What if I told you that stress, if not dealt with properly, really could kill?

STRESS

The term “stress” refers to a reaction to a stimulus. The stimulus can be physical, emotional, mental, social, anything that requires a response that alters our behavior in such a way as to cause us to change the way that we are feeling, thinking, or performing tasks. Change is stressful, that is not a cliche’. Change can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how it is occurring, what is occurring, and our ability to process it.

Let’s talk about a specific type of stress for a moment. To give you a better understanding of how stress can affect an individual, I want to take a moment and discuss a term that we use in exercise physiology called “General Adaptation Syndrome”.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) is simply a term that we use to describe how the human body responds and adapts to stress. A prime example of GAS is the stress that is placed on the body during a resistance training session. When we exercise with weight, we are adding a stressor that the body needs to work against in order to accomplish a certain task.

This type of stress can be seen as a good form of stress. Positive stressors are referred to as “eustress”. A form of stress that over time will allow the body to adapt and overcome challenges, thus being able to maintain a level of homeostasis (normal conditions within the body) under a variety of external conditions. For adaptation to occur, the body will be required to overcome the challenges that it is faced with which create the need for a response. This process occurs with an Alarm Reaction, followed by Development of Resistence, and finally, if the levels of stress are intollerable and prolonged (non-productive stress) it can lead to exhaustion. I’m not talking about exhaustion like you get really tired and have to take a nap. I am talking about prolonged, intollerable stress, that places too much physiological demand on the human body. When stressors are too much for your system to handle for long periods of time, they will lead to a breakdown in systematic processes and even injury.

Yes. Injury.

• Emotional Fatigue
• Joint Pain
• Muscle Strains
• Joint Sprains
• Stress Fractures
• Etc…

In many cases, these types of injuries can lead to the initiation of a type of cumulative injury cycle that can cause a lot of problems for an individual, and some of the contributing factors are not what you would think.

This brings me to the next term that I want to introduce to you.

 

THE SAID PRINCIPLE

I know… The what?….

There is a term that we use in Neuroscience and Exercise Physiology called the Principle of Specificity. We will sometimes refer to this principle as “Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands” or simply “SAID Principle”. In lamens terms, it states that the body will get better at whatever it is repeatedly asked to do.

If you constantly sit on a couch playing video games, you will get really good at sitting on a couch playing video games! Okay, I jest; but I am not dogging on gamers. I like video games as much as the next guy, and I actually happen to think that it is absolutely freaking awesome that I married a chic who loves to play Call of Duty with me. There are actually positive aspects to gaming. It is a form of stress relief when used appropriately and in moderation. There are social aspects to gaming as a passtime. Particularly if you host parties where you are interacting with other individuals in your home through screen sharing. Hand eye coordination is improved. Mental strategy and situational awareness can come into play, as well as higher mental functions that require you to react to stressful situations that you have to overcome.

I think anyone who has ever played Spyro can agree with me on that…. But I digress.

Typically when people think of video games they probably think of the following.

• Poor posture

• Zoned out

• Chronic behavior

• Habitual and compulsive

• Lazy

• Unproductive

You get the picture.

And in a lot of cases, this is correct.

What can be a positive, healthy, relationship building activity in moderation, can also become a self-destructive and addictive behavior when the behavior becomes chronic and habitual. There are also chemical mediators that are released through the use of TV, video games, and social media which can be a majorly destructive factor when we look at how they relate to the stress response and addiction, but that is another discussion all together.

Right now, we will simply give a short summary of this gentleman as his situation pertains to the SAID Principle.

He is sitting cross-legged, hunched over, dazed over, and from the looks of his overall presentation he didn’t just start his session.

This is going to create a series of musculoskeletal defects over time that will cause him to have chronic mobility issues. The head-forward posture that we sometimes refer to in the health and wellness world as “Text Neck”. You know the one…

Yeah… That!

See that little red line in the bubble? That is a BIG PROBLEM!

It may not seem like much to the intrained eye, but when we really stop to think about what is going on here….

“Houston, we have a problem!”

“Trajectory is off and we are on a collision course with disaster.”

