Women’s #1 Toxin – Stress
Posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009
When you think of toxins, don’t you normally think of those things outside of our bodies that we sometimes ingest and sometimes absorb? Me, too. Things like caffeine, salt, sugar, alcohol, petroleum products, cigarette smoke, carbon emissions, and all the evils of air pollution… these are toxins, right?
Well, I came across this incredible blog post today and thought, huh? Stress? Really?
Okay, we all pay stress lip-service – “oh, I’m so stressed today”, “this stress is killing me”, and so on and so forth. We accept stress as a way of life and then move on… sort of.
Why is stress a woman’s #1 toxin? According to nutrition and supplement expert Patti Milligan, MS. RD., in an interview with Life Coach Ms. Gregory Anne Cox of Midlife With A Vengeance.com , it’s because stress is slowly eroding our health, from the inside out.
We should imagine the stress hormone like grains of sea salt, all jagged and rough. When our mind and body is under stress, those hormones float around in our blood stream causing all sorts of damage. Those same toxic stress hormones go around aggravating our immune system, too, leaving us wide open for disease. Our immune system is on “high alert” which is very fatiguing, to say the least.
In other words, and I quote here, “After a stressful event, or after chronic stress, the body is like a post hurricane event on land. There is a disaster with lots of clean up and relief help needed.”
I felt this article explained the body’s reaction to stress, and how we can defend ourselves against stress, so well that I thought you’d like to read it for yourself. Just click here. It will only take a few minutes and may answer some of the questions you’ve been asking yourself – questions like “If dealing with the stress of life is so darn important, how do I do that?”
Thanks to Gregory Anne Cox of Midlife With A Vengeance for her excellent reporting in bringing this issue to light. The true toxic nature of stress is not “all in your head”… it is wrecking havoc on your body.
p.s. What are some of your favorite and most successful ways that you deal with and alleviate stress? How do you plan on living your life for The Next Fifty Years? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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It’s so true – stress is very toxic to us. Everyone can deal with and relieve stress in different ways, me personally I just need some quiet down time with a good book and a warm blanket.
Hi Arika,
Thanks for pointing out that we all need to find our individual ways to relieve stress. Just as the causes of stress are personal, so are the relievers of stress personal. Some folks recuperate in peace and quiet, and a warm blanket, yummy…. and some folks find their stress gone after a brisk walk. Whatever it takes is whatever you need to do. Good for you, Arika, finding your own personal stress relieving style! Thanks for commenting!
Thanks so much for your comment on my blog from last week. I love what you are saying here and your tagline is so cool–Talk about living the second half with a vengeance! I’m looking forward to reading some more of your posts.
Great post, Patti – I’m so glad you highlighted the article from Ms. Cox. I’ve been hearing more and more lately about the evils of stress on our entire systems – but, her way of explaining it makes it really easy to understand! Off to read her article….