The Stress Reactivity Model holds that the body is intelligently reactive to stress.  Pioneering endocrinologist Hans Selye, M.D. (1907 – 1982) recognized that many symptoms result from ongoing stress reactions and ran deeper than assumed.  His view was that that stress accumulates, and, if not identified and removed, the body goes through predictable phases. His stress detection and reduction model is aligned with the principle that once stressors are removed, the body returns to harmony and balance naturally.  Selye defined three phase of stress reactivity intelligence in the body:

• Alarm phase:  Stress initially produces a healthy ‘alarm’ response in the body, which provokes symptoms.
• Adaptation phase:  If a stressor is unidentified and continues over time, the body goes from healthy alarm responses into an ‘adaptation’ state, which is free of noticeable symptoms.  According to Selye, a lack of noticeable symptoms does not mean good health, however, because people may have life-threatening illness and appear free of symptoms.
• Exhaustion phase: With time, a more serious ‘exhaustion’ phase can develop.  The more exposure to mental, emotional and physical stress toxins, the more cell-frequency drops, the more static there is in the human energy matrix and in the communication network of cells.  Each cell in the body operates at a certain frequency, and the cells network to keep the body in harmony.  Stressors produce irregular vibrations that lead to disharmony.  The body exhausts due to the interference.  Then it becomes ill.¹Harms, A., Cowan, D. & Zarabi-Smith. (2006). Beginner’s Training Manual. Victoria, BC, Canada:  The Quantum Center of Excellence. pp. 66 – 69.

All kinds of stressors can exist at in these phases.  Many have energetic or other features which are not in the scope of the science informing conventional medical practice or on the radar of conventional diagnostic testing.  Holistic stress-reduction practitioners who embrace this model teach people to become aware of and reduce stressors in a timely way, so their bodies can relax, rest and self-correct, and be resilient enough to maintain healthy patterns and pre-empt progressive disorder and dysfunction.

The Toxic Stress Model holds that the stress of toxic pollutants we unintentionally eat, drink, absorb and inhale burdens the body.  German orthodox and homeopathic physician, Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg, M.D. (1905 – 1985) formulated this model with the premise that toxins stuck in the body cause progressively stressful bio-physical fallout.  This model regards symptoms and illness conditions as a result of the proper natural resistance to toxins and its effort to counteract and expel them.

The body has ways to detoxify day-to-day e.g. through the sinuses, skin, bladder, intestines, etc. Excess toxicity can result in symptoms such as congestion, diarrhea and inflammation. If these efforts to neutralize toxicity are ineffective, toxins get deposited somewhere to isolate them from affecting the rest of the body. If they still can’t be excreted, acidity increasingly backs up and gets deposited deeper and deeper in vital organs, arteries, heart… and especially in whatever organ is weakest. The body creates depots for these un-excreted toxins.

According to this model, toxins are repressed through symptom-controlling substances can drive toxins into deeper levels of tissue, resulting in imbalance and illness.  It outlines six progressive phases of toxic stress:

• Excretion phase:  The body’s defensive system is intact and able to expel toxins through orifices and skin, for example, in the form of diarrhea, vomit, nasal discharge, rashes.
• Reaction/inflammation phase:  If excretion is insufficient, the body tries to neutralize toxins by reacting against them to remove them, for example, white blood cells mobilize to consume toxins, resulting in an inflammatory response, such as fever.
• Deposition phase:  Insufficiently excreted toxins get stored in between cells, for example in fat tissue, connective tissue, vascular system.  Often there are no symptoms.

These first three phases are considered naturally reversible.  The next three phases are viewed as increasingly difficult to cope with, as the processes can damage the organs and disable their detoxifying functions.

• Impregnation phase:   Toxins have invaded cells and become part of the cellular matrix and connective tissue.  There is damage to organ cells, and increasingly severe symptoms occur in the weakest organs.
• Degeneration phase:  Toxins within and between cells destroy large groups of cells in an organ, resulting in ‘degeneration’.  Degeneration is increasing, irreversible damage with alteration of the cellular enzymes in the organ structure.
• Differentiation: The organ cell genes are damaged.  Illness is characterized by the creation of undifferentiated, non-specialized cells forms.  This phase ends in malignant illnesses.²ibid. pp. 203 – 205

Stress patterns that have not developed far enough may not be identifiable within the measurement technologies and categories of nameable conditions of conventional medical diagnostics.  Or they may fall outside the medical diagnostic radar in some other way.  Medical professionals may use the catch-all term “stress” for such conditions.

Many holistic stress-reduction practitioners, including biofeedback specialists who use the S.C.I.O. system, work to coach people to build awareness of and clear stress within these six stages.  They educate people on ways to reduce simple stressors and transform stress patterns that may be associated with more complex conditions that have taken hold.

Holistic stress-reduction practitioners who embrace this model teach people to stimulate the release of toxins. And in order to avoid a ‘healing crisis’ – physical overload – from this release, they coach people to:

• prepare the body well for the detox process by being relaxed, rested and nourished
• open the channels of elimination for the most ease and stability
• assist the organs in filtering and eliminating through hydration, oxygenation, sweating, rhythmic, regulated breathing, etc.