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Your body is hard-wired to react to stress in ways meant to protect you against threats from predators and other aggressors. Such threats are rare today, but that doesn’t mean that life is free of stress.

On the contrary, you likely face many demands each day, such as taking on a huge workload, paying the bills and taking care of your family. Your body treats these so-called minor hassles as threats. As a result, you might feel as if you’re constantly under attack.

But you can fight back. You don’t have to let stress control your life.

Understanding the natural stress response

When you encounter a perceived threat—such as a large dog barking at you during your morning walk—your hypothalamus, a tiny region at your brainÃÛèÖÊÓƵ base, sets off an alarm system in your body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts your adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.

Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brainÃÛèÖÊÓƵ use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.

Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with the brain regions that control mood, motivation and fear.

When the natural stress response goes wild

The bodyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ stress response system is usually self-limiting. Once a perceived threat has passed, hormone levels return to normal. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.

But when stressors are always present and you constantly feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on.

The long-term activation of the stress response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones that follow can disrupt almost all your bodyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ processes. This puts you at increased risk of many health problems, including:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Digestive problems
• Headaches
• Muscle tension and pain
• Heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke
• Sleep problems
• Weight gain
• Memory and concentration impairment

ThatÃÛèÖÊÓƵ why itÃÛèÖÊÓƵ so important to learn healthy ways to cope with your life stressors.

Why you react to life stressors the way you do

Your reaction to a potentially stressful event is different from anyone elseÃÛèÖÊÓƵ. How you react to your life stressors is affected by such factors as:

Genetics.

• The genes that control the stress response keep most people on a fairly steady emotional level, only occasionally priming the body for fight or flight. Overactive or underactive stress responses may stem from slight differences in these genes.

Life experiences.

• Strong stress reactions sometimes can be traced to traumatic events. People who were neglected or abused as children tend to be particularly vulnerable to stress. The same is true of airplane crash survivors, military personnel, police officers and firefighters, and people who have experienced violent crime.

You may have some friends who seem relaxed about almost everything and others who react strongly to the slightest stress. Most people react to life stressors somewhere between those extremes.

Learning to react to stress in a healthy way

Stressful events are facts of life. And you may not be able to change your current situation. But you can take steps to manage the impact these events have on you.

You can learn to identify what causes you stress and how to take care of yourself physically and emotionally in the face of stressful situations.

Stress management strategies include:

• Eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise and getting plenty of sleep.
• Practicing relaxation techniques such as yoga, deep breathing, massage or meditation.
• Keeping a journal and writing about your thoughts or what you’re grateful for in your life.
• Taking time for hobbies, such as reading, listening to music, or watching your favorite show or movie.
• Fostering healthy friendships and talking with friends and family.
• Having a sense of humor and finding ways to include humor and laughter in your life, such as watching funny movies or looking at joke websites.
• Volunteering in your community.
• Organizing and prioritizing what you need to accomplish at home and work and removing tasks that aren’t necessary.
• Seeking professional counseling, which can help you develop specific coping strategies to manage stress.

Avoid unhealthy ways of managing your stress, such as using alcohol, tobacco, drugs or excess food. If you’re concerned that your use of these products has increased or changed due to stress, talk to your health care provider.

The rewards for learning to manage stress can include peace of mind, less stress and anxiety, a better quality of life, improvement in conditions such as high blood pressure, better self-control and focus, and better relationships. And it might even lead to a longer, healthier life.

Detroit-based pizza chain Little Caesars has introduced a vegetarian-friendly pizza topped with plant-based pepperoni slices.

Little Caesars partnered with Greenleaf Foods Field Roast brand, maker of plant-based meat and cheese products, to launch its Planteroni pizza in five U.S. markets, including Detroit. The plant-based pepperoni will also be a topping option for custom pizzas via the chainÃÛèÖÊÓƵ app or website.

At first glance, it looks like a regular pizza. But upon closer inspection, the plant-based pepperoni slices look bigger than regular pepperoni and it appears that there are more of them.

Little Caesars Planteroni is offered in Slices-N-Sticks.

The texture was a little too soft, tasters said, and unlike regular pepperoni with its sometimes chewy texture. Tasters also missed the slightly crispy edges of pepperoni. Though others didn’t mind the texture.

PlanteroniÃÛèÖÊÓƵ initial taste was a bit of a shock for tasters who had been expecting a traditional pepperoni flavor. While different, the flavor grows on you as the seasoning starts to linger, they said.

