Stress Is Real
Family drama, rocky relationships, work demands, financial burdens and sudden illnesses can all contribute to stress. But then, so can a wedding in the family and the announcement of an unplanned baby. If you’re reading this, you’ve experienced stress of some sort or another. More than a feeling, this silent killer has been directly associated with the six leading causes of death and many other unhealthy conditions.
The American Institute of Stress reports that 55 percent of Americans are stressed during the day; that includes 4 in 5 college students who say they’re experiencing frequent stress. If that weren’t bad enough, in a survey by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) of just over 1,000 people 18 and over, one in six participants said they are under “a great deal of stress.”
While short-term stress in healthy people typically isn’t a hazard, continuous stress, especially in older or unhealthy individuals, has long-term effects that can lead to unhealthy habits like:
Sleeplessness
Binging or eating more unhealthy foods
Skipping a meal
Take a sick day
Drinking too much
Losing your temper
The Toll on Our Health
Stress triggers inflammation, blood vessels disfunction and changes in blood clotting.
One study in the Medical Journal Neurology showed the link between moderate to high levels of stress and cryptogenic strokes in women 18-39 years old.
The familiar statement “You’re turning my hair gray,” may not just be for laughs. Turns out researchers at Harvard University have found that stress can accelerate the graying process. Gray or white hair is a result of a lack of pigmentation. In experiments on lab mice, researchers found that hair-raising experiences caused excessive activation of stem cells to migrate. After just a few days, all of the pigment-regenerating stem cells were lost permanently.
There’s More: Chronic stress is also associated with:
- heart disease and dysfunction (including arrhythmia and heart attack)
- digestive disorders
- memory disorders
- diabetes
- cancer (particularly breast tumor development)
If you’re one of many stuck on a loop of worry and negative thoughts, there is relief.
Managing Stress
-First of all, realize how you act under stress; identify your “stress personality” to correct it.
-Many psychologists say one of the things that causes stress is overthinking — replaying things that happened that were upsetting to us and anticipating the next upsetting thing. Instead, they suggest we live in the present.
-Meet difficulty by continually checking your level of acceptance of it on a scale of 1 to 10.
-Occupy your mind with something like knitting, crocheting or the growingly popular paint-by-number kits.
-Socialize, socialize, socialize. And that could be as simple as lunch or a once-a-month card game with friends.
-Exercise, from a relaxing walk or a swim to dancing, a Pilates class and running.
-Take a breather- There are about a dozen breathing techniques to help trick the brain into thinking your body is calm. One to try is Box Breathing, which involves inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4 seconds, and holding your breath again for 4 seconds.
Calming Foods
What we eat has a great deal to do with how we feel, according to nutrition scientists. Unfortunately, when we are under stress, we often grab less healthy things for comfort, i.e. ice cream, alcohol, chips, etc. But there are actually calming foods that relieve stress and improve our mood. Foods found to have high levels of the vitamins and minerals that strengthen the immune system and bolsters the body’s ability to withstand stress include: sweet potatoes, eggs, avocadoes, spinach, eggs, beets, almonds, winter squash, yellow bell peppers and black-eyed peas.
The Upside
A lecturer from Standford University points out that going through stress can make you better at it, so that it’s easier to face each new challenge.
A library of free resources to help you cope with stress is available at The American Institute of Stress website, once you sign up.
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