stress Archives - The Painful Truth

Cortisol and Your Body – What You Should Know

Jessica Hegg is the content manager at ViveHealth.com. Interested in all things related to living a healthy lifestyle, she works to share valuable information aimed at overcoming obstacles and improving the quality of life for others.

I hope you’ll find her article helpful. — Lynn R. Webster, MD

Ever wonder what’s really happening in your body when you are stressed? Stress, anxiety, feelings of frustration — these can all manifest with physical and mental effects including back pain, muscle tension, headaches, and mental fog, just to name a few. But what causes these bodily responses? Introducing our primary agent, cortisol – the stress hormone.

Yoga Can Treat Chronic Pain

Yoga can be helpful for people with chronic pain, just as it can be immensely helpful for people who are dealing with trauma. Chronic pain patients often suffer from trauma as well.

Chronic pain is processed differently by the brain than acute pain. Chronic pain, as opposed to acute pain, recruits areas of the brain that are responsible for emotions and thoughts. This is why many medications that work for acute pain fail to provide relief in chronic pain. With chronic pain, the body freezes with tension and the mind focuses exclusively on negative thoughts. We experience fear, stress, and helplessness.