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A great deal of advancement of knowledge has occurred in the last 20 years or so pertaining to the relationship of mental thoughts and diseases. In fact, there is a new medical specialty called neuropsychiatry. It is recognized that stress is the cause of many diseases. The medical definition of stress has evolved over the years and can mean many different things in different fields of study. For this discussion, stress is anything that causes our body not to function at the optimum level.
Stress Causes Disease
Allostatis and allostatic load are two new terms being used in research to refine and measure stress as it relates to causative aspects of disease. Allostatis is the condition where the body is in homostatis which means it is functioning as designed. Allostatic load is the point where the body has so much stress that it cannot maintain in the proper boundaries. The neuron and endocrine systems are constantly monitoring, and via chemicals, making corrections to keep the body in homostatis. Day/night rhythms, environmental temperature, sedentary versus exercise are examples of changes that need to occur.
The Stressor Response
The fear/flight response has a lot of implications. When a fearful condition occurs, our brain signals the release of chemicals that increase our energy and alertness. These responses raise our blood pressure, blood sugar, shut down our digestion, and other changes. Unfortunately, these chemicals over a long period damage our bodies if they are present or out of balance continuously. When we have fear issues in our life, these chemicals continue out of balance in the stress mode, leading to disease.
Child Abuse and Neglect Affects Adult Health
It is well known by medical researchers that hormones, neurotransmitters, and other chemicals regulate the genes in response to external and internal factors. What is stored in people’s memories can be a huge internal factor. Child abuse and neglect are known to increase later risk for increased mortality and morbidity in adult life. Depression, suicide, substance abuse and extreme obesity also result from child sexual abuse, verbal abuse, and other issues resulting from a dysfunctional family situation.
Memories with strong emotions have a greater effect on us because the amygdala part of the brain comes into play in these situations. When some current situation mirrors some aspect of a painful memory, the emotion stored is brought to the surface and replayed. This is why anger, anxiety, or other emotions are displayed when there doesn’t appear to be a logical reason for this to happen.
More Stress Information
A considerable amount of more detailed information is available on the internet by searching “stress,” “allostatic load,” and other similar terms. Deadly Emotions by Don Colbert, M.D., and The End of Stress As We Know It by Bruce McEwen and Elizabeth Norton Lasley, are two excellent books.
Christian Healing Eliminates Stress
The question you may be asking is “how does this medical information relate to what we are doing in ministry?” Simply, this ministry can help you relieve stress through the healing power of Jesus.
Particularly in children, bad events, negative words, and trauma can have emotional stress in these memories. Issues such as fear, anger, low self-esteem, shame, guilt, hopelessness, rejection, and more can cause us to be emotionally diabled. These issues cause us to make bad life decisions. The consequences of which add more stress in our life.
Jesus can exchange this stress with His peace. That is how we can help you by leading you through issues that need His healing power. Once we are relieved of stress, our body starts operating in homostatis and heals.
Healing of Our Body
As peace comes into our life, our body’s chemicals return to normal. The damage done by excessive cortisol and other chemicals begins to heal. The great news is not only will our mental state be better, but our physical health improves. Take the ministry test.
Adrenal Gland Function Test:
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