Forward head posture can lead to a myriad of problems throughout the rest of the body. In some cases, forward head posture can lead to worsening neck and shoulder pain, headaches which can become chronic and debilitating, and (upper) back pain and dysfunction. In some cases, forward head posture can even lead to incativity or overactivity of certain postural muscles, causing the spine and other joints to fall out of alignment. Resulting in subluxation and improper movement patterns.

But Ian… I thought the title of this post was A Positive Mental Attitude?

You are correct! So why am I going so far into this discussion about posture and behavior? Well, lets apply the SAID Principle.

• Forward Head Posture leads to a loss of cervical curve in the neck.
  • This can lead to pain, inflammation, and increaded pressure on the vertebrae.
  • Pain in itself is a stressor and causes behavioral changes.
  • Pain will cause a release of stress hormones in the body.
• The release of stress hormones causes a cascading effect throughout the nervous system.
  • When the nervous system responds, it does so my sounding alarm bells.
  • When alarm bells sound in the nervous system, the body goes into panic mode.
  • When the body goes into panic mode, there is a shift in parasympathetic function.
  • When the sympathetic nervous system shifts to “Fight or Flight”, your ability to sleep, rest, digest food, and process simple tasks, as well as many other things too numerous to list here are negatively affected.

• Forward head posture causes changes in the spine.
  • Loss of cervical curve in the neck causes loss of cervical curve in the rest of the spine.
    • When you lose the curves in your spine, you lose the springyness of the spine (in technical terms).
    • When the posture of the spine shifts, the position of muscles will shift to try to pull it back into alignment.
    • This chronic posural defecit can result in increase injury and degredation of the joints.
• Inflammation, even in low levels, causes a change in overall behavior.
  • If you have ever suffered from chronic inflammation, you know that it reduces your desire to move.
    • This can affect overall mood, as well as changing the various aspects of behavior.
    • When you are inflamed, you don’t want to be active and exercise, and you will crave unhealthy things.
    • Inflammatory hormone release can lead to a further breakdown of tissues in the body.
    • When muscles are not used properly they become weak and atrophied, resulting in pain and dysfunction.
    • With stress and inflammation, the gut is not able to take in the proper nutrients.
      • When this happens, you begin to experience the beginning stages of manutrition which can lead to obesity as well as wide range of other factors. Your body is basically starving, despite the fact that you are eating to be full. This will affect your overall attitude, as well as every other aspect of your life, including promoting inactivity. Incativity kills! (See: Physical Health – More Than a Concept)

Behavior is about more than choosing to smile.

Stress can have a variety of impacts on our lives. In fact, stress can be so destructive, that there are even checklists that health professionals will use to differentiate between acute stress, chronic stress, and conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I want to take a moment and cover a few more aspects of chronic stress, because I think that there is value in recognizing the symptoms.

• Stress causes an increase in the production of adrenal hormones, which is responsible for most of the symptoms of stress. We refer to this cascade of events as “Fight or Flight Syndrome”.
• Chronic stress can lead to a number of very frustrating issues.
  • Problems sleeping
  • Irritability and bouts of anger
  • Frustration associated with accomplishing seemingly simple tasks
  • Losing interest in significant activities in your life
  • Feeling detatched from other people (withdrawal behavior)
  • Problems concentrating
  • Feeling “on guard” all the time
  • Exagerated startle response (jumpiness)
  • And more…

As you can clearly see by now, there is more to a positive mental attitude than meets the eye.

I have spent my entire adult life working in healthcare. I actually started as a volunteer firefighter when I was in Highschool, and as soon as I was able to get my GED I began attending college classes and working in the hospital. For 12 years, that was my life. I was overworked, and underpaid, and I soaked up education like a ShamWow being dragged behind a toddler with bladder control issues. Ahhhh….. I digress!

12 years in healthcare… Some things never leave you!

What I didn’t realize when I was in Emergency Care, was that I was developing warning signs of chronic stress. This happened long before Year 12. Finally, I experienced the proverbial Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back, and my life literally changed in a split second. A 12 year career ended in a day. If you want to read more about my story, you can do so here: (click here)

What I learned from that experience was that I didn’t have a clue about what it meant to be healthy. I had a lot of book knowledge, sure. But my personal application sucked! Over time, I began to look into (frantically search) for ways to correct what was explained to me as a chronic and debilitating nerve condition.

