Think of your overall health as triangle that needs to be in balance, and when one area starts to lack, it can affect your overall health or spill into the other areas. We know that structure and function go hand in hand and so you can have a functional problem before its diagnosed.
There is a syndrome, called sympathetic dominance, that can throw the health triangle out of balance leading to a lot of secondary conditions or symptoms. Sometimes the cascade of symptoms is so complex, there is not any easy diagnosis.
In physiology this is called the autonomic nervous system and there are two divisions: a parasympathetic and a sympathetic system, each having different goals. The parasympathetic nervous system allows one to heal, grow, and rest. It does this by controlling life sustaining activities like good digestion, blood supply to organs, and hormone production. On the flip side, the sympathetic system is designed to keep you alive in life threatening situations.
What this system does is the opposite of healing, resting, and growing by sacrificing all those things in order to try and save your life. The Autonomic Nervous System regulates the internal body processes that require no conscious awareness; for example, the rate of heart contractions, the rate of breathing, the amount of stomach acid secreted, and the speed at which food passes through the digestive tract.
The Parasympathetic side influences resting, nourishing, and repair aspects of our body. While Parasympathetic influence is necessary, allowing recharge and recovery from stresses, unbalance to dominance prevents the proper operation of the Sympathetic side. Each of the two sides uses specific counterbalancing minerals and nutrients to fuel their controlling mechanisms. We repair our muscles. We build strength. Our body is in a state of relaxation, and this relaxation breeds recovery.
The more time we spend in PSNS the healthier we are. Neurotransmitters help neurons communicate with each other across a synapse. Hormones are secreted by glands. Some compounds can act as either a hormone or a neurotransmitter, and can also they can have opposite effects depending where and why they are excreted. We have two kinds of muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle striated muscle is used for voluntary movement.
Our nervous system uses hormones and neurotransmitters to make whatever changes in these muscles it decides we need. The main ones are: adrenaline increases circulation and breathing , noradrenaline, and acetylcholine slows heart rate. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are always operational, but there is a balance between them. One or the other is always more active. The yin and yang pull of these two systems keeps our body in homeostasis, or balance.
Together they ensure that we have enough resources, in the right places, at the right time. Running from a tiger, or for a train? Your SNS sends blood to your leg muscles and oxygen to your lungs to propel you along. Kicking back after Sunday dinner to watch a game? Your PSNS will relax your skeletal muscles and send blood to your organs to speed digestion. Tissues need oxygen to survive. Blood brings us oxygen. The cardiorespiratory system makes sure our blood volume is adequate to do so.
When we work out, our SNS is activated, initiating key physiological changes. Exercise slows digestion. Eating makes your body choose between strength and speed or digestion. A good rule of thumb is to avoid small meals or snacks for an hour before exercise, and to wait 3 to 4 hours after a large meal.
These changes make sure we are ready for action. But what happens when the SNS is overstimulated? Our SNS is designed to help us survive life-threatening emergencies. As a catabolic process it breaks down tissue and expends energy. If we spend too long in this heightened state of SNS there will be negative consequences. Our bodies cannot easily differentiate between real and imagined stress. Just the idea of exercise, before we start, triggers an anticipatory heart rate increase.
Our bodies are not meant to have a perpetually activated SNS. Chronic stress activates our SNS. The fight or flight response originated to save our lives, not wash us with adrenalin and dread every time our boss shows up unexpectedly or we watch a scary movie. When medical professionals say stress is bad for you, they mean an activated SNS, without a return to SNS, is bad for you. All the negative consequences of stress are really negative consequences of SNS.
Think of it as adrenalin poisoning. A little bit can save your life.
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