| In order to fully appreciate the powerful role of | | | | worked well for our ancestors because their |
| Ayurveda in restoring health, you need to | | | | stressors were mainly of the saber-toothed tiger |
| understand how it helps you handle stress, which | | | | variety. Stresses were immediate and short-lived, |
| is at the root of many ailments big and small. Dr. | | | | and once the dangerous situation was over, the |
| Hans Selye, the pioneering researcher who | | | | body was designed to return to normal.Today life |
| practically invented the concept of stress, defined | | | | is not so simple or clear-cut. Instead a |
| it rather poetically: "Stress is anything from a | | | | saber-toothed tigers we're continually barraged by |
| passionate embrace to a boring game of chess." | | | | little day-to-day hassles job insecurity or |
| Of course it is also a sock to the jaw, a pink slip, | | | | frustration, exasperating children, traffic jams, lack |
| a divorce, a ring in your teenage daughter's nose | | | | of fulfillment-that are difficult to fight or escape |
| (or your own parents' not letting you have a nose | | | | from. Nor is the stress response so simple and |
| ring). Stress can be a windowless office with an | | | | clear-cut. I now know that the way a person |
| uncomfortable chair or the knowledge that our | | | | responds to stressful situations depends in part on |
| species is destroying the natural environment. | | | | the way he or she has learned to cope. |
| Stress, then, can be anything that comes | | | | necessarily harmful. |
| knocking on your door, but it is not necessarily | | | | Fear, anger, and so on-these are all good, natural |
| the Big Bad Wolf himself, threatening to blow | | | | human emotions under certain conditions. But if |
| your house down. Rather the Big Bad Wolf is | | | | they are not resolved and metabolized by your |
| within you; it is your reaction to any event you | | | | agni (that is, "digested"), they become stressful. |
| believe to be stressful. You can either digest the | | | | The more stress we perceive, and the less able |
| stressful feelings and convert them to useful | | | | we are to cope with it, the less we are able to |
| energy that helps you grow and develop or you | | | | recover from it, and the less we are able to deal |
| can have trouble digesting stress and create ama, | | | | with new stressors.Prolonged stress wreaks all |
| which tires out and depletes the nervous system | | | | sorts of havoc: It can contribute to fatigue, |
| and overworks the immune system, which in turn | | | | diabetes, hypertension, ulcers, loss of libido, and |
| leaves the door open to illness. | | | | reduced resistance to disease. Emotional upset |
| So what happens when we are under stress? | | | | can throw women's periods off kilter, reduce |
| When we perceive something to be stressful, an | | | | fertility, and make menopause more difficult. |
| internal alarm goes off, triggering a cascade of | | | | Feeling stressed affects your ability to work, to |
| physiological changes that was originally described | | | | think clearly, and to have satisfying social |
| by Selye as a fight-or-flight response. Adrenaline | | | | relationships. In animal experiments stress has |
| floods the bloodstream, the heart beats faster; | | | | accelerated aging and death, hastened the spread |
| digestion screeches to a halt, muscles tense up, | | | | of cancer, and promoted heart attacks. In 1993 |
| blood pressure skyrockets, the brain and senses | | | | the U.S. Public Health Survey estimated that 70 to |
| become hyperalert. This response is designed to | | | | 80 percent of Americans who visit physicians |
| enable to us to fight for our lives or to get us | | | | suffer from a stress-related disorder. |
| away from the danger as fast as possible. It | | | | |