The human body is well adapted to deal with short-term stress, but if it remains on orange alert for an extended period of time, you can grow vulnerable to some serious health problems. Heres how major systems respond to your worries.

NERVOUS

The "fight or flight" response begins here: When youre stressed, the brains sympathetic nerves signal the adrenal glands to release a chemical variety pack, including epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and cortisol. Persistently high levels of these chemicals may impair memory and learning, and up your odds for depression.

ENDOCRINE

Stress hormones trigger the liver to produce more blood sugar, to give you that kick of energy in the moment of perceived danger. But if the "danger" youre concerned with is a long-term dilemma and youre already at risk for type 2 diabetes, bad news: Elevated glucose levels may turn you into a card-carrying diabetic.

RESPIRATORY

At high-stress moments, you may find yourself breathing faster, feeling short of breath, or even hyperventilating. Over the long term, this strain on the system can make you more susceptible to upper-respiratory infections (so if youre considering a career in air-traffic control, you might want to stock up on Emergen-C).

CARDIOVASCULAR

Momentary, acute stress, like, say, when youre walking down the aisle to get married, will make your heart beat faster and blood pressure rise. Long-term stress, like unwelcome pressure from the folks to produce offspring, can cause narrowing of the arteries and elevate cholesterol levels, upping your chances of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

REPRODUCTIVE

Stress can lengthen or shorten your menstrual cycle, stop it altogether, or make your periods more painful. High levels of stress make bacterial vaginosis (BV) more likely and, during pregnancy, may increase the chance of your babys developing asthma or allergies later in life. Bring on the prenatal yoga.

IMMUNE

Short-term stress can actually boost the immune system, helping your body fight infection. Ongoing stress, however, turns things in the other direction, possibly slowing wound healing, leaving you more susceptible to infection, and worsening skin conditions such as eczema, hives, and yes — acne.

DIGESTIVE

Extreme stress isnt unlike the morning after a bender. It can cause dry mouth, indigestion, nausea, and gas, and it stimulates the muscles of the intestines, possibly causing diarrhea or constipation. Have these symptoms chronically, and you may increase your risk for irritable bowel syndrome, severe heartburn, and ulcers.

MUSCULOSKELETAL

Muscles tense to deal with what your body perceives as danger. No one whos pulled an all-nighter with only PowerPoint for company will be surprised that constantly tight muscles can cause headaches and neck, shoulder, and back pain. Chronic stress may also increase your likelihood of developing osteoporosis.

Balance Is Firing Stress by Amanda Young

Have you ever felt real stressed out and pressed down emotionally, drained, and burned out? Your life is a blur? The days seem to rush. You rush to work. You rush to run errands on your lunch break or after work. You put more projects onto your calendar. What if you could have more time? Time to be with friends and family. Time to do what you want to do for once. However lately does it seem impossible to fit in a social life? A social life seems like a crazy idea right now?

People are working more and more, working harder,and having less time for a social life. It is a fact. Many people put a lot on their plates. They think they are superman or superwoman. Many people are getting burned out and end up sick. How much is on your plate right now? Having less social life is actually a danger. Do you suffer from migraines, frequent headaches, problems with concentration, being over tired, or isolated from friends and family? Theses are a few common symptoms of stress. Being aware of your stress levels is a great indicator that you need more balance in your life especially in the social area. Our bodies and minds thrive on a healthy balance between our work and social life.

So how can you get more social life back into your life? Where do you start? Here are a few ways to put social life back on your calendar. Mark it with an "S" (social).
1. Get a calendar of some sort. Whatever kind of calendar that works for you. Start planning social events onto your calendar. Ask yourself what do you like to do for fun. Ask yourself who do you like to spend time with. Once you know what and whom you want to socialize with, start planning events.
2. Some social events you can do are going out to dinner, go dancing, do drive go-carts, or go to a concert. Join a health club with a friend. Exercise is a great way to restore your physical and emotional stress. Grab a friend and go shopping. These are some things you can do. The list is endless.
It is time to start socializing. Parents push their kids to socialize with others. They put them in all kinds of activities. However many adults dont do it themselves. It is time for you to live a balance between your career and fun. You can only maximize today and tomorrow.

