The Mind-Heart Connection: What Is Stress and the ‘Stress Response’?

Stress is at the root of many of our most feared debilitating diseases, engage in stress management for some fun
http://www.libidoandhealth.com/blog/mental-health/stress/stress-management/

clipped from www.immunesupport.com How our brain, muscles, heart, and circulatory system communicate in dealing with stress - and why techniques for creating a 'relaxation response' are the cornerstone of mind/body medicine in heart disease. The third principle is that the muscular walls in the parts of your circulatory system in and around your heart are connected by a communication network with your brain. The second principle is that your heart is part of a vast circulatory system The first principle is that your heart is a muscle Because stress plays such a central role in hypertension and heart disease, let's look a little more closely at what stress is. The stress response is a set of changes in your body that result when you experience what you perceive to be a challenging or threatening situation. What Is Stress and the Stress Response? Looking first at meditation The third major approach is mental imagery. Another common approach to eliciting the relaxation response is called progressive relaxation