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Stress Management

How to manage stress to improve overall health.

stressmanagement

What is stress?

When the body or mind goes through situations that are emotional, shocking, or disturbing, it causes stress. This triggers a reaction or chain of events in which stress hormones are released. Those hormones could cause problems for our health. 

Studies have shown that high levels of stress hormones tied with long periods of stress can weaken our immune system and make health conditions worse.  Studies have also shown that learning to deal with and handle stress will have a good effect on our overall health.

What causes stress?

Most people will have to deal with stressful situations in their lifetime.  Some common situations that can cause stress are:

  • Health problems
  • Relationship problems
  • Money
  • Work
  • Traumatic events
  • Death of a child, wife/husband, or close family member
  • Seeing combat
  • Being the victim of a crime

All these events could have an impact on our health or make our illness(es) worse. 

What else can stress me out?

While stress tends to be tied with negative events, it could also be tied with exciting life events such as:

  • Dating
  • Getting married
  • Buying a home
  • Changing jobs
  • Pregnancy or having a baby

How do I deal with stress?

Here are some ways to help deal with or handle stress:

  • Prayer or reflection
  • Listening to music
  • Light to moderate exercise with doctor approval
  • Yoga
  • Fishing
  • Therapy pet
  • Support groups

Unhealthy ways we deal with stress

Here is a list of ways that do not help with handling stress and could also make our health worse:

  • Smoking
  • Drinking alcohol
  • Using drugs
  • Being alone
  • Not talking about it

Resources

Kyrou, Ioannis, and Constantine Tsigos. “Stress Hormones: Physiological Stress and Regulation of Metabolism.” Current Opinion in Pharmacology, vol. 9, no. 6, Elsevier Ltd, 2009, pp. 787–93, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coph.2009.08.007.

"Stress Management -- Strategies." International Journal of Nursing Education and Research, 30 June 2021, p. NA. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A668675342/AONE?u=birm97026&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=2eb60794. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Top 10 most stressful life events: The holmes and rahe stress scale. Pain Doctor. 2018, March 14. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://paindoctor.com/top-10-stressful-life-events-holmes-rahe-stress-scale/.

Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI journal, 16, 1057–1072. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2017-480

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