“FIGHT OR FLIGHT” – The Greatest Threat to Health

By Juanita Stauffer, Holistic Health Facilitator

Most Americans today are under a severe health threat of which they are not aware! This threat comes in the form of “Fight or Flight” which locks the brain in a state of high alert, panic, and stress. The causes of this are “insults to the brain” which come in the form of concussions, blows to the head, head trauma, etc as well as emotional “blows” such as rape, betrayal, divorce, frequent moves or job changes, high intensity occupations such as the marines or any in war….all these are traumas and can cause PTSD which is not always noticeable to the average observer.

Why is this a real, dire health threat? Let me explain a bit what the stress response looks like (the precursors to the “fight or flight” lock in the brain) and what it does to the body. First of all when the limbic center of the brain senses danger (real or perceived), it triggers an adrenal response which fires off stress chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline to enable the person to get out of danger (in cavemen days this allowed the person to run, take cover, feign dead, etc…. but today it isn’t so useful). As this same “trigger” (type of situation causing this response) is activated again and again, a pattern begins forming in the brain called a neuropathway. This pathway’s goal is to protect you by helping you to see a potential danger situation before it “hits you”, but this response quickly become unproductive and even destructive as the brain looks for anything even hinting the same feeling as the original trauma….thus it keeps widening the scope of “triggerable situations” to the point that in some cases, all of life because a constant state of stress and “fight or flight” brain activity.

A sequence of events take place after the trigger is pulled and the stress response is released by the brain and the body (this sequence takes up to 9 hours typically for men and up to 24 hours for females). First the adrenals fire off their chemical cocktail to pull the body’s energy and blood to the core; that means the brain can go foggy, the arms can go weak, or the legs can go wobbly. Digestion slows to a stop, suppressing the immune system and other bodily functions slow down to allow for all energy to go to getting out of the “crisis.” Sometime in the next 9-24 hours after the “crisis” has passed, the adrenals release another set of hormones which let the body relax again, releasing the blood and other bodily energy and fluids back to the extremities, including the brain. This “rush back” can cause a wave of depression, anxiety, or irritability.

Due to the brain triggering so easily to the many things causing stress in life, many people’s brains get stuck in a chronic state of “fight or flight”…this means their immune system and hormonal system cannot function well, leaving them a setting duck for things like cancer and other serious health issues. This “fight or flight” organ suppression also causes secondary stress to organs like heart, thyroid, and pancreas causing things like Heart Attacks, Hoshimoto Disease, and Diabetes.

How do you know if you are in stress or “fight or flight”? Here are some common symptoms showing your body is stressed and you had better take it seriously by finding out how to calm the brain with technologies such as Neurofeedback, and by testing to see what damage in the body is causing the brain to stay in a “fight or flight” state: