Stress Levels

It’s February already and holidays already seem far distant.
And of course summer is at its best as soon as the kids get back to school. New Year Resolutions may have imploded.

But one resolution we all need to stick to is managing our stress levels, as the year picks up speed.

Anyone interested in good looks as well as good health knows too much stress is destructive. It’s aging and it causes wrinkles!

Cortisol – a powerful stress hormone – in excess can deplete the body’s protein stores and affect muscles, bones and especially collagen supplies to your skin.

What starts this unpleasant scenario?
People have always looked for a magic bullet to make them feel better, look younger, live longer. Some spend fortunes on the latest pill, potion or exercise fad. But right under our noses is a free effective and time-honoured way of balancing the body’s systems for maximum health and wellbeing -- breathing in a physiologically sound way.

While we work, sleep or play, our breathing naturally takes care of itself. All our systems depend on breathing to deliver the goods -- oxygen -- to the tissues for healthy function, and of equal importance, exhaling carbon dioxide rich air. So when we become aware of our breathing -- under stress at work or in class for instance -- it’s usually due to ‘over-breathing’ or moving too much air through the chest for the body to deal with. It’s very uncomfortable. All our body systems complain -- not because we lack oxygen -- but because too much carbon dioxide has been breathed out. Dramatic falls in carbon dioxide cause blood vessels to tighten. This results in irritable nerves (tingling), chest wall pain, upset gut, light-headedness and even fainting.

This can be very unpleasant. Adrenalin pours into the system, heart rates increase, shoulders tense and muscles ache. Air becomes locked high in the chest. Jaws and face muscles tense up along with the main muscles of breathing -- the abdominals and diaphragm. Upper chest breathing takes over. Not enough blood gets to the muscles, organs and skin. You feel exhausted and spaced out, even though your body is on ‘red alert’, shaky and tense.

Not a pleasant scenario, and yet this is played out daily -- probably hourly -- in workplaces and homes throughout the world. The electronic age has us pinned behind monitors -- brains working busily -- with less and less physical activity and more and more pressure. All that adrenalin with nowhere to go literally turns on stress responses and produces excess cortisol.
And to make matters worse, breathing patterns change. Upper chest breathing becomes 'normal'. Over-breathing becomes a habit. The circle is complete. Over-breathing itself becomes a major stressor. It affects your sex-life too -- clammy hands and cold feet are a turn-off.

A simple way of turning off stress is to understand how -- and why -- to breathe well. Pay attention to your breathing. Also pay attention to the causes of any changes in your breathing. Too much work-place pressure? Too much coffee? Low blood iron levels? Burning the candle at both ends? Hormone imbalances? Habitual mouth-breathing? Poor diet?

If you experience lots of sighing or yawning, feel anxious and jumpy, spaced out and tired all the time (poor sleep patterns) this could be what's happening to you. Recent figures from the USA suggest between 10 and 30% of people suffer from chronic over-breathing. This is a lot of cortisol!

So please – breathe well to be well.

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