Text Box: When a stressful event is perceived by the body, it releases various hormones including adrenalin to heighten the body’s responses to the threat.  This stimulates the heart rate to increase blood flow to the muscles, increases breathing rate leading to a rise in blood pressure, and releases stored glucose and fats into the blood stream to increase available supplies of fuel. All non-essential body systems such as digestion, reproduction and excretion shut down. Therefore, the stress response has a huge effect on the body and alters normal functioning.   Once the stress response is understood in physical terms, it is not difficult to see how this kind of stimulation for prolonged periods can lead to ill health including high blood pressure, arterial disease (from release of fats into the blood stream), lowered immune system (from adrenal over-stimulation), digestive disorders, migraines (from fluctuations in blood pressure and flow), menstrual and fertility problems and skin disorders. Additionally, there is the psychological toll which can lead to anxiety, depression and panic attacks.   Stressful situations are inescapable in modern life and include job pressures, moving house, relationship and family problems and financial worries but there are measures that can be taken to deal with the effects of stress.  This is where reflexology is invaluable as it works on the whole body and not just on the symptom through which stress is manifesting itself.   Text Box: It has been estimated that 70% of disorders can be related to stress and nerve tension.  We feel, therefore,  that stress warrants a more detailed explanation. There are few people who would deny that they have suffered from “stress” at different stages in their life, but what does stress actually mean - feelings of pressure, tension, fear, irritability, nausea? The body responds in a pre-programmed physical way to external factors which it perceives to be threatening, unfamiliar or frightening. It is now accepted that stress is not “all in the mind”. The “fight or flight” response is an explanation of the physical changes that happen when we are faced with a difficult situation. Our bodies have been  programmed over thousands of years to deal with situations where the available options were to fight the enemy or run away. Even though these responses are now not needed much in modern life, the body still goes through the process of preparing for them.   Text Box: Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.  Ovid