Gain (health) without the pain

Some say "no pain, no gain."

I say: if it hurts, you're probably not doing it right.

If you're exercising and it hurts, that can mean serious trouble.

If you're experiencing emotional pain in you're life, that can also mean serious trouble.

You may know some of these common effects of stress building up in your body and in your life:

• headaches or migraines
• neck, shoulder or back pain and tension
• feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, on your last nerve

These are good to know.  They are some of the more apparent results of a stressed out life.

But here are some you may not associate with stress:

• weight gain (especially above the hips and lower abdomen, causing a "muffin top")
  
• blood sugar problems (high blood sugar and energy/mood crashes)
• high blood pressure and other heart diseases
• abdominal pain and irregular bowels (for some it's constipation, for others it's diarrhea)
• heart palpitations (feeling like your heart is skipping a beat)
• insomnia, daytime sleepiness, unable to get up in the morning
• menstrual problems (irregular menses and worsening of premenstrual symptoms)
• more likely to get infections and perhaps cancer as well

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Now, am I saying that just about everything is caused by stress? Nope.  
But living a high stress life with little outlet and ability to positively deal with stressful situations sets us up for failure. 

Our health is compromised, our relationships are strained and our general outlook on life is worse.

Many of the above symptoms can be caused by a variety of factors, whether or not stress is present, so be sure to get a full check up and discuss any lab work that would be helpful for you and your doctor to best understand your health issues. 

A lot can be learned from simple blood tests and saliva tests (yep, pretty much just spitting in a test tube)- it's important to not overlook any potentially serious medical condition when working on balancing your physical and emotional health.

I am here to answer any questions you have about this topic- you can comment on this article or email me directly.

To your good health,

More articles on stress and you:
Stress: what is it good for?
From overwhelmed to overjoyed
Stress vs. Well-Being: how do you measure up?