{"id":27248,"date":"2014-08-27T20:27:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T04:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=27248"},"modified":"2016-03-07T04:52:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T12:52:44","slug":"stress-slowly-killing-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/stress-slowly-killing-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"How Stress is Slowly Killing You (And How to Avoid it)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/p>\n

Let me guess\u2026<\/p>\n

You clicked on this article because your guilty conscience is telling you that you stress too much.<\/p>\n

And you\u2019re worried that all this time, you’ve been causing damage to your body (without even realizing it!)<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s no secret anymore. Chances are, it\u2019s true. Stress is a killer and at its very least, it will lower your immune system and make you more prone to serious illnesses.<\/p>\n

But\u2026there\u2019s some great news!<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can do something about it. You can live a healthy, balanced and happy life and you can avoid the nasty effects of stress.<\/p>\n

To help you do that, I\u2019ll be sharing with you 13 highly effective ways to drastically lower the stress in your life as well as ways to restore your body of stress related damage. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

But first, find out how stress is one of the leading causing of death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stress is designed to protect us\u2026not kill us!<\/b><\/h2>\n

Stress is actually designed to protect us. Also known as the fight or flight reflex, stress is our body\u2019s way of protecting us from danger or predators.<\/p>\n

When in danger, hormones, adrenaline and the stress hormone \u2018Cortisol\u2019 flood your blood stream which gives you more energy, makes you more alert and helps you to better deal with the situation.<\/p>\n

Imagine you are being chased by a scary bear whose only intention is to fill his hungry stomach. Well, it\u2019s that same stress response that will hopefully push you to make it out of there alive!<\/p>\n

By now, you are probably wondering how stress can also kill you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The shocking truth about stress<\/b><\/h2>\n

Surprisingly, that same fight or flight reflex that we experience in times of danger is also triggered every time we experience stress in our day to day lives.<\/p>\n

Perhaps for you, your stress response is being triggered by work, financial or family related stress.<\/p>\n

Whatever it may be, the problem with these ongoing stressful situations is that our bodies literally become accustomed to functioning at a highly stressed level<\/b>.<\/p>\n

This causes irreversible damage to our cardiovascular network such as our heart and blood vessels.<\/p>\n

This is how stress can kill you. <\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, stress speeds up the aging process in your body<\/b>, particularly your blood vessels. As we stress, our blood pressure hits the roof. High blood pressure damages cells in the artery walls making them thick and stiff.<\/p>\n

This restricts blood flow and our heart is forced to work harder to pump blood throughout our body. The more we stress, the more we damage our blood vessels.<\/p>\n

As a result, you can experience:<\/b><\/p>\n