HALPI dot com

Some effects believed to be linked to stress have not been borne out by research. Ulcers, in particular, were thought to be caused by stress. Though the acid produced during moments of stress may increase discomfort, contemporary research points more to genetic factors in combination with certain stomach viruses as the likely culprit.

But evidence is accumulating that some health effects are strongly influenced by stress. Some of the more elementary and obvious effects of stress are well known. Headaches, excessive muscle tension, high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, interrupted digestion, and other symptoms are often recognized. But there are longer-term, and more serious, potential consequences from chronic stress.

Just as one example, several studies undertaken at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere strongly suggest that stress has an effect on the immune system. Interestingly, the effect is sometimes positive, sometimes negative. Since stress, in one definition, is just a person’s ‘fight or flight’ response to a perceived threat, it can have a positive effect. It triggers the release of biochemicals that can help heal infections from bites, punctures or other damage. That makes sense if you consider how evolution might have tailored the immune system to deal with these problems.

But when that response persists over a long period of time, the effects can be harmful. One result is that the immune system actually decreases in effectiveness. This is logical if you consider that once those chemicals are depleted, but have nothing to act on and hence dissolve, they can’t readily be produced again when there is something to counteract. The result is a higher susceptibility to infection and a lowered resistance to colds and other virus induced illnesses.

The other result is a general fatigue and sometimes depression. When a person is stressed for long-periods, there is a feedback between one part of the cause – the belief that no action is possible to overcome the stress initiating events – and the effects. In other words, the belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Another impact on health caused by chronic stress is a compromised circulatory system. When stress hormones released by the ‘fight or flight’ trigger don’t get used up by physical activity, they can cause actual physiological stress on the body.

High blood pressure increases physical tension on the walls of blood vessels. When the body reacts to heal the micro-tears that sometimes result, scar tissue can be produced. That decreases the ease of blood flow through them. If carried to an extreme or for a long enough period, or for individuals at risk for genetic or age reasons, heart attacks can occur. As the blood vessels narrow, the heart may be unable to deliver sufficient blood and oxygen at moments of high demand.

Stress has long been known to worsen the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. As the link between this condition and the immune system have become better understood over the years, it’s clearer why this should be so.

Protect your physical and mental well-being by practicing techniques to lower it. Adopt a philosophy that helps minimize stress in your life. Your health depends on it.

Reducing Stress with Exercise

Exercise helps relieve stress. That’s a fairly common sense belief these days, but it is also one backed up by a lot of careful scientific research. Exercise causes the brain to produce a cocktail of helpful biochemicals that help reduce stress. Runners, for example, are familiar with that ‘endorphin high’ that comes from marathon workouts. That’s the result of the brain releasing an opiate-like substance that the body produces naturally to reduce pain. In extreme cases it leads to a sense of euphoria.

Along with endorphins there are other neuro-transmitters produced – serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine – that also have beneficial effects as mood elevators. The effects of those is shown most clearly when they exist at too low levels – depression, anxiety and sometimes increased aggression.

Exercise helps reduce stress not only by the biochemicals it produces, but by reducing others produced by stress. When a person experiences stress the sympathetic nervous system produces cortisol and hormones that – if left unaltered in the blood stream – produce harmful effects on blood vessels. They can produce scaring, which can lead to narrowing of the arteries.

Exercise helps solve that problem in two ways. A good workout will actually use up those compounds, breaking them down into products that are harmless and get passed out in urine. It helps in a second way by making blood vessels stronger and more elastic, which helps them resist the effects of any stress-produced chemicals that don’t get used up.

Stress often produces excessively tense muscles, particularly in the neck, shoulders and calves. Exercise can help loosen those up, both as part of a general warm-up period and during the main workout. At the same time, those muscles are getting strengthened and infused with fresh, highly oxygenated blood. Lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood helps improve the circulatory system, too. A beneficial effect all the way around.

There are psychological benefits from a regular exercise routine that help eliminate stress, as well. Focusing on the routine at hand takes away the conscious focus from the stress initiators. It’s difficult to concentrate on that unreasonable boss and his unfair actions that morning when you’re working your way around the weight stations.

Those effects also help give the mind a chance to bring about homeostasis. That’s a feedback mechanism within the body that brings it back to a state of equilibrium from any extreme. A strenuous workout takes the mind off problems, giving that system time to function without continuing to overload it.

Other psychological benefits follow from a regular workout. Improving overall health and fitness helps produce self-confidence. When you look good, you often feel good. Beyond that, it helps you realize that you are exerting effort to improve your mind and body. That serves to overcome the feelings of helplessness and resultant passivity that so often accompany stress.

Sometimes, just getting out of the house or away from work for a vigorous walk can do wonders. But a good workout of at least half an hour’s duration three to five times per week is ideal. You’ll find stress levels will be lowered and your overall mood will elevate very quickly.

