Is Adaptation Syndrome the root of most disease? This is a theory investigated throughout the life of medical researcher Hans Selye. Basically, he discovered that a wide variety of named illnesses originate when a person is exposed to physical, emotional or environmental stress. At some point, the body starts to have a problem adapting to the stress. The named illness is just a weak point or imbalance in a particular person’s body.
Hormones from our endocrine organs signal all the other systems in our bodies and attempt to maintain a consistent homeostasis as we navigate our lives. Extended stress of all kinds start with fatigue and feeling “under the weather” then if it continues, a doctor can name a problem.
Things like CSF/ME (chronic fatigue) or long covid are examples of a body overwhelmed by stress.
Harvard psychologist William James (1842–1910) suggest in an important speech that things like yoga can help “stabilize the nervous system and restore or unleash ‘unused reservoirs of power’.”
Selye was an endocrinologist who studied hormones and especially steroids to understand the mechanism. Modern medicine ignores the basis of his research in favor of administration of hormone pills and steroids.
We have the ability to design changes to our lives to reduce overall stress. It often starts with the small things, what we eat, how we move and how we think about interactions with others and our place in the world.