Boost the Immune System by Beating Stress

Most people understand that stress has a negative impact in
their lives. A lot of us make a great attempt at ignoring
negative consequences (even though we know better) and
claim to "thrive" on stress. We might even claim that we
don't have a lot of stress or that it doesn't affect us.

It may seem like stress doesn't affect us or that we even
have much of it in our lives, but that could be because
it's so persistent in our daily lives that we hardly even
notice it's there anymore. It's not until we take a good
vacation (even a three day weekend away from work) that we
realize how much stress we are under on a daily basis.

More people than ever are working from home and when that
happens the natural barrier between home life and work life
becomes thin to the point of transparency. "Leaving work at
the office" has little meaning when the "office" is the
computer in the living room, or maybe the dining room table.

The pressure to make ends meet financially while
maintaining something resembling a family life, and doing
it all within the same living/workign space, is an entirely
new kind of stress for most people that formerly only
shopkeepers who lived above their store have had to deal
with.

These are some of the modern sources of stress. What affect
does it really have?

Especially in the scenario above, the stress can manifest
itself in social situation by "snapping" at family members,
having a short temper, and generally not being a pleasant
person to spend time with.

On a biological level, the stress response, especially
chronic stress - the kind we don't seem to notice as much -
has long term consequences such as the inability to lose
weight, headaches, body aches, muscle aches, and getting
sick more often.

One of the best ways to relieve chronic stress that is
caused by work, extended family, or other social situations
is just to get away for a while. Have a friend or relative
take the kids for a night or two and go to the next town
and rent a room in a nice hotel.

Get a massage.

Go out for a nice dinner.

Watch TV, go to a movie, see a play, or do something else
that you enjoy that you don't normally get to do.

Even just a night or two away can make a world of
difference in your outlook and help you realize how much
stress you are actually under on daily basis. This might
even be a catalyst to help you discover ways to decrease
that stress level.

Of course, the benefits of this kind of short term stress
relief are also only short term. For longer term stress
relief, try eating a healthier diet (which can be difficult
to do under stress), exercise on a regular basis, assign
work and home tasks to others where possible and take on
fewer tasks where possible.

The benefits will be many.

Those extra pounds might come off a little easier. You'll
be in a better mood, which will cause people to react
differently to you. You'll also start to get the
physiological benefits.

Wouldn't it be nice to have the confidence in your immune
system to know that you wouldn't come down with every bug
that happens to be going around?

Having a stronger immune system can also get rid of low
level illness that you may have in your system and not even
realize it. What if there are cells in your body that are
pre-cancerous and a strong immune system would kill them
off before you even knew they were there? Coversely, is
your weakened immune system allowing these kinds of cells
to stay around and maybe even begin to multiply?

Take a check on yourself and your stress levels. Take care
of yourself and enjoy life!

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Roger Hutchison, with his wife Dawn Hutchison, D.O. offer
more articles, tips, online videos and downloadable reports
at http://www.greatimmunity.com
This project focuses their background in sports nutrition
and athletic performance on ways to boost the immune system
for workouts, training and long term health.