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Anxiety and stress is created by a set of external circumstances that operates by disturbing inner harmony. Physiological patterns of functioning are disturbed when the mind is in the anxious state affecting malfunction in the physiological processes and causing imbalance to the whole body.
When the horse is confronted with a situation that evokes a fear response, it responds with a set of physiological reactions that prepares it to meet the threat of fight or flight. These reactions are controlled by the secretion of adrenalin.
The presence of adrenalin in the body causes respiration to deepen, speeding up the heart rate and raising arterial pressure. Blood is moved away from the stomach and intestines, stopping digestive function, and is redirected to the heart, central nervous system and muscles.
The secreted adrenalin cooperates with sympathetic nerve impulses which send a message to the liver to release stored glycogen to enable the blood to be flooded with sugar which will be directed to the muscles, heart and limbs for the preparation of intense physical activity needed for fight or flight. The blood sugars invigorate tired muscles preparing the horse for action.
The increased respiration, redistributed blood and the red corpuscles released from the spleen provides essential oxygen for the removal of waste products in normal circumstances, because the adrenalin is completely used in the process. However, when the horse is subjected to stress over long periods, the adrenalin is not completely used leaving an overload in the system. As a result the digestive system becomes weakened, unable to take in enough nutrients and the animal becomes thin and wasted, whilst other excretory organs are overloaded and weakened.
The muscles, now in a constant state of readiness, often become hard as lactic acid builds up since the blood supply can no longer keep up with the burden of waste removal because the liver, which has the ability to convert lactic acid back to glucose, also becomes weakened with the overload and is unable keep up with demand.
The animal cannot function like this for long since the waste products can become highly toxic if left untreated.
Herbal Medicine addresses this by treating the nervous, glandular, digestive, circulatory, and respiratory systems since they are the systems directly involved in the processes discussed and it is necessary to aid these systems for the detoxification of the body.
Together with training techniques, massage etc a cure can be effected. It usually takes up to three months to change the behavior patterns and should be taken over a long period of time even when the symptoms disappear in order to confirm the new relaxed behavior which generally begins to show itself after about one month.
If you have an interest in how herbal medicine can help relieve anxiety and stress join our forum and feel free to ask a question.
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