The body’s natural response to a stressful situation is to increase the heart rate and blood pressure, by initially releasing adrenalin to prime the body for immediate action, followed by the release of the stress hormone cortisol.  A highly stressful event activates neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and emotional responses, which may not only disturb the body’s physiological equilibrium, but also induce epigenetic changes (changes in gene expression).  Serious bodily damage can manifest when stress becomes chronic.  Chronic stress affects overall health, resulting in altered brain architecture, as well as a high risk of cognitive impairment, depression, stroke, heart attack, pro-inflammatory diseases, and an increased susceptibility to infections and cancer. Adverse experiences and frequent or continual stress during a child’s earliest years not

Stress is not a disease, but prolonged exposure to intensive work-related pressure can reduce effectiveness at work, and affect people’s physical and psychological health.   Research has shown that the work environment is a major – and in many cases the primary – source of chronic stress in the lives of individuals. In most countries, employers have a legal obligation to protect the occupational health and safety of employees, including the risks caused by work-related stress.  Stress can potentially affect any workplace and any employee, but not all employees are necessarily affected, while individuals react differently to different situations.  However, it is not senior management that is worst affected by stress, as one would expect.      Stressors in the workplace:

The body’s initial reaction to a crisis or threatening situation is to activate the “fight or flight” stress response, in which the sympathetic nervous system primes the body to take either confrontational or avoidance action.  In facing an emergency, the body releases first adrenalin and then cortisol to enable the body to deal with acute stressful situations.  (However, when stressful situations become chronic in nature, continuously elevated levels of cortisol become harmful to physical and mental health.) Once the threat has passed, the “rest and digest” response takes over, in which the vagus nerve – as part of the parasympathetic nervous system – plays a major role by telling the body to chill out.  Role of the vagus nerve in

The power of the mind is of extreme importance when dealing with high levels of stress.  Instead of succumbing to the dire effects of stress, the mind can be conditioned to channel stress into a positive experience. The general perception that stress negatively affects health, contributes to a higher mortality rate, due to our perceptions being perceived as reality.  Changing your mindset in a challenging situation to view the stressful event as a positive experience, on the other hand, improves the body’s ability to recover from stressful and challenging events and situations.  This shift in stress perception enhances the ability to thrive under pressure and in challenging situations, showing the true power of inner strength.  Reappraising stress as a positive

During the Oscar Pistorius trial an individual’s reaction when faced with perceived danger formed part of the defence team’s legal argument.  The “fight or flight” response to danger created much public interest at the time.  But what really happens in the body when faced with a “fight or flight” situation? Thousands of years ago, our ancestors were hunter-gatherers who lived on plants and berries, and occasionally feasted on lean meat. Their main aim in life was to find food every day and to remain safe. It is estimated that in order to do this, they walked between 10 and 16 kilometres a day. This is essentially what the human body was designed for. Built into this ‘design’ was an emergency

Time management is something we all strive for, but really battle with. Take the word “TIME” and cross out the first two letters “TIME” now becomes “ME” management That’s the secret! HEALTH INSIGHT MARCH 2017