STRESS… What Is It Good For?
By Laura Mignosa, NCCH
It has the power to cause heart attacks, strokes, and chronic disease. These findings have nothing to do with faith or fad; impec- cable experiments show that the brain and the immune system, traditionally thought to have no biological connection, are in fact not separated at all.
A
Stress at Work One of the most fascinating studies on
stress and illness involved 400 U.S. air traffic controllers. An initial health study was done in early 1970s. In 1983, mass layoffs fol- lowed a strike. Even before the strike, more than half the controllers had high blood pressure by their late 30s. Perhaps that is not surprising given the rapid-fire decision making required in such a high-pressure job. Follow-up research in 1993 showed that a higher-than-normal percentage of the con-
ccording to an article by the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science, stress makes you sick.
trollers developed cancer or heart disease. It was not the earlier physical health of these controllers that best predicted who would get those serious illnesses later, it was the psychological factors.
According to Esther Sternberg, who directs the National Institutes of Health’s research on how brain hormones affect disease, those who felt the most alienated or traumatized by job upheavals were at peak risk for cancer and coronaries. This message should not be lost on employers today, she says.
Her new book, “The Balance Within:
The Science Connecting Health and Emo- tions,” explains the western understanding of what we call stress, and its relationship to disease.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), with more than 5000 years of history, sees emotions as bringing disharmony to our
bodies. TCM is the most practiced form of healing in the world and it bears witness to what is now considered science in our world.
It is the belief that each energetic organ
of our body not only serves a physical func- tion, but also an emotional and spiritual one. The basis of Chinese Medicine is that, to stay well, we must nurture our body in all ways; through our daily work, the food we choose to eat, the people we choose to associate with, and the love of self and com- munity.
Types of Stress are Linked to Specific Organs
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Stress is an umbrella word that lumps all emotions into one. That is not the way TCM sees it. The emotion of over-thinking and worrying is determined by how strong our digestion or “Spleen” is to counter that state of being. The energetic Liver is respon- sible for the smooth spreading of all emo- tions and cycles and is the organ that will be in disharmony when anger, resentment and feeling stuck in life are evident. The Heart’s emotional component is the ability to express joy or find peace of mind. Lungs play a key role in expressing repressed grief of any type (not just the loss of a loved one), and the Kidney is the organ that, when out of balance, will make you feel unsupported in life and fear will become more prevalent than trust. To just say, “I am stressed out,” does little to identify the root cause of your emotional imbalance. This is the reason that Chinese Medicine, in its many forms,
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