Cats and stress discussed some possible causes of stressful situations in cats. In this post we will focus on the effects of ongoing stress, because if long-lasting actual stress is not removed from the cat’s life, then the energetic and emotional imbalances created by the continuous stress, start to manifest into physical disorders.

Acupuncture can help us to understand this long-lasting stress in cats. In acupuncture, the actual organs have corresponding energetic channels through which energy flows. As veterinarian and acupuncturist, I have found that it is important to keep in mind the following possible consequences of long-lasting stress in cats, and how they can affect various organ systems.

How does it happen?

Stress, like anything else, is energy and in all creatures, stress has its own place. Stress is a part of life and helps cats to use all their senses and power to mobilize themselves, react and to escape unpleasant situations. This energy, if it lasts too long, turns into negative energy and creates Heat. In the acupuncture world, the term Heat means an excess of warmth in a form of energy. And this Heat causes inflammation whether in organs or tissues in general.

Heat travels through the body via channels, known as meridians. In acupuncture Heat is seen as an external pathogen invading the body, basically the same way as viruses, bacteria or yeast can enter the body and cause infection. In cats, the first meridians which take the biggest hits are the Bladder, Stomach and Small Intestines meridians.

Naturally, each body has its own ability to protect itself from intruders to a certain degree, in our case against Heat, but if the situation lasts long, negative aspects of Heat start to manifest into the physical level through physical illnesses.

How does Heat manifest?

The Heat energy overpowers meridians and creates imbalance in them in the form of Heat excess. Each meridian is connected with certain organs, those organs start eventually to show physical signs. Some of the most commonly seen signs which I have seen in my practice are:

Vomiting and diarrhea. What happens? Stomach and Spleen are two of the most sensitive to stress and its negative overbearing energy. Stomach’s normal energetic function is to push food downwards and Spleen's energy is to distribute nourishments.

If these channels are not working properly, and energy is reversed, we start to see physical problems in the form of vomiting and diarrhea. Prescribed medications might work for a short period of time, but if stress is not resolved, medicine stops working. Thus, more stress creates more Heat and thus creates a domino effect in the form of deeper inflammation in all GI systems.

Bladder Infections: Everyone who has cats knows that one of the main problems is cystitis or as someone calls Bladder infections or UTI. There are true bladder infections caused by bacteria, but there are many times cystitis of unknown origin and without the presence of bacteria. That means Heat is very likely the culprit and not a bacteria.

Heat creates inflammation, swelling, discomfort, redness and this all manifests into off/on painful urination with or without blood. Heat also creates a change of pH of the urine and consequences are formations of crystals.

Interestingly in Western medicine, there is always the same treatment: antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and pain medicine. These drugs have cooling factors and so for a short period of time they do decrease Heat , which we see manifesting in initial improvement.

However, if the origin is stress, these problems have a tendency to come back. Most of the time antibiotics are switched, sometimes several times, which can lead to their own source of problems and accompanying side effects. Removing stress need to be a bigger part of the treatment or even prevention.

Compromised Immune System: Another consequence of long-lasting stress that is important to mention, is the suppression of the Immune system. Anyone who is stressed for an extended period of time experiences suppression of their immune system. This also applies to cats. Many factors such as age, breed, disposition, and other circumstances can play a part in weakening a cat's immune system, allowing many disorders to manifest.

Often the causative factors are hard to pinpoint, and most of the time, cats are being treated based on symptoms rather than a real cause, resulting in the symptoms coming back and even side effects which can exacerbate the problem or lead to other problems.

Thyroid Disorder: The final disorder I would like to mention in association with stress is Thyroid disorder, called Hyperthyroidism, which is an overproduction of its hormone. Stress is an emotion and as such it affects Soul of the body, which has its dominion in the Heart meridian.

From an acupuncture point of view, Heart is very closely energetically connected with the Small Intestine and Stomach meridians. Heart atriums are very closely energetically connected to thyroid glands. If we consider Heart as the queen of the body, then Small Intestine and Stomach are the defenders or prime ministers, to protect the queen. They first get hit with the Heat excess and the above-mentioned symptoms begin to manifest weakening their ability to defend the queen.

Anything that continues for a longer time, gets deeper and deeper, so, Heat over stimulates the Heart, Stomach and Small Intestinal meridians, which influence the Thyroid gland. The Thyroid gland then gets out of balance and starts to overproduce, and is diagnosed as a hyperthyroid problem. All this is associated with Heart enlargement and vomiting due to dealing with excess accumulating in the associated organs and meridians such as the Heart, Stomach, Liver and Gallbladder. From a Western point of view, radiation and or medical correction of thyroid gland is very often the indicated treatment, with supportive treatment of associated organs.

As we have seen, long-lasting stress is important to consider, not only in treating and removing symptoms, but also in tackling the possible root cause of problems. Because long-lasting stress can play such a big role, it must be considered not only in treatment and diagnosis of various ailments, but also in prevention.