Stress: Fight the Silent Killer

Causes of Stress

Believe it or not, but stress begins at your doorstep. A challenging situation, difference of opinion, high expectations, death or sickness of a loved one can or even lack of proper sleep all contribute in some little way to causing you stress. Stress can be because of personal, economic, social or religious causes which can be controllable to a great extent or it can be because of situational or external factors or events which may not be directly controllable.

Personal Factors: that can cause stress include personality characteristics and coping skills, expectations from family and others, eating and sleeping habits and rigidity. If your income cannot support your family, your job prospects are low or if you have sudden expenses, you could be under stress due to economic reasons.

Situational factors: over which you may have no control, such as deaths or births, divorce, altercation with neighbors, illness or retirement, financial loss, or unsuccessful completion of daily activities could all lead to domestic stress.

Changing value systems: Increasing ambitions, growing desires and a tendency to become more and more materialistic has become the order of the day. We all want to be rich and successful and for that we struggle very hard and that takes a toll on your health and consequently increases stress.

Your personality: can also determine how stress prone you are. If you are constantly worried about what will happen and what could happen, there will be no end to your stress. Another factor that adds to your stress is your belief systems. These affect your personality directly. Beliefs are what you have acquired from your family and society and these affect your characteristics, behavior and thoughts. The way you perceive stress, your lifestyle, your working style, attitude towards others and priorities all depend on your personality.

Health Problems Due To Stress

Excessive stress over a long period of time can cause several physiological disorders that can drain your mental and physical resources. Prolonged stress can make you prone to major health disorders, which can be life-threatening, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or cancer. In fact, an estimated 50-80 per cent of all diseases are stress related.

Tension Headache and Migraine: You've swallowed pills, tried all kinds of balms and even had a massage, but to no avail. That throbbing in your head just won't go away. If that's the case, then you better sit up and take note. You are suffering from stress-related headaches and migraines.

When the muscles around the head remain tense for some time, they may cause a headache. The contradiction of muscles in the scalp, neck and forehead cause tension headache, while a migraine is felt as a throbbing headache. Often associated with nausea or vomiting, these occur due to abnormal blood flow in the blood vessels of the head.

Hypertension (high blood pressure): It is unfortunate but true that stress and high blood pressure have become synonymous today. The frantic pace of work, meetings, deadlines, traveling, split-second decisions all extract the maximum from the individual. This is often reflected by an increase in blood pressure.

Chronic Fatigue: A persistent feeling of fatigue and tiredness is the commonest symptom of stress. Fatigue is a feeling of not having adequate energy to carry on, a strong desire to rest, sleep or stop all activity. This can develop due to physical or mental exertion and drain you of all your energy.

Diabetes Mellitus: Chronic stress has been associated with the development of insulin resistance, a condition where the human body is unable to use insulin effectively to regulate glucose (blood sugar). Since diabetes means rigid dietary and medical control, it adds to stress that is often beyond the individual's coping and adaptive capabilities.

Muscular Skeletal Problems: Chronic pains as caused by arthritis and other conditions may be intensified by stress to such an extent that they become incapacitating.

Sleep Disorders: Excessive stress can manifest itself as insomnia, where a person has difficulty in falling asleep. In reverse case, stressed out individual may prefer to sleep excessively to avoid tension.

Weight Problems: Stress can have varying effects on your appetite and weight. Some people may suffer from a loss of appetite and lose weight, while others may develop cravings for food and sugar to counteract tension and in the process gain weight. In rare cases, stress may trigger excessive activity of the thyroid gland causing your body to burn up calories faster than the normal rate.

Palpitations: Palpitations are defined as 'abnormal awareness of one's own heart beat.' A normal heart beat ranges between 60-80 beats per minute. But during mental or physical exertion the rate may rise to 180 beats per minute. Those who are stressed may feel a rapid pounding of the heart occurring suddenly due to no apparent reason, or may even feel a skipped beat.

Peptic Ulcer: Believe it or not but stress can also cause peptic ulcers. Normally the microns layer secreted by the stomach protects the inner lining of the stomach, the esophagus (the food pipe) and the first position of the small intestine. Stress can cause this inner lining to be eroded by excessive production of digestive acid, and diminished production of the microns. Thus the individual will experience sharp bouts of sudden pain when the acid comes in contact with the eroded lining.

So the next time you have either of these problems, chances are that you are suffering from stress. It's time you learnt how to manage and control your stress before you are the next victim.

Managing Stress

There are various ways by which you can mange the increasing stress levels in your life:

Exercise: Regular exercise is like a weapon when fighting stress. It not only makes you more agile but also makes you a happier person and gives you all the positive energy that you require. Exercise is necessary in order to keep the body healthy, physically and mentally.

Massage: A potent remedy to manage your stress. Not only can you indulge in self-massage, you can help others too by the power of touch. Breathing correctly and muscular relaxation are techniques, which will help you control stress. They are easy-to-do and help in making you feel relaxed.

Yoga and Meditation: The ancient practices of meditation and yoga also serve as perfect antidotes to manage stress. However, it's not enough to merely know about the techniques the onus lies on you to derive the desired effect by making a positive effort towards actually doing it.

Lifestyle Changes: In addition to these techniques, you can also control your stress by making changes in your lifestyle. Eat right, relax, quit smoking, sleep properly and have mastery over your time. Once you accomplish these, your stress will vanish making you feel fitter and lighter.