Читать книгу The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements - Julia Ross - Страница 69

Have you been under so much stress that you’ve drained your stores of the cats that are so essential for keeping you in good fighting trim? There really is a limit to how many of the cats your brain and adrenal glands can produce at one time. Exceed that limit often enough, and your cat supply is soon in the red. For example, cat deficiency occurs routinely under military battle conditions.

This is how it happens: At the first sign of an impending stressor, your brain sends word to the response center in your adrenal glands. There, cat messengers are made and sent throughout your body to prepare for fight or flight or both. Your heart speeds up, your muscles tense, your breathing slows down. You’re ready for action. Over time, with prolonged stress, especially if cat production is not your strong point anyway, you’ll run low on supplies. You won’t be able to meet the demand for cats.

While your brain and adrenals can still mobilize the cats, you may find that you actually use stress to help you concentrate and get things done. Have you noticed that you “work better under stress”? That’s because stress can wake up even sleeping cats, who can then help you get into productive action. But eventually the stress will burn you out.