I’ve just added some information on hypertension or high blood pressure.
To find out what doctors mean by hypertension and strategies you can implement today (for free) to reduce your blood pressure, visit http://www.turquoiseray.com/network/hypertension.asp
A Swedish study published in PsychCentral on 2 September 2009 has suggested a link between work-related stress and inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
They defined work-related stress as somewhere where psychological demands were placed on the individual and there was a limited opportunity to make decisions. The study found people who had a limited ability to make decisions at work were predisposed to developing rheumatoid arthritis.
This finding was similar to the relationship that has been defined between high levels of stress and cardiovascular disease.
You have got the pieces, now it’s time to put it all together so you have a complete Mind and Body Maintenance Programme. Just as you might spend 30 minutes a day taking care of your body by exercising, it’s important to take care of your mind too!
Here’s where it’s a good idea to focus:
We are not here to have no stress. We are here to learn and to grow. Learning and growing involves short bursts of stress and challenge, followed by down-time where we relax, regenerate and integrate. Not learning is a stress in itself. Leaping from one stress to another stress is chronic stress and really is not helpful.
The trick is to make sure that you are not chronically stressed - that’s when you wear yourself out and create or exacerbate health issues.
By building in these tools and strategies, you can enjoy stress-free living.
Research shows that if you have been stressed for a long time, then chances are your immunity is taking a pounding. Lowered immunity can manifest as increased susceptibility to colds and ‘flus, meaning you get them more often and for longer than people around you. It can also play a hand in the development of more serious illness. For example, an increase in the frequency and severity of asthma, multiple sclerosis and arthritis and the early development of coronary heart disease. But why does this happen?
We know that the stress response is an inflammatory response and if present for a long time can lead to the development of various types of inflammatory disease. At the same time elevated levels of cortisol can reduce immunity related activity carried out by our cells meaning we are more susceptible to viral attack.
However, research undertaken at the
It is this ongoing mild inflammation that contributes to the development of stress-related illness.
Wednesday 7 November 2007 is National Stress Awareness Day
In recognition of this day, I will be hosting a free teleseminar looking at exactly what stress is, how it affects your body and discussing some ways in which you can reduce your stress.
To register for this free teleseminar, please click on the link Reduce Your Stress
“Obesity is an international scourge,” congress chairman Professor Paul Zimmet said in his opening speech at the International Congress on Obesity back in April 2007. “This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world. It’s as big a threat as global warming and bird flu.” A pandemic is an epidemic that has gone global.
Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association today published a global study that found that approximately 40% of men and 30% of women around the world are overweight, and approximately 24% of men and 27% of women are obese. The study, led by Beverley Balkau, director of research at INSERM in Villejuif, France used the waist to hip ratio as well as Body Mass Index (BMI) of 168,159 people (69,409 men, 98,750 women) in 63 countries. Balkau says taking the waist measurement was particularly important since the measurement is “a more powerful clinical marker of heart disease and diabetes than BMI. The study results show that excess body weight is pandemic, with one-half to two-thirds of the overall study population being overweight or obese,” Balkau said.
Using the waist measurements, Balkau’s team found that more than half the study population, 56% of men and 71% of women, had excess abdominal fat. That was defined as a waist circumference greater than 94 cm (37 inches) in men and 80 cm (31.5 inches) in women. “Overall, there’s a significant increase in the frequency of heart disease and diabetes with increasing waist circumference,” Balkau noted.
“For men, each increase of approximately 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) means an increased frequency of about 35% for heart disease and for women an increase of approximately six inches (15 centimeters) equates to a 40% increase for heart disease. Even in people who are lean, an increasing waist circumference means increasing risk for heart disease and diabetes.”
A Government Advisor, Professor Julian Le Grand, has proposed that health promoting strategies are put in place with individuals required to specifically opt out if they did not want to participate. Some of the proposals include: companies with more than 500 employees to provide a daily exercise hour, smokers to purchase a tobacco permit, manufacturers banned from adding salt to food and the provision of free fruit to employees by companies. Are we moving to a nanny state? What happened to self-responsibility?
Here’s a thought, research indicates a link between obesity and long-term levels of stress. One study indicated that a neurotransmitter found in the brain that activates feelings of hunger may be stimulated by stress. And that there is a correlation with this neurotransmitter, Neuropeptide Y, and abdominal fat.
