Effective ways to reduce stress - exercise, sleep

Stress? Run It Off, Cry It Out, Sleep It Away The Miami Herald via LEF 12/18/06 "Exercise: It helps the body process and excrete adrenaline and cortisol, two chemicals the adrenal gland creates when the body is under stress. And it stimulates the pituitary gland and hypothalamus to create those feel-good peptides we fondly call endorphins. Endorphins reduce pain and induce a sense of well-being...Sleep: It also reboots the brain. A good eight hours is essential, according to studies comparing the performance of rested people to that of tired people pumped up on coffee. Tired folks have less intellectual ability, more irritability, even depression. Doctors are so impressed they're even (occasionally) cutting the 36-hour-shifts they used to demand of interns...-Crying: Tears of sadness or frustration contain-and thus excrete-toxic chemicals that do not occur in the tears from, say, chopping an onion, Bishopric says. "Laughing is still better than crying - unless you really need a good cry."...Laughter: It's more than distraction; it has an almost instantaneous effect of relaxing the brain that can be measured by EEGs, Bishopric says. "A good laugh literally affects the entire brain; very little else does that," she says "

All seemingly obvious, but it is surprising how few people know how effective they are and put them to use during stressful periods of their life.

To find out more about stress there's quite a bit at Medline Plus at this link.

Research has shown that vigorous exercise seems to offer very good relief from stress with many other health benefits like lowering bad cholesterol LDL, and raising the good HDL, lowering blood pressure, lessening chances of diabetes and generally keeping blood sugar at healthy levels, lowering the chances of getting most cancers, increases bone density, improves the immune system and can help with depression... and many other things.

Also the Mayo Clinic has some deep relaxation techniques that have proven useful. The benefits are :

"Fewer symptoms of illness, such as headaches, nausea, diarrhea and pain
Few emotional responses such as anger, crying, anxiety, apprehension and frustration
More energy
Improved concentration
Greater ability to handle problems
More efficiency in daily activities "

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