Victor Acquista MD Article: Stress and Your Health in Westfield Evening News 10/30/12

The following article ran in The Westfield Evening News on 10/30/12 and is currently on their website (although one must subscribe to see it).

Health Wise

A health & wellness column by Victor Acquista, MD, Director Pathways
Integral Health & Wellness, LLC; Author Pathways to Health: An
Integral Guidebook


Stress and Your Health


“I am feeling pretty stressed.”

“I am totally stressed out!”

Sound familiar? What does it mean to be feeling stressed? Actually, it
means that our mechanisms for coping with stress are not successfully
handling what life presents us with. Life presents us with certain
challenges and/or demands. When we are handling these successfully,
there is no particular impact on health. When we are not handling
these challenges and/or demands successfully we feel “stressed”.
Therefore, the ability to handle the stressors in our lives really
determines whether or not we experience “stress”.

Is stress bad or good?

 Actually, the way the body responds to stressors is adaptive in the
short run. When faced with a particular challenge, the body releases
certain hormones such as cortisol and certain substances such as
adrenaline so that we can respond at peak performance. If you are
being chased by a predator, fighting against a serious infection,
being mugged, or up in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases
loaded, you want your body to respond to this acute demand. You want
your body to perform at peak. In this sense, responding to stress is
adaptive and beneficial. This is the classic “fight or flight’
response that revs us up and enables us to do our best. These are the
kind of short term stressors that we have underlying evolutionary
adaptive mechanisms which help to ensure our survival and enable us to
perform at our best.

But, when the stressors that precipitate this kind of stress response
are protracted, when these stressors are chronic, the end result can
be very detrimental. The sustained release of these “stress hormones”
can elevate blood pressure, interfere with sleep, and generally run us
down. So, while responding to short term stressors can be a good
thing, dealing with chronic stressors can be bad and have serious
negative outcomes with respect to health. Chronic stress which is not
well managed leads to adverse health outcomes.

What are the common chronic stressors?

 In today’s fast paced world, there are a few common sources of
stress. These include financial, relationship, work, and time
management pressures. Everyone’s stressors are different, but most of
us experience some stress related to the above. Those individuals
dealing with chronic illness have an additional set of stressors
related to that illness. Think about your own life circumstances. If
you are worried about financial matters, if you are experiencing
conflict or have worries about certain aspects of your
relationships—with family, children, spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend,
etc., or if you have pressures at work related to your
responsibilities, your boss, or your co-workers, or if you are trying
to figure out how to manage your time in order to get done all the
things you feel you need to do, then you have stressors in your life.
If you have some chronic illness on top of the above stressors, then
you have another stressor on your plate that needs to be dealt with.

Sometimes it’s helpful to list out your stressors and catalogue them.
There is even a life stressor scale which details particular events
such as divorce, moving, or dealing with death of a loved one which
can help you get a better handle on the things which are causing
stress in your life.

The key to maintaining health in spite of stress

Far and away, the strategy you need to develop in dealing with
stressors is successful stress management. Imagine a container with
all your stressors pouring into it. Unless there is a way to drain or
empty the container, it won’t be long until the container is filled
and overflows. When the container overflows we experience adverse
health outcomes. These might present as headaches, fatigue, abdominal
pain, depression, insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks, or a variety of
mental and/or somatic disorders. There are many ways that poorly
managed stress can present in our lives.

The key is stress management. Think of your stress management
strategies as ways to drain the container and prevent it from
overflowing. In general, these strategies are some combination of
physical, mental, social, and/or spirituals methods. Regular exercise,
good eating and sleep habits are examples of physical ways to help
reduce stress. Getting involved in hobbies or creative pursuits are
ways for you to engage and put aside the things that are stressing
you. Engaging in some form of counseling is a great way of addressing
mental and emotional stressors. Repairing broken relationships,
confronting and resolving conflict, getting involved in community and
organizations are potential social avenues to help deal with stress.
Connecting spiritually, whether through prayer, meditation, or formal
religious outlets is a way to use spiritual methods to help deal with
stress.

When you feel stressed, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed as though there
is nothing you can do to help reduce the stress. But there is a lot
you can do to assert a sense of control. After you catalogue your
stressors, plan out the physical, mental, social, and spiritual
strategies that make the most sense to you and then commit to doing
them. That’s how you can keep that container from overflowing and
that’s how you empower yourself to stay healthy. Schedule some
downtime, start an exercise program, get a little more rest, unburden
yourself by talking and confiding in trusted friends and loved ones.
Take a walk, set aside some time to work on a hobby, go for a massage,
watch a funny movie, pray, laugh, and enjoy time with others.

Stress is really a matter of how well we are able to manage the
stressors in our lives. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and powerless
in dealing with the challenges and/or demands that life presents,
understand there is quite bit you can do to manage these stressors and
maintain your health.

Be healthy!

Victor Acquista MD is author of "Pathways To Health: An Integral
Guidebook" http://pathstohealth.info/