My test became a testimony when I started a company that specializes in exercize and neuroscience. I have been doing this for years now, and I have developed a successful track record in my field. By the grace of God, I no longer feel like I am being barbecued like a New York Strip with the consistency of Beef Jerkey. (YES, it was that bad)

As I began to build and expand my company, I saw a lot of opportunities to make a difference. We have an outside the box approach to most things anyway, because the conventional approaches were never successful for me. We do everything non-invasively, and I try to work as simply as possible. (KISS Method)

But more than that, I realized that there was more to health than most people think.

This led me to the Three Pillars of True Health.

Now, I want to state a couple of things here.

First, I can not take credit for the three principles. They were established by one of my mentors, who is an amazing man. I am an Affiliate Representative for their line of amazing technologies, and we have applied their Company’s core principles directly into our business model.

Second, you would be surprized how much flack I take for this picture. Okay, I am not Budhist, but I have clients who are, and they are amazing people who I consider dear friends. I love them and they genuinely feel the same about me.

I am not going to make this a post about a debate on personal beliefs, but I want to take a moment to break down True Health and what it means to me, my clients, and the members of my organization.

1. The fishy – Simple enough. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll never hunger again.
2. The money – Financial stability is intrinsically connected to mental health and stress management. The two CAN NOT be sepparated. It wasn’t intil I lost my ability to provide for my family that I recognized the full impact of this statement. Therefore, I built my company on the premise of Affiliate Marketing to allow my clients to find legitimate, and unconventional ways to earn income and take their lives back.
3. The Heart – Physical exercise is not optional. The heart is a muscle, and it requires exercise. It is also a generator. The heart produces electricity that powers that body, and the heart, as well as its ability to function, is directly tied to the emotional and physical response to stress. The heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.
4. The Yin Yang – Traditionally tied to eastern religions, the Yin Yang signifies balance. ie: the healthy balance that is needed to maintain homeostasis in the body and proper balance of the Central Nervous System. If you are not in balance, you do not have optimal health. Since the CNS is the “Master Controller” for the body, that is where we work.

We have taken an approach that I have seen others try to capture, and fail. To be successful where others were not, I needed to have a model that allowed me to easily duplicate the resources and processes that I use on a daily basis.

We try to provide options for people who have none. Sometimes that means incorporating a new technology into their lives. Most of these devices are cost prohibitive for the average person. That is why we give them the ability to take on the best products with the ability to then refer those products for a commission. The commission just happens to be very generous because we are dealing with products that are quite complex.

The other aspect that I saw a real need to address for people, was showing them how to generate revenue to support themselvelves and their families while they heal. This has proven to be one of the most beneficial tools that I have implemented. It’s amazing to be able to help people feel better, and correct physical issues that they never thought they would get rid of, but being able to empower someone to earn an above average income when they never thought they would be independent again… That is pure magic right there!

So we created the Affiliate Boot Camp (ABC). I took a program with a tried and true track record of being the most successful in the industry, and built a real, adaptive, training program around an established curriculum that teaches people how to be successful running an online business. A company with a 15 year history. The best part, because it is an affiliate offering, it is absolutely cookie cutter duplicatable! I mentor people as they are getting started and they mentor people when the training wheels come off.

THIS Allows Us to Create a Positive Mental Attitude!

True Health looks at the ENTIRE PICTURE!

True Health focusses on the Individual!

True Health is ALL ENCOMPASSING!

Welcome to the True Health Initiative.

I hope that you have found this article to be valuable and insightful.

I would encourage you to look at some of the other content on our sites if you did.

Please be sure to leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts on the blog post.

Yours in health,

-Ian

 

Ian Rude is the Founder of Pure Neurology Consulting and NEUCLEAR Health & Fitness. Ian is a well renowned Neuro Therapist, specializing in Functional Neuro-Muscular Stimulation for rehabilitation and performance enhancement. In 2015 Ian suffered a shoulder injury while on duty as a Firefighter and was later diagnosed with a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome / Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. With over 12 years in healthcare, Ian began working with individuals suffering from conditions such as CRPS, Fibromyalgia, and many more. He quickly made a name for himself in the chronic pain community as someone who thinks outside the box. Ian’s research focuses around Medical Cannabis, Functional Neurology, and Human Movement Science.

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