Fast Diets For Dummies
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Your body isn't designed to be under chronic stress. In fact, your body has a built-in system called the sympathetic nervous system, also referred to as the fight or flight response, which activates in times of stress. This mechanism helps your body when you're in moments of crisis (for example, a tiger chasing you).

With modern-day living, people constantly stimulate this system, which is most definitely not how this system was designed to be used. This constant triggering causes problems that can lead to even bigger problems.

When you're under chronic stress, you force your body to adapt to whatever the crisis situation is. The physiological stress expresses itself in many ways. When you're fasting, your body has even more difficulty dealing with stressors, because you ideally want your body to be working at cleansing your cells and burning fat and not dealing with other challenges.

Here are some of the symptoms of chronic stress adaptation:

  • Anxiety

  • Blood sugar problems

  • Decreased fertility

  • Decreased growth hormone

  • Depression

  • Fatigue

  • High blood pressure

  • Hormonal changes

  • Increased heart rate

  • Memory problems

  • Obesity

The best way to get well, stay well, and have the life you want is to remove chronic stressors from your life. Remove yourself from whatever physiological or environmental factors are causing these stressors and put yourself in an environment (whatever that means to you) that is free of constant stress.

Removing yourself from the stress is sometimes easier said than done. If you need help, ask family members, friends, coworkers, or professionals. Eliminating the stress will be helpful to any fast, as well as make a big improvement in the quality of your life every day.

When you get stressed, you may sometimes turn to medications; however, they're not the solution. Your very intelligent innate system, which you were born with, is doing exactly what it's supposed to do in response to stress. The symptoms or diseases you have occur because your body is expressing your chronic stress.

About This Article

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About the book authors:

Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, author and nutritionist, appears on various news streams nationally and conducts workshops and seminars worldwide to help people feel — and look — their best. She is also the author of the popular website www.DrKellyann.com and gives daily news, tips and inspiration on twitter @drkellyann. Patrick Flynn, a fitness minimalist, is the coauthor of Paleo Workouts For Dummies, and the driving force behind a top 500 Health and Wellness blog Chronicleofstrength.com.

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