Recently, one of my mother’s friends shared with me how efo ebolo, botanically known as Crassocephalum crepidioides, healed her daughter-in-law’s kidney disease. She was eating it as vegetable soup and also boiling it and taking the water as tea.
On one of the daughter-in-law’s visits for her check-up, the doctor gave her a clean bill of health!
Out of curiosity, the doctor asked her what she did. My mother’s friend said her daughter-in-law brought out all the medications given to her and told the doctor that she never used them, that it was efo ebolo, introduced by her mother-in-law, that did the magic.
My mother’s friend said the doctor was shocked and got her phone number from the daughter-in-law, and they talked.
Who would have believed that a vegetable that grows in the wild during the rainy season without being planted by anyone could heal the kidneys?
The world is endowed with a rich heritage of medicinal plants, and it is a good thing that many people now find themselves turning back to the medicinal plants that started it all. Most of the pharmaceutical products currently dispensed by physicians have a long history of use as herbal remedies. A large percentage of drugs considered “basic and essential” by the World Health Organisation are “exclusively of flowering plant origin.”
The power of nature is on our side, and these herbal choices are available to complement our health practices. Medicines and prescriptions do not have to be the only approach to healing. Herbal medicine should be given a chance to thrive.
Let me paint a scenario: you are sitting in traffic, late for an important meeting, watching the minutes tick away. Your hypothalamus, a tiny control tower in your brain, decides to send out the order: send in the stress hormones!
These stress hormones are the same ones that trigger your body’s “fight or flight” response. Your heart races, your breath quickens, and your muscles ready themselves for action.
Stress, whether physiological, biological, or psychological, is an organism’s response to a stressor, such as an environmental condition or a change in life circumstances. When stressed by stimuli that alter an organism’s environment, multiple systems respond across the body.
It is a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. Everyone experiences stress from time to time. Anything from everyday responsibilities like work and family to serious life events such as a new diagnosis, war, or the death of a loved one can trigger stress.
In humans and most mammals, the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis are the two major systems that respond to stress. Two well-known hormones that humans produce during stressful situations are adrenaline and cortisol.
Stress can be beneficial to your health in immediate, short-term situations and can help you cope with potentially serious situations. Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones that increase your heart and breathing rates and prepare your muscles to respond.
Yet if your stress response does not stop firing and these stress levels stay elevated far longer than is necessary for survival, it can take a toll on your health.
Chronic stress can cause a variety of symptoms and affect your overall well-being. Symptoms of chronic stress include irritability, anxiety, depression, headaches, and insomnia.
Let us see some of the effects stress has on our health:
- Central nervous and endocrine systems
Your central nervous system is in charge of your “fight or flight” response. In your brain, the hypothalamus gets the ball rolling, telling your adrenal glands to release the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones rev up your heartbeat and send blood rushing to the areas that need it most in an emergency, such as your muscles, heart, and other important organs.
When the perceived fear is gone, the hypothalamus should tell all systems to go back to normal. If the CNS fails to return to normal or if the stressor doesn’t go away, the response will continue.
- Respiratory and cardiovascular systems
Stress hormones affect your respiratory and cardiovascular systems. During the stress response, you breathe faster in an effort to quickly distribute oxygen-rich blood to your body.
Under stress, your heart also pumps faster. Stress hormones cause your blood vessels to constrict and divert more oxygen to your muscles, so you will have more strength to take action. But this also raises your blood pressure.
As a result, frequent or chronic stress can make your heart work too hard for too long. When your blood pressure rises, so do your risks of having a stroke or heart attack.
- Digestive system
Under stress, your liver produces extra blood sugar (glucose) to give you a boost of energy. If you are under chronic stress, your body may not be able to keep up with this extra glucose surge. Chronic stress may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The rush of hormones, rapid breathing, and increased heart rate can also upset your digestive system. You are more likely to have heartburn or acid reflux thanks to an increase in stomach acid.
Stress does not cause ulcers (a bacterium called H. pylori often does), but it can increase your risk for them and cause existing ulcers to act up.
Stress can also affect the way food moves through your body, leading to diarrhoea or constipation. You might also experience nausea, vomiting, or a stomach ache.
- Muscular system
Your muscles tense up to protect themselves from injury when you are stressed. They tend to release again once you relax, but if you are constantly under stress, your muscles may not get the chance to relax.
Tight muscles can cause headaches, back and shoulder pain, and body aches. Over time, this can set off an unhealthy cycle as you stop exercising and turn to pain medication for relief.
- Sexuality and reproductive system
It is not unusual to lose your desire when you are under constant stress. While short-term stress may cause men to produce more of the male hormone testosterone, this effect does not last.
If stress continues for a long time, a man’s testosterone levels can begin to drop. This can interfere with sperm production and cause erectile dysfunction.
For women, stress can affect the menstrual cycle. It can lead to irregular, heavier, or more painful periods. Chronic stress can also magnify the physical symptoms of menopause.
- Immune system
Stress stimulates the immune system, which can be a plus for immediate situations. This stimulation can help you avoid infections and heal wounds. But over time, stress hormones will weaken your immune system and reduce your body’s response to foreign invaders.
People under chronic stress are more susceptible to viral illnesses like the flu and the common cold, as well as other infections. Stress can also increase the time it takes you to recover from an illness or injury.
A study titled The Impact of Stress on Body Function: A Review by Habib Yaribeygi et al. concludes that many disorders originate from stress, especially if the stress is severe and prolonged.
Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
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