Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Why you need to beat stress By Henrylito D. Tacio Health 101
STRESS has emerged as one of the most serious health issues of the 21st century as it makes people around the world vulnerable to many diseases, according to a report released by the International Labor Organization.
Dr. Hans Seyle, the world's premier stress researcher, argued that stress is the body's non-specific response to any demand made upon it. "Sitting in a dentist's chair is stressful. But so is exchanging a passionate kiss with a lover -- after all, your pulse speeds up, your breathing quickens, your heartbeat soars," he explains.
But long-term stress can increase the risk of diseases like depression, heart disease and a variety of other problems. "Stress can cause physical symptoms even though no physical disease may be present, because the body responds physiologically to emotional stress," explains 'The Merck Manual of Medical Information.'
For example, stress can cause anxiety, which then triggers the autonomic nervous system and hormones such as epinephrine to speed up the heart rate and to increase the blood pressure and the amount of sweating.
Stress can also cause muscle tension, leading to pain in the neck, back, head, or elsewhere. Stress can hurt a person's health in more ways than he can imagine.
The Health Science Center of the Ohio State University found in a study that stressed people respond poorly to vaccination.
In the study, 48 medical students were grouped according to their level of stress and were given Hepa B vaccines. Those students who belong to lower stress/lower anxiety group have higher antibodies to the vaccine and more vigorous T-cell response at the end of the vaccination.
Dr. Ronald Glaser, the chief investigator, said the study provided a clue of how psychological stress can alter a person's response to a vaccine and therefore increases risk for infection.
The same study discovered that stress could delay wound healing. Women who are engaged in stress dementia care-giving activities took an average nine days longer to completely heal a small punch biopsy wound.
Another study, among rats this time, showed that a single, socially stressful situation may contribute to depression by killing new nerve cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain that processes learning, memory and emotion.
In young rats, the stress of encountering older, aggressive rats didn't stop the creation of new brain nerve cells, the first step in a process called neurogenesis.
However, this form of stress did prevent many new nerve cells from surviving, which left the young rats with fewer neurons for processing feelings and emotions.
"This negative impact on neurogenesis could be a cause of depression," said Dr. Daniel Peterson, of the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, senior author of the study which appeared in 'The Journal of Neuroscience.'
Men with stressful jobs have higher than usual blood pressure when they sleep, suggesting that such difficult work permanently damages their circulatory systems, according to a study presented at a meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in New York City a couple of years back.
The study was conducted by Dr Joseph Schwartz and others from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. They surveyed 373 people who work in nine different places in New York City.
The researchers found that people in highly demanding jobs with little autonomy had significantly higher blood pressures than those in less taxing situations, including people with stressful jobs who could make their own decision and those in easygoing positions who had little opportunity to think for themselves.
The study discovered that people with high-stress, low-freedom jobs had blood pressures that averaged 137/85, against about 129/83 for others.
The difference grows progressively greater as people get older, the study noted. Normal blood pressure is 120/80.
Stress also causes sleeplessness. Doctors have known for many years that lack of sleep can cause foggy thinking and poor concentration. More recent research has shown that lack of sleep can place you at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Chronic lack of sleep can also accelerate the aging process.
These are the symptoms of stress: chronic back pain, tension headaches, neck pain, gastrointestinal problems (pain, diarrhea), and palpitations.
