The Link Between Stress, Excess Cortisol and Pain

As study after study continues to reveal and verify, stress, triggered by fear or a perceived threat, prompts the secretion of sympathetic epinephrine and norepinepherine and cortisol.

This response in the short term plays a positive role. For example, cortisol mobilizes glucose reserves for energy.

Chronic pain, however, can cause prolonged stress that, in turn, creates a cycle of unhealthy, excess cortisol secretion. The result can be widespread inflammation and increased pain. A vicious cycle can ensue where excess stress and unwarranted fear could perpetuate cortisol dysfunction, widespread inflammation, and pain.

Bottom line: it’s important to break the cycle of pain, excess cortisol, fear, and more pain.

Helping to break this cycle is one reason why physicians created Sanyx… to mitigate the effects of excess cortisol on target organs.

Work Less Stressful than Home? Yes, Says Cortisol Testing

It’s funny… but if you ask most Americans which is more stressful work or home, work always gets the nod. But not so, says the British newspaper reporting on a study done by a California researcher, Arlie Hochschild.

She was curious why employees at Fortune 500 companies did not take advantage of flex time, part time, maternity leave and other family-friendly benefits. It seems many of us see work as an escape from family problems. In fact, 20% of those she interviewed said they felt more supported and appreciated at work.

Then, Penn State researchers took up Hochschild’s work and recruited 122 men and women, most with ‘good’ jobs (not minimum wage, with salaries between $35K and 75K) and used saliva testing (a la www.i-calq.com and www.MySanyx.com) to measure cortisol levels.

As reported in www.bizpsycho.com/tag/cortisol/: “Over a 3-day period each participant gave a saliva sample which was tested for the level of cortisol, a stress hormone.  Each participant was also asked 6 times a day how happy they felt and how much stress they were under. The researchers found that cortisol levels, a biological marker of stress, were significantly lower at work than at home, indicating lower levels of stress at work.

“Although this goes against the idea that work is stressful it supports the fact that people who work have better levels of mental and physical health than people who don’t work.”

According to Peak Biometric Research, the manufacturers of Sanyx, the physician-created ‘Stress Mitigating Compound’ designed to limit the effects of excess cortisol, “We’ve gotten a lot of anecdotal evidence from Sanyx users who test their cortisol levels with the i-calQ smartphone app (www.i-calQ.com). They say their cortisol is higher on weekends when we suppose they’re spending more time at home.”

Stress and resulting excess cortisol have been called the new American health epidemic. That may seem like an exaggeration, but when we see research like this, it makes you wonder if calling it an epidemic is pretty accurate.

High Levels of Cortisol Passed from Mother to Baby

Excess cortisol continues to stun the medical community with its ubiquitous power t cause physical and mental damage. Now a study by the University of Colorado Denver found that low-income groups experienced high level of the stress hormone during pregnancy. You can imagine why. But here’s the kicker – the serious bit: these children face a heightened risk of developing serious diseases later in life.

What diseases?

Several chronic ailments including cardiovascular disease and mental illness.

We’re not kidding.

Researchers studies 64 pregnant women in New Zealand with several stress markers, including unemployment, divorce, and abuse, among a list of 19 stressors.

“The babies of lower socioeconomic mothers had higher cortisol response to the stress of the vaccination," said study author Zaneta Thayer. “Such changes have elsewhere been associated with differences in cognition, temperament and physical health… Our findings suggest that stressful social environments experienced by a mother impact her offspring... and that this is already detectable in the first weeks after birth."

These results are sad and astounding.

At Peak Biometric Research we offer a unique formulation, Sanyx (www.MySanyx.com), which helps reduce the effects of excess cortisol on target organs… BUT, this breakthrough is not meant to be used by pregnant women. We wish it were otherwise.

However, we license a personal, smart-phone based, physician-created testing system, called i-CalQ, which can help women monitor cortisol levels at home, so they and their doctors can take appropriate steps to lower stress. If necessary.

This inexpensive unit attaches to your smartphone and uses a drop of saliva to test. Results are available in minutes.

For more information, please visit www.i-CalQ.com for complete details.

Stress Is Contagious

I've always said that when it comes to stress, some people are carriers. This study seems to agree. And didn't our parents always tell us to stay away from negative people. They were right.

According to a new study which paired observers and stressed-out people of the opposite sex, some 26% of observers experienced a boost in cortisol, indicating stress. "The fact that we could actually measure this empathic stress in the form of a significant hormone release was astonishing," says a study author. The empathic stress occurred in 30% of observers watching the stressful situation through a one way mirror—but another 24% of observers experienced it when they were simply watching the event on video.  "Even television programs depicting the suffering of other people can transmit that stress to viewers," says a study author.

Imagine -- out cortisol levels increase when we're just around stressful situations and not involved. And watching television raised cortisol levels, too. No wonder belly fat, stress and anxiety are at epidemic proportions.

Sanyx (www,mysanyx.com) just might be the most important supplement we'll ever take -- at least when it comes to reducing the negative effects of excess stress.