Stress! It’s probably the number one cause of all the major health problems in U.S.
Are you experiencing any stress in your life? How are you handling or managing it? Probably not very well, like most of the population. As you can see stress is a huge problem and many of us have never learned how to cope with it. Dr. Wayne Dyer said: “The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.”
According to the Journal of the American Heart Association: www.jama.com Chronic Stress and the Heart: Emotional and physical stresses have a negative impact on the heart and the vascular system. Acute stress happens all at once; chronic stress occurs over a longer time period. Stress hormones (catecholamines, including epinephrine, which is also known as adrenaline) have damaging effects if the heart is exposed to elevated catecholamine levels for a long time. Stress can cause increased oxygen demand on the body, spasm of the coronary (heart) blood vessels, and electrical instability in the heart’s conduction system. Chronic stress has been shown to increase the heart rate and blood pressure, making the heart work harder to produce the blood flow needed for bodily functions. Long-term elevations in blood pressure, also seen with essential hypertension (high blood pressure not related to stress), are harmful and can lead to myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms, and stroke.
According to the number one leader in the health field, Dr. Oz., “It’s no secret that stress is detrimental to your health. We all know the symptoms; sleepless nights, tension in your back, tooth grinding, heartburn and much more. Stress can even contribute to depression, heart disease and stroke.”
Another leader in health and wellness, Dr. Andrew Weil, had this to say about stress: “Stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, accidents and suicide. Almost 90 percent of all visits to primary health care providers are due to stress-related problems. Nearly one-half of all adults suffer adverse effects from stress. It is estimated that one million Americans miss work due to stess-related complaints. Workplace violence has been attributed to stress. Homicide is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury.” There are some situations that inherently rate high on the stress scale according to Dr. Weil: Divorce, death of a child or spouse, illness, a move or a change of job.
As you just read, stress can be very dangerous! Here’s a few practical ideas to help manage stress by Dr. Oz…
1. Get Active
“Stress is a normal, natural part of life. When you have no stress, you’re almost certainly already dead. We are designed to withstand stress,” Oz says. “Episodic stress is in your best interest, which is why exercise is so good for you.” For busy women, exercise helps reduce the negative effects of stress in several ways.
“Heart-pumping exercise forces your arteries open and triggers the release of beneficial chemicals into the bloodstream, one of which is nitric oxide,” Oz says. “This very short-lived gas relaxes arteries. It’s one of the reasons your blood pressure stays low if you’re physically active,” he says. Even walking a half hour each day can be beneficial. Oz suggests incorporating exercise into daily activities. “Adjust your job so you have to take the stairs or walk at lunch, park farther from the mall; develop a routine of walking to work—or even part of the way to work,” he says. “It’s the small things that add up and make a big difference.”
Exercise also releases mood-boosting hormones like serotonin. No doubt you’ve heard
people talk about a “runner’s high” or feeling energized after working out. Not only does exercise get your blood pumping, but you get the benefit of natural, feel-good chemicals that help elevate your mood—which can help you deal better with stress.
2. Be Still
Another healthy way to get a handle on stress is to be quiet and give yourself a moment of total peace. “When you think about it, worry and fear—the big stressful events in our lives—are primarily issues of past or future. Very few of them are issues of now,” Oz says. “The biggest challenge I think people have is the inability to live in the moment. They don’t enjoy now.”
It can be difficult to turn off worries about future events. Concerns about college tuition for our children, impending layoffs or caring for elderly parents can weigh heavy on our minds. But for your physical and mental health, it’s important to take a timeout from all that worrying.
“Meditation is one of the ways to take you out of your mind and put you in the moment,” Oz says. “By getting into the moment, you have probably the best stress-reduction technique of all.”
Meditation is based primarily on taking deep breaths through your nose. “Your sinuses are the biggest source of nitric oxide,” Oz says. That artery-opening gas can help you control some of the basic “autopilot” mechanisms.
“You start with breathing, but ultimately you control heart rate and brainwave function. You begin to control how your body responds to everything—good and bad. And that’s an important insight, that you can control the body to that degree,” Oz says.
3. Look for the Upside
Your levels of optimism and pessimism directly impact your ability to cope with stress also. “Your psychological outlook affects the neurological function of the body, and the neurological function has a direct chemical connection to your immunologic system,” he says.
Stress sends chemicals to the body that suppress immunity. When a person is pessimistic, she is likely to feel attacked or stressed more frequently, which can inhibit her natural ability to ward off or fight disease. “Your body is regulated by an autopilot system. That auto-pilot system is supposed to be able to undulate—to be able to go back and forth between being revved up and not,” Oz explains. “If you’re pessimistic, that auto-pilot system can fix itself in a very ‘on’ position. It never turns off anymore because you feel attacked. But if you’re optimistic, you allow yourself downtime—you allow yourself to breathe.”
Next week we will take a look at how most of us are currently coping with stress and we will further explore healthy strategies to manage stress.
In Joy and Health – Mr. Natural,
~Khristopher
By Diana McCray, Holiday Quality Foods Natural Foods Specialist
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