About the Author
Amanda Young, founder of The Time Mastery, specializes in helping people get more done in less time in their career and personal life. To learn more on how you can get more done and gain balance in your life today. Grab your free simpleology course at www.thetimemastery.com

A simple trip to the bookstore is going to show you that there are many different ways in order for you to be able to relieve stress from your life naturally.  There is no end to self-help books, and each of them is going to have a different angle on this problem.  The difficulty is, many individuals are not going to be able to use each of these techniques in their own personal circumstances.  It can be difficult, as a matter of fact, to weed through all the noise and really find the one that is going to work the best for you.






At times, you may need to forget all of the new things that are available and get back to the basics of how to truly reduce your stress.  For example, the Chinese have been using acupuncture in order to reduce stress for thousands of years.  This is a technique that is all natural and can help the body to do some amazing things, provided the acupuncture is administered properly.  How well can it work for you and your stress levels?
The reason that acupuncture works so well is because it is based on an ancient Chinese principle that says that the body is full of energy and it is a free flow of this energy that keeps the body healthy.  The unfortunate thing is, all of us have an imbalance of some sort or another and this imbalance can block the free flow of energy, causing physical and mental problems.  That is what acupuncture was created for, as a way to stimulate areas of the body and release the energy that may be blocked at that point.  This can have an amazing effect on our mental outlook.
If youre feeling stressed and are unsure what to do about it, going to an acupuncturist a few times may be able to help to release this energy and give you some relief from your stressful situations.  Although an acupuncturist is not going to be able to take the stress out of your life by removing the situations that cause it, they can help you to give your body what it needs in a natural way that will allow it to cope successfully with the stress that is coming its way.  Its an ancient art, but it is one that can still help us today to overcome our problems.

With workloads increasing continuously, and much sharper deadlines, the stress levels at the workplace have been increasing at a high pace all around the world. Though a certain amount of stress is definitely important for your performance, excessive levels of stress can prove to be very harmful, mentally as well as physically. Not just your personal well-being, high stress will also affect your performance in the workplace and will affect your productivity and performance in a very negative manner and can lead to dissatisfaction among your colleagues, employers as well as family. Basically, it will affect your entire life and might lead to break down if it isnt treated at an early stage. Thus,everybody must take a few cautionary steps and ensure a few things to reduce his or her stress levels while working. Here are a few tips that a person can use, to stay away from excessive stress in the work environment.

The first thing you need to do to manage stress is to reduce the excessive workload. One of the top reasons for high stress levels while you work is because of a very high workload. At times, we end up taking or managing more work than our physical and emotional strength can handle and start getting worked up. This leads to a lot of problems in our performance and delivery and things get out of control. You need to make sure this doesnt happen to you by setting the rules. Make sure you are not doing more than you can handle and start taking care of your personal health. Do things like spending more time with your family and avoiding overtime work. These small things can make a huge difference to your health and well-being. Make a schedule which involves exercise, healthy food and good sleep and then stick to it. In this manner, you will be able to manage your personal and professional life much better.

Another thing you can do to improve your work stress is by engaging in new and different things that will help you unwind, and help you become better at the same time. Plan a game night with your colleagues and bond with them in settings that are not competitive or professional. This will help you in getting to know them better and enjoying their company more while working. Another great activity you can get yourself and others involve is attending talks by comedian and keynote speakers. There are a number of professionals who will inspire you and make you laugh at the same time, thereby greatly reducing the level of stress. Always remember, incorporating humor and good laughing sessions in your daily life can greatly help you in doing better on the work front.

