Title: Stress: How It Affects the Mind and Causes Pain
Headings: Stress: How It Affects the Mind and Causes Pain
Stress: How It Affects the Mind and Causes Pain
By Dr. Mark Wiley, The Healthy Back Institute
The Physiology of Stress
Stress and the Mind/Body Connection
A Cyclic Back Pain Example...
Make Stress in Your Life a Thing of the Past!

Content: This means that when we are confronted with a danger, our body automatically prepares us to deal with the coming stressful situation by focusing our attention, pumping more blood into our muscles to ready them for action and by sending adrenaline through our system. It is precisely this response that helps protect the body and return it again to homeostasis. However, too much stress or stress left unresolved for too long can lead to biological damage. You see, at the onset of perceived danger the body is quickly jolted into fight or flight mode, which means stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are pumped into the bloodstream. However, at the conclusion of the danger episode, the body does not as automatically calm down and return to homeostasis. In fact, it takes a great deal of time for the body to return to so-called normal conditions. But often this cannot happen, because another stressor may present itself (e.g., sitting in traffic, standing in line at the bank, missing a deadline) and this will send our body into "code red" mode all over again. The effects of such prolonged or recurring stress is that it keeps the autonomic nervous system from balancing, which can lead to problems with the gastrointestinal tract, the digestive system, the respiratory system, the neuroendocrine system and can lead to depression, anxiety, muscle tension and insomnia. All of these are known triggers of various mental and physical (mind/body) illnesses and diseases. Stress and the Mind/Body Connection
Illnesses that have no apparent definable biological cause (such as fibromyalgia, chronic headaches, insomnia) yet do contain a mental/emotional/psychological component, are clinically termed "psychosomatic."