress makes you fat. Stress causes grey hair. The list goes on and on, but did you know that those are the least of the problems caused by stress?

Stress has serious physiological effects on the body. 

Our society is almost proud of their collective high stress lives. At times it can feel as though everyone is in a contest to prove that they are the "most stressed".

Why?! My personal belief is that people take pride in being busy and stressed because it makes them feel as though they're accomplishing great things, even though they aren't at all.

What if you could be productive and relaxed?

Did your head just explode?

Here's another mind blowing idea....what if you could be successful and happy?

I know it's crazy!

So here's the deal with stress.

Your body has two flavors of hormones to release, happy and stressed. When it's releasing one, the other is stopped.

• When you're "stressed", by which I mean feeling pressure from obligations, negative emotional feelings, etc., your body releases Adrenaline (aka Norepinephrine) and Cortisol.
• Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies.
• Cortisol increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.

Your body does this because it thinks it's under attack.

Your brain does not understand that your inability to pay bills is not the same as a bear chasing you. Your brain sees them both as a threat. Because of this, the body's reaction is the same and is designed to get you out of there. You are able to run faster, breathe more efficiently, use muscles more efficiently and heal faster.

Your body shuts down "nonessential" functions, like digestion and fat burning, among others. The way our bodies work is really awesome if we're in physical danger and under "stress", because we may have a fighting chance against that bear. The bummer is that our bodies were not designed to deal with financial stress, emotional stress, work stress, or the stress that rush hour traffic causes.

When you sit at a stressful job all day, fight traffic, deal with stress of raising a family, or relationship stress, your body believes it's under constant attack.

• It stores as much fat as possible, especially around your trunk, that's where the important organs are.
• It also struggles with properly digesting food, absorbing nutrients.
• It sends signals that you need sugar above all other nutrients, because that is where we get energy to fight on.

So you gain belly fat, crave carbs, get heartburn, constipation,

are restless at night, and tired all day.

Sounds lovely doesn't it?

So what to do?

Remember there are two categories of hormones. Get your body to release the good ones, not the bad ones.

How?

Move your body.

Physical activity stimulates the release of Dopamine and Serotonin. These are hormones that affect sleep, mood and appetite.

• Dopamine, "Dr. Feel Good" is stimulated with exercise and consistent sleep patterns.
• Sugar, alcohol, caffeine and drugs all can create dopamine deficiencies. They do this by spiking it upon consumption, then leading to a big crash soon after. This roller coaster creates an addiction to this "high".
• Serotonin is Dopamine's fraternal twin, they're similar but not exactly the same. They both affect your level of happiness, just in different ways.
• Norepinephrine (aka adrenaline) is tricky because you need it to be alert and think clearly, but too much is only good if that bear is chasing you.

When you deal with high stress for a long time, you begin to run low on Norepinephrine. Without Dopamine, your body can't make more.

The best way to combat high levels is with meditation, relaxation and stress reduction. 

The bottom line is stress, while trendy, causes all kinds of bad things to happen inside and outside of your body. Exercise, sleep, staying away from sugar and practicing relaxation are all ways to help to combat the effects. Our bodies are pretty incredible and they were built to withstand a storm. But if you put them through constant hurricanes, something will eventually give. It may just be your waistline, but it could end up being something more severe like a heart attack.

So get some exercise, some sleep and take a deep breath or two.

Try to avoid being constantly stressed and take care of that body of yours , it's your only one! (check out that blog and many others to help you create the best healthy lifestyle strategy for you.