The cheese, the chains blend of mozzarella and Muenster cheeses which is not plant-based, helps the pizza along as does the crust.

In select markets, stores will offer a regular size Planteroni Pizza for $8.49. ItÃÛèÖÊÓƵ also offered as Slices-N-Sticks options with half Planteroni pizza and half cheese and butter breadsticks for $8. The pizza also launched in Los Angeles; San Francisco; New York City; Miami and Portland, Oregon.

Field Roasts’ plant-based pepperoni is made with pea protein and spices including fennel, cracked black pepper, garlic and paprika, according to a news release.

Q: I never realized how radically different my husband and I viewed housework until the past year stuck us in the house 24/7.

My worldview is, two people sharing a living space should pitch in equally. His worldview, it turns out, is, “I’ll clean things when the dirt bothers me; you clean things when the dirt bothers you,” and—lucky him—the dirt never bothers him.

He’d be happy to clean the bathroom only after a month’s worth of grime had accumulated, but since I’m bothered after a week, I’m ... always the one cleaning the bathroom.

We’ve fought endlessly about this. He thinks I’m “unfairly holding him to my arbitrary standards.” I think he’s using his dirt-tolerance as an excuse to let me pick up all the slack.

And frankly, what bothers me most is that he’d rather let me be unhappy and stressed than spend 20 minutes a day doing the dishes or running a vacuum. This feels like a big issue. Is it a big issue, or are emotions just high because they’re high for everyone right now?

—Unhappy and Stressed

A: Well, emotions are high, but this is a huge, often marriage-ending issue.

That’s because doing all the housework is flat-out miserable when there is an able-bodied person just sitting there watching you do it. Not bothered at all that you’re doing everything.

This is usually the marriage-ending part. How can someone who loves you be OK with leaving things around for you to clean up, knowing it demoralizes you? No hired housekeeper can fix that one.

That’s something you’re going to need to say out loud.

Plus, he’s arguing in bad faith. He’d never say to you, “Go do all the housework for me”—right? (If he would, then picture me backspacing all of this to type, see ya!) But he’s holding to an argument that effectively means you do all the housework for him. His position is intellectually dishonest. It’s bad faith.

So please spell this out for him—even chart it if that’s what he needs. “If I always clean when dirt bothers me, and you clean when dirt bothers you, and I’m bothered weekly while you’re bothered monthly, then you’re never bothered. Ever.”—because there will only ever be a week’s worth of dirt anywhere. “And therefore you will never clean.”

Then present to him the version that would be (more) fair: Left to your own devices, you’d clean weekly. Left to his devices, he’d clean every four weeks.

Therefore, he needs to clean the bathrooms once a month minimum. Otherwise he’s taking advantage of you.

From there, you can clean bathrooms once a month as well, and learn to live with a roughly two-week cleaning cycle in which you alternate, or you throw in extra spot cleanings to satisfy your preferences.

Either way: If he won’t play, if there’s no spousal “aha” moment plus apology, then that’s the problem, not the different standards.

By the way, many in this bind find some relief by allocating chores based on wants/needs. If there’s something he doesn’t mind, does well, or requires for his own needs (laundry, for example), then that’s his job in your household.

Not perfect, but it’s a start. Better than piles of self-serving BS.

Email Carolyn at tellme@washpost.com, follow her on Facebook at carolyn.hax or chat with her online at 11 a.m. each Friday at .

For many people, the hot summer days are often spent swimming at the pool.

But even though the water is usually clear with chlorine, it doesn’t mean you should be looking underwater. Doing so could cause temporary damage to your eyes.

“Chlorine is a pretty powerful disinfectant and can, in fact, cause some damage to the outer layer cells that protect the cornea,� says Dr. Muriel Schornack, a Mayo Clinic optometrist.

The occasional glance should be OK, but extended eye opening underwater can cause damage.

“The eye becomes red, irritated. You might become photophobic, or sensitive to light,� Schornack said. “Your vision might blur a little bit, and your eyes are going to feel irritated or even, frankly, painful.�

Most of the time, these symptoms are uncomfortable but temporary. If you really want to see underwater, Schornack offers this tip:

“I’m a huge fan of swimming goggles for a couple of reasons,â€� she said. “No. 1, you can protect the front surface of the eye. No. 2, a lot of folks who are highly nearsighted or highly farsighted like to wear their contact lenses while they’re swimming. And if chlorine soaks into those lenses, now you’ve got a reservoir of chlorine on the surface of the eye thatÃÛèÖÊÓƵ likely to do damage.â€