While you work hard during the end dates of the month, or when the deadlines are near, take a few small steps that will greatly improve your working condition. These steps involve breaking bad habits and taking small breaks while you work on high-stress days. Bad habits could include wasting time on useless things like social networking sites in between the work, excessive smoking and drinking, wasting time over the phone and others. Always remember, you are the best judge and its only you, who can decide what a good and bad for you. Also, make sure you take breaks while you work to walk around and refresh yourself. Once you are able to follow all of the above mentioned tips, you will be able to greatly reduce your stress levels.

Reduce your work place stress level by incorporating some funny and inspirational talks in your life. Check out ken trader speaks, the famous humorous keynote speaker who will help you and your colleagues unwind. http://kentraderspeaks.com/

By Prem A Kumar

Article source : How To Manage Stress Levels In The Workplace

Quite often people experiencing stress or emotional instability as a diet to lose weight. Many dieters who fail to maintain ideal body weight because it was unable to resist the temptation of a favorite food of many fatty, sugary and high calorie.

But now no longer diet was heavy thanks to the discovery of patterns of feeding management called Happiness Diet. Basic idea of ​​the diet developed by Tyler G. Graham and Drew Ramsey focuses on the type of food you consume. There are foods that serve to stabilize mood, increase concentration, improve brain health and reduce body fat.

In his book The Happiness Diet: A Nutritional Prescription for a Sharp Brain, Balanced Mood, and lean, energized Body, Tyler and Drew explains how to run a healthy and balanced diet that have an impact on weight loss without experiencing stress. The book outlines, which makes most dieters, stress is an important nutritional deficiencies that can lead to negative mood and create unstable emotions. What are the essential nutrients that must be consumed when undergoing a diet happiness?

1. Iodine
Iodine deficient thyroid gland will result in impaired performance. This can result in decreased memory, low energy levels, depression, weight gain, infertility to heart disease. When someone is having thyroid problems, all the daily activities of even the most mild though it will feel heavy. As a result, you will feel sluggish and reluctant to move every time that lead to obesity.

2. Calcium
Calcium is known as the nutrients that trigger a sense of fun. Calcium deficiency can cause fatigue, irritability, depression and memory disorders. Lack of calcium also makes women more easily become obese and prone to PMS.

3. Magnesium
Type of mineral is useful to relax the mind and nerves and improving mental health. Magnesium is also known to help the healing process in patients with depression. Magnesium deficiency in the diet can lead to insomnia, fatigue and depression.

4. Vitamin D
Make sure you get enough sun exposure to a healthier body. Sunlight helps convert cholesterol into vitamin D in the skin that can increase endurance. Vitamin D deficiency can cause depression and dementia.

5. Fiber
Fiber is an extremely effective mood enhancer and accelerate weight loss by making the stomach feel full longer. Many of the nutrients contained in vegetables, fruits and whole grains also reduces inflammation, increased blood sugar and insulian. Less fiber diet can cause depression and other mental health problems.

How do I run Happiness Diet? These tips, as quoted from the Health Me Up:

- Reduce consumption of foods processed or packaged foods. Apart from poor nutrition, processed foods are also high in sugar or salt, which resulted in a shrinkage of the parts of the brain is responsible for managing mood.

- Befriend with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. These foods are rich in vitamins, phytonutrients and minerals - some key elements that help to improve brain function, associated with a sense of happiness.

- Eat meat from grass-fed cattle. This type of meat rich in omega-3 fatty acids that trigger the brain to form new connections.

- Vary your daily diet. Increasingly varied types of food, the brain would be able to obtain the nutrients needed to enhance a positive mood.

Stress Damage Dental Health - Stress not only burden the though, but also the health. One of them is tooth and gum. Close relationship between periodontal problems and psychological disorders such as stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness that has been scientifically proven.

In the report of a study published in the Journal of Periodontology mentioned, reducing stress is very significant for oral health. One of the cause is cortisol, the stress hormones.

Increase the cortisol hormone level will cause the damage at gum and jawbone, because of the periodontal disease (gingivitis). If this periodontal untreated can cause tooth loss. The teeth problem that caused by stress are: canker sores, gum disease, bruxism.