Whats America's Number One Health and Fitness Problem?

Somewhere between 75 and 90 % of visits to primary care physicians are for stress related mindbody problems. Present day stress is so prevalent and so dangerous because it stems from psychological—not physical sources. We get stressed not by what happens in our life—but by the way we see what happens in our life. And our minds can ultimately create serious health problems—including heart disease and cancer.

No one ever taught us how to train our mind. The vast majority of health services and fitness training today are for the body only. Although they can provide some relief, medication and or physical exercise are not the best solutions to stress related health and fitness problems because they don't deal with the source of the problem.

In a special February 2, 2006 report for USA Today, Kate Schuler reported that Americans are very stressed but only about half of them have any idea what to do about it. And so they turn to unhealthy forms of reducing stress that further put health at risk. As she put it,

"What's surprising and alarming is the fact that too many people weren't taking active steps to do anything about the stress they're feeling," says Russ Newman of the APA. "People don't really appreciate how detrimental stress is, and the ways they're trying to manage stress can be as detrimental, if not more so…. Adults who experience stress …reported higher rates of hypertension, depression and obesity. "

The World Health Organization now recognizes stress as the number one health problem in industrialized countries. As Dr. Paul Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress, has noted, in America stress is

"taking a terrible toll on the nation's health and economy. It is a heavy contributor to heart disease, cancer, respiratory distress, lupus and many other life threatening illnesses."

And as Dr. Bruce McEwen, former director of Rockefeller University's Neuroendocrine laboratory has commented that the prolonged release of stress hormones

"...can badly upset the biochemical balances in our body. That can impair our immune system and leave us open to invasions of cancer cells and dangerous infections."

Mind-side fitness and mindbody training can empower us with the necessary strength, stamina and flexibility of mind and body to greatly reduce the flow of toxic stress hormones into our blood and tissues.