| Any condition that harms the body, breaks down, or | | | | for immediate energy; the blood sugar soars and the |
| causes the death of cells is defined as stress. If the | | | | remaining sugar is stored in the liver in the form of |
| diet is adequate, repair quickly occurs, but when | | | | body starch, or glycogen, which can be instantly |
| rebuilding fails to keep pace with destruction, illness is | | | | converted into sugar if needed; the blood pressure |
| produced. Disease results from multiple stresses such | | | | increases, minerals are drawn from the bones, fat is |
| as anxiety, overwork, perhaps bacterial or viral | | | | mobilized from storage depots, an abnormal amount |
| attack, and inadequate diet, sleep, and exercise. | | | | of salt is retained, and many other changes take |
| Unfortunately, it usually brings on numerous other | | | | place which prepare the body for "fight or flight." |
| stresses: poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, faulty | | | | These changes also make it possible to repair vital |
| absorption, fever, pain, diarrhea, dehydration, high | | | | tissues by a process of robbing Peter to pay Paul. |
| urinary losses of many nutrients, exposure to x-rays, | | | | This stage, called the "alarm reaction," varies in |
| and the use of drugs. | | | | intensity with the degree of stress. |
| In the same way that it requires more material for | | | | The first two stages of stress are characterized by |
| the repair of a damaged house than for the upkeep | | | | constant damage and repair; most illnesses fall in |
| of one in good condition, every nutrient is needed in | | | | stage three, which is reached when repair fails. |
| larger amounts to repair a body damaged by the | | | | Intense stress, such as drastic surgery, a serious car |
| multiple stresses that cause disease and result from | | | | accident or severe burn may cause a person to pass |
| it. For example, the stress-or damage-caused by | | | | through all three stages-alarm, resistance, and |
| x-raying an animal or by giving it anyone of many | | | | exhaustion-in a single day. More often we experience |
| commonly used drugs increases the need for protein, | | | | repeated "alarm reactions" and live through hundreds |
| linoleic acid, several minerals, and vitamins A, C, and all | | | | of "stages of resistance," one piled on top of the |
| the B vitamins. Presumably the same is true of | | | | other, before pituitary and adrenal exhaustion |
| humans. | | | | threatens our lives. During every illness, however, we |
| Regardless of the forms of stress, the body | | | | are in one of these three stages of stress, and to |
| immediately tries to repair damage done, but it | | | | regain our health our diets must be planned |
| cannot unless all nutrients are generously supplied. | | | | accordingly. |
| The nutritional needs increase tremendously at the | | | | If stress is prolonged after the thymus and lymph |
| very time eating is most difficult; and a diet adequate | | | | glands, whose proteins are purposely destroyed, |
| for a healthy individual becomes markedly inadequate | | | | have shriveled, proteins from the blood plasma, liver, |
| for an ill one. | | | | kidneys, and other parts of the body are used. |
| The body's reaction to stress. The great medical | | | | Stomach ulcers may occur not only because of |
| genius Dr. Hans Selye, of the University of Montreal, | | | | increased production of hydrochloric acid, but also |
| revolutionized medical thinking with his theory, now | | | | because proteins are stolen from the stomach walls. |
| confirmed by thousands of scientific studies, that the | | | | In ulcerative colitis, the destruction of protein brought |
| body reacts to every variety of stress in the same | | | | about by prolonged stress literally eats away the |
| way. At the onset of stress, a tiny gland at the base | | | | lining of the intestine. During a single day of severe |
| of the brain, the pituitary-the boss, of the repair | | | | stress, the urinary loss of nitrogen has shown that |
| crew-starts protective action by secreting chemical | | | | the amount of body protein destroyed equals that |
| messengers, or hormones, ACTH and STH. These | | | | supplied by 4 quarts of milk. Yet if such a |
| hormones, carried in the blood to two small glands | | | | tremendous quantity of protein can be eaten during |
| above the kidneys, the adrenals, cause the outside | | | | that day, the tissues are unharmed. In the same way |
| border of these glands, or cortex, to produce | | | | that the body suffers when its proteins are |
| cortisone and other messengers. Although the center | | | | necessarily stolen and not replaced, so are the bones |
| of these glands manufactures adrenaline, the adrenal | | | | weakened by the theft of calcium. Dozens of other |
| hormones referred to throughout this book are those | | | | destructive changes similarly occur. Increased blood |
| made by the cortex. These adrenal cortex hormones | | | | pressure alone may become dangerous. It is |
| quickly prepare the body to meet the emergency: | | | | extremely important, therefore, for each of us to |
| proteins, at first drawn from the thymus and lymph | | | | learn how to protect ourselves from the ravages of |
| glands, are broken down to form sugar necessary | | | | stress. |