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Stressors stressors all around!

Stress is nothing but our own body’s response to an external trigger or ‘stressor’. We have looked at how stress can lead to heart problems with a real patient example in an earlier post

(http://www.cardiacwellnessinstitute.com/heart-disease-treatment-prevention/uncategorized/beware-stress-can-kill/).

In fact, we are aware that almost all the parts of the body including blood vessels, skin, nerves, muscles, joints and all internal organs can start to dysfunction as a result of too much stress. So, let us take an in-depth look at stress and what causes it in this post.

The word ‘stress’ has been used for centuries to explain the concept of elasticity in Physics. It was only in the middle of the 20th century that the term stress got associated with biological stress by the Hungarian endocrinologist Hans Selye. And the term ‘stressor’ was also born at around the same time to refer to any external stimulus or environmental condition that causes stress in an organism.

In today’s modern world, stressors are all around us. Mounting stress in the system is more the norm than the exception. Stress has become the most difficult piece to solve the puzzle of skyrocketing lifestyle disorders.

There are only 2 ways to deal with this health crisis called stress:

  1. To prevent our body’s response to stressors
  2. To counter our body’s stress response effectively

If and only if the mind does not perceive the stressor as a stressor is it possible to prevent the body’s stress response. With a basic instinct to preserve and propagate our species, and with our inherent stress response as the most reliable resource to meeting that end from our cave-dwelling days, stress has become a double-edged sword in the modern world.

We know that every time our ancestors faced a threat to their lives in the past, stress hormones like adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol have helped them mount a “fight, fright and flight response” and survive the acute crisis. However, today, humans have gained such supreme powers on this planet that there is no threat to life on a daily basis but a myriad of stressors all around us that are perceived as serious threats instead. The acronym ‘NUTS’ is often used to describe the stressors faced by humankind today.

N – Novelty (eg. Any new situation like a change in a job or a new baby)

U – Unpredictability (eg. Inability to predict boss’s response or the weather)

T – Threat to ego (eg. When someone makes us feel incompetent or unreliable)

S – Sense of low control (eg. Lacking the power to change a difficult situation like job dissatisfaction)

Coming back to the 2 ways to deal with stress, we can either train our minds to not perceive everyday situations as serious threats, or build a capability to effectively overcome the mounting stress response, or both. The proven path to acquiring one or both of these defence mechanisms is to take the help of professionals who have expertise in dealing with psychological problems. Just like physicians diagnosing your physical health problems and giving you treatment, psychologists will be able to assess the seriousness of the emotional problem and suggest appropriate coping strategies.

Let us take the example of a young woman diagnosed with diabetes. She is 36 years old, has a full-time job and a family with 2 kids aged 10 and 7 years. This is a new and a definitely unpleasant situation for her to be in when things were going smoothly. She is unsure of how she is going to cope with the disease, the medications and the doctor visits and is especially concerned about the complications that it can lead to. She also feels she has no control over her health condition and is grappling with thoughts like “how did I get diabetes?”, “should I have taken better care of myself?” etc.

In our experience providing holistic healthcare solutions for individuals with chronic cardiorespiratory and metabolic diseases, psychosocial counselling is as important as anti-diabetic medications in this young person. This approach has not only helped people deal with the stress of their disease better but has also aided in reversing and completely curing the disease in many instances.

 

 

 

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Beware: Stress can kill

What is stress?

The word stress has become synonymous with mental stress, which is nothing but a psychological imbalance triggered by environmental factors. We’ve all experienced one or more stressful situations during our lifetime – work deadlines, competitive exams, lack of support, financial crisis, separation of a loved one, family pressure – and so on and so forth. The question at hand is “can these be life-threatening?” And the answer is “yes”.

Let me explain myself. Stress can be acute or chronic; positive or negative; obvious or hidden and, most importantly, well-managed or poorly-managed. In other words, stress can be benign when short-lived, constructive, identified, acknowledged and appropriately managed. And malignant when not.

Stress and the heart

There are 9 modifiable risk factors for heart attack of which stress (grouped under psychosocial factors) is the most sinister; it is not only the most difficult to diagnose but also the only factor that can potentially cause all of the other factors (all 8 of them shown in the image below; you can enlarge the image by clicking on it).

Stress can kill

And there are 2 other important mechanisms of stress induced heart disease namely coronary vasospasm and stress cardiomyopathy. We will discuss these entities in a separate blog post.

A real-life example

We recently provided cardiac rehab for a 44-year-old gentleman who had suffered a critical heart attack and had undergone angioplasty with stenting. He came to us 2 weeks after discharge and was very worried about his health. Both he and his wife were confused, anxious and upset. They were concerned about the future of their family, which included 2 young children and elderly parents. We began by explaining to them the cause for his heart attack; his lifestyle risk factors were lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits, his metabolic risk factors were obesity, dyslipidemia and diabetes and his newly-diagnosed risk factor was uncontrolled severe stress related to the financial woes of his construction business. The point that these were all modifiable risk factors and that he could lead a very healthy and normal life moving forward was their only consolation. And he was determined to do all he could to ensure a strong heart and a good health, for his own sake and that of his family. And so began his journey to a successful cardiac rehab program, enriched with behaviour modification and stress management sessions, psychological counselling and diet education, supervised exercise and risk factor management training.

At the end of the rehab program, he was confident about his health and was motivated to adhere to a healthy lifestyle for a lifetime. He enrolled in a maintenance plan for continued healthcare support. His wife was convinced that this was a life-changing program for her husband and that her family’s health was now guaranteed due to all the knowledge and awareness she had gained from us.

Stress mantras

So, remember these simple stress mantras for a healthy life.

  • Stress does not come from outside; it is your own response to the outside world
  • Do not be afraid of stress; do not ignore stress
  • Be aware of your stress triggers
  • Try to avoid or overcome the recurring triggers
  • Manage your stress appropriately
  • Get professional help if necessary
  • There is no one size fits all solution to manage stress, each individual is different