ATLANTA -- Continued economic stagnation. Rising gas prices. Talk of new terrorist attacks.
We may not realize it, but as these and other pressures mount, so, more than likely, does our level of individual stress, says chiropractor Alan Beckerman.
"We're in a very stressful time right now. Just listening to the news, it elevates people's sense of stress," Beckerman says. "The thing about stress is, it's insidious. It creeps up slowly. Usually people will not start to realize it until they're having symptoms."
 -- CAPTION STARTS-- Chiropractor Dr. Alan Beckerman looks over the X-rays of a patient in his office in Woodstock, Ga. (Frank Niemeir/Cox News Service) -- CAPTION ENDS --
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Those symptoms include indigestion, headaches, pain in the neck or back, frequent colds and a loss of energy. "These are all signs of excessive stress," Beckerman says.
"Sometimes you feel as though the muscles in your shoulders are pulling up near your ears. Also, with more stress on the neck, people start to feel that their head is heavy," he says.
While stress is common -- work-related or otherwise -- excessive stress can be problematic, Beckerman says.
"We all have to deal with a certain amount of stress on an everyday basis, and we become used to that," he says, "but we go through a period of time when the stress is elevated; that's when breakdowns start to occur."
Excessive stress can start to break down any system in the body, resulting in the symptoms above and even a weakened immune system, Beckerman says.
You can fight back, however.
Beckerman prescribes a healthy diet, adequate exercise, proper spinal care and meditation or prayer as effective remedies to counteract excessive stress.
"Doing exercises or stretching and yoga, for instance ... will go a long way in healing and recovering from stress," Beckerman notes. "For some people, that really works well. Other ways of alleviating stress are to find something that you really like to do, like going for a hike in nature. And then there's the meditation or prayer, and many people find that as a very effective stress reduction technique."
If you're deskbound, stretching might be the best answer, Beckerman says.
"Most of the time, the problem is leaning forward too much, looking down," he explains. "What happens is the neck flexor muscles get used too much. Those are the front of the neck, they get used too much and the extensor muscles [in the rear of the neck], they're not used enough. A good thing is to lean your head backward over the chair, to stretch the flexor muscles."
For immediate relief, stretch the body, legs, back and arms periodically, Beckerman advises.
"Take frequent breaks," he says. "If you're having stress in your wrists and arms, take at least a 10-minute break every hour to shake out your arms and legs. If you have pain in wrist, arms, neck, changing position, getting up and stretching your arms and wrists will generally help."
Beckerman says chiropractors specialize in treating stress.
"I will evaluate all the tight, stressed-out muscles, looking at the body as a whole, looking at posture, looking at muscle spasms," he says. "Chiropractic works very, very well on these problems."
Still, regardless of whether you seek professional therapy, Beckerman says, stress relief should not be ignored.
"Once you start reducing the stress in the system, the body starts to recover," Beckerman says. "You can change the conditions in your body and reduce the stress and allow your body to work at a higher level of its potential."
Maria Mallory White writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.