When animals, including humans, feels danger, their body’s “fight-or-flight” mechanism is activated. This system releases adrenaline and cortisol and is a natural stress response necessary to protect us from physical dangers.
However, humans are the only animal to now experience psychological stress. The pace, pressure and intensity of modern life create stressors that are perceived by the body as physical stressors, thus activating our “fight-or-flight” response. Consistent and unnecessary releases of adrenaline and cortisol compromise our sleep, emotional stability, health and happiness.
Balancing the amount of time our body spends in “fight-or-flight” vs “rest-and-digest” is called autonomic nervous system (ANS) balance. The ANS regulates all of the involuntary functions of your body, including respiration, digestion, hormone levels, etc. NuCalm holds the only patent for balancing the autonomic nervous system – without drugs.
Every time you feel acutely stressed, your fight-or-flight system kicks in and begins a chemical reaction designed to protect you and preserve your life. When we are actually in a life-threatening moment, this function is genius and extremely relevant. However, when we are simply experiencing a high level of stress, our fight-or-flight response is not only in overdrive – over a lifetime, it could, literally, kill you. The amygdala (in the midbrain region) initiates your fight-or-flight response, regardless of whether the trigger is real or perceived. So, every time you experience fear or emotional stress, your body mobilizes to protect you by releasing adrenaline to activate and fuel your survival mechanism.
The “fight-or-flight” system initiates a chemical reaction that floods the blood stream with cortisol and activates our major muscle groups, senses, and vital organs to perform at peak levels to fight, flee, or freeze. This all happens without any ability to reason or think through our next move – it’s automatic and subconscious. This natural human process has worked for thousands of years and is highly refined and sensitive. Every time we encounter an intensely stressful situation (real or perceived), the fight-or- flight system is activated and away we go. Our midbrain does not discriminate whether we are in a life-threatening situation or not. So, when you have a conflict at work, an argument with your spouse, your teenager won’t listen to you, or you are late and stuck in traffic, your body behaves like your life is in danger and floods you with cortisol. In these circumstances, this phenomenon is over-kill, unhealthy, and seemingly outdated.
It’s not impossible to interrupt this response by pausing and practicing a mindfulness technique or breathing exercise, but it’s highly improbable without years of training and unusual discipline. It is critical to your health to create habits to effectively manage stress, maintain balance, and increase stress resilience. So, how do you override this basic human survival programming? NuCalm.
NuCalm will utilize your body’s own systems to naturally interrupt the midbrain stress response and transition to deep relaxation. Our hope is that we can return to a place where our flight-or-flight instincts primarily benefit rather than harm us. Stress-related conditions such as depression, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and possibly Alzheimer’s are disturbingly common. The accessibility of stress-management tools are key to improving our health and our lives.