So whilst it is important to exercise regularly and eat a healthy balanced diet with an appropriate amount of good fats, it’s also important to look after our mental health. It’s no coincidence that there is an increase in stress levels and we are now looking at an obesity pandemic.
42% of the people surveyed by Coleman Parkes for the Relaxation for Living Institute said they felt stressed each day, with 1-in-5 people feeling stressed before they have had breakfast. This figure doubles by the time they get to work or drop the kids off at school.
On average, adults say they feel anxious for at least 2 hours a day. What’s causing us to feel stressed? Top of the list was financial worries, closely followed by problems at work and relationship issues. 45% of women and 24% of men surveyed said they were stressed about how they looked.
Two thirds of those surveyed said they regularly feel overwhelmed and 1-in-8 people are angry or are at boiling point. Studies such as the Framingham Heart Study have demonstrated a strong correlation between emotions such as anger and heart disease. More than half (52%) of the population has had sleeping difficulties, one-in-two have suffered headaches or even migraines, nearly a quarter (23%) have had digestive problems and, nearly a fifth (17%) admit suffering panic attacks.
How are we coping with stress? More than one-in-four (28%) people use alcohol to try to cope when stressed and, surprisingly, the same percentage of people also turn to coffee.
So what can you do to reduce stress? Alcohol and coffee may change your bio-chemistry for a short period of time but it’s not going to reduce stress. This is because stress starts in the mind when we perceive a situation to be threatening. Why do we feel threatened? It may be the meaning we have given the situation, our inherent personality or a lack of coping strategies. Change how we perceive a situation or our assessment of how we will deal with the event and you change the whole stress reaction at its source.
By factoring in biofeedback so you are aware of your stress triggers, you can take action before the headaches and panic attacks begin. Build relaxation into your lifestyle and you help your body to reduce tension and minimise that gradual buildup of pressure. By reducing the build up of pressure you minimise the need to explode at the tiniest thing.
A team led by Dr Elizabeth Pradhan at the University of Maryland School of Medicine concluded that a form of meditation known as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) helped people diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to manage emotional distress and depression. Whilst meditation did not appear to alleviate the condition, Dr Pradhan’s team found that complementary therapies, such as meditation, supported patients undergoing treatment by improving their sense of well-being.
“There’s a fair amount of emotional distress that accompanies RA in terms of stability, worrying about the future, worrying about the ability to take care of oneself, to keep a job, to say nothing about the daily pain,” Pradhan said. “There’s just a lot to deal with. So, I think this is a novel and innovative way to handle this emotional distress and one that hasn’t been tried before, and we were happy to see that it did make a difference along those lines.”
“It doesn’t really change disease status. That didn’t happen,” she said. “But in terms of ability to cope with a chronic and debilitating condition, meditation did appear to be quite helpful. And there was really high satisfaction with the intervention. So, I think this bodes well for the future.”
“The other thing I think is important to note about our study,” Pradhan said, “is that mindfulness meditation can be combined with any rheumatological therapy. It is truly complementary medicine in that sense, done in addition to pharmacological or other intervention. So, for physicians and patients who wonder what they can do to improve well-being, beyond taking medications, this study offers evidence for a beneficial approach to dealing with the psychological distress of RA.”
Dr. Stephen Lindsey, head of rheumatology at Ochsner Health Systems in Baton Rouge, La., said, “If someone is having stress and trouble with their arthritis, if you can somehow decrease the stress, you might be able to increase their function,” Lindsey said. “And when you’re meditating, you’re trying to relax your body and get rid of the tension. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a meditation scheme. It could be yoga, or Pilates, or a self-help course. But I’m in favour of using everything possible to help people, and this would be just one more way to help patients improve their lives.”
Yesterday I spent an hour stuck on the tube. The tube ground to a halt between stations. It got quite hot and the lighting was minimal. You don’t often get opportunities to really see if you can walk your talk. Here’s how I managed my emotions during my time of stress.
By managing your emotions during times of distress you can minimise any feelings of anxiety, panic or distress. Change your breathing pattern and you change your physiology; change what you are thinking about and you change how you feel; reach out to others in a positive way and you avoid feeling isolated and begin to feel supported.
We’ve just added a new page to our website, www.InstantStressRelief.org. It provides a wealth of information on anxiety, including common symptoms and available treatments to manage anxiety disorders.
We are also experimenting with a new format for our website. We would love to know what you think of it.
Please check out our new page and give us your feedback. The page can be found here: Anxiety