 Stress and Diet

Regular exercise is one great way to deal with the symptoms of stress. Combining a proper diet with that makes for a terrific, positive addition. Nutrition studies are always difficult to interpret and any conclusions drawn should often be tentative. Later ones often appear to contradict earlier ones. But overall the research suggests what is consistent with ‘common sense’: a balanced diet, with adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables, and some proteins is an aid to reducing stress.

Supplements can be helpful if your diet doesn’t contain a large enough amount of chemicals that help reduce stress. Serotonin, for example, is a brain chemical that helps induce calm. A diet that already contains it, or that contains compounds that help the brain produce it, assists the body in combating stress. But since the effects are slightly delayed (it takes about 30 minutes for serotonin’s effect to kick in) and lasts for several hours (about three hours), timing is also important.

Serotonin levels are often naturally higher in the morning, but decrease in the late afternoon. You can help your body by tailoring your diet accordingly. A late afternoon snack is a good idea. Baked, rather than fried, potato chips help stimulate serotonin production. Pretzels, too, are low in fat but healthy. Stress is related to diet in other ways. It doesn’t merely reduce helpful neuro-transmitters but encourages counter-productive habits, as well.

Some people take to eating excessive amounts, particularly of high fat foods, in order to compensate for the symptoms of stress. Some studies suggest, however, that high fat foods tend to slow down or inhibit serotonin levels. Moderation in intake is wise for other reasons, too. Just as inadequate exercise leads to poor fitness, excessive caloric intake amplifies the damage. As you become flabby and overweight, body image can suffer, leading to a downward spiral in self-image. The result is increased stress and often depression.

Breaking that vicious cycle requires effort, but it carries double rewards. As you become more fit, you reduce the physical effects of stress-induced biochemicals. You also improve your body, helping create a body image that elevates your mood. That kind of investment in your well-being is well worth the effort required to break the cycle.

Eating at regular times is helpful. When people are stressed, they’ll often skip meals because of the depressive effect stress has on appetite. Often, too, stress is work related and less time is available for meals at scheduled times. That behavior has a compounding effect. Here again, you need to break the cycle by making a commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

During meals, focus on positive things in your life and environment. Make a conscious decision to set aside whatever internal or external factors are contributing to stress. Give yourself a parole from ’stress jail’ and the freedom to enjoy a healthy meal.

Effects of Alcohol

‘She drove me to drink’ used to be a popular phrase. Its essential meaning is that stress induces people to consume alcohol. While it’s true that stress can be an incentive to drink, it’s equally true that heavy alcohol consumption causes stress.

Moderate alcohol intake, to be sure, can have beneficial effects. Research suggests that small amounts can even improve mental functioning and increase performance in problem solving while stressed. But, there are also studies that demonstrate that large quantities, particularly when consumed for long periods, actually worsens stress.

Large alcohol consumption stimulates the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands. One result is an increase in the amount of cortisol produced within the body. Another is an increase in adrenaline. Both those, while they don’t alone cause stress, play a large role in the symptoms.

Extreme stress makes it more difficult to concentrate. One of the obvious effects of high alcohol intake is to produce that exact effect. Thus, heavy drinkers get a double whammy just at the moment they need mental clarity most.

Other studies suggest that chronic drinkers have symptoms similar to those seen in children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Children of those drinkers, this research concludes, have a higher incidence of actual ADHD.

So, it may also be true that as much as the stress of parenting may lead to drinking, adult drinking may encourage the circumstances that incent the parent to drink. It may be a factor in producing children’s symptoms that lead to adult stress.

Exercise is known to help relieve the symptoms of stress. Unfortunately, one of the additional results of excessive alcohol consumption is decreased exercise. Few inebriated people want to go a few rounds on the weight machine.

Similarly, high alcohol intake suppresses appetite. Thus, at the same time alcoholic drinks pour in the calories, they decrease the incentive to maintain a healthy diet. Once again the drinker experiences a doubly negative reinforcing effect.

Those who drink excessively to escape stress motivated by money concerns find it more difficult to cope with the problem that caused the stress in the first place. Even simple tasks like balancing a checkbook are clearly more difficult when drunk. Beyond such minor details, the cognitive functions needed to develop long term strategies are impaired. Drinkers literally can’t think their way out of the problems causing the stress.

In all these cases there is a vicious cycle established. Stress encourages heavy drinking, which makes it more difficult to deal with the internal and external factors that led to stress in the first place.

Though the specific numbers will vary from person to person, when the average individual drinks more than the equivalent of two or three shots of whiskey per day, the results are inevitably bad.

The key to breaking this vicious cycle is to seek alternative methods for dealing with stress. Both the symptoms and the underlying motivators are subject to change in almost all cases. Proper exercise and diet is a good beginning.

A realistic attitude about life’s inherent challenges can go a long way, as well. But, as with any psychological problem, admitting it exists is the first necessary step.