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| Americans consistently rate stress as their # 1health concern. More than 50% of adults in the U.S. report high stress on a daily basis. Untreated, stress can seriously affect health, work performance, relationships, and general well-being.
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Experts estimate that as many as 70-90% of all doctor's visits are stress related. Stress is one of the top reasons why people get sick in the United States. It is impossible to avoid all stress but the key is how you handle stress. The way we react to things is can make it worse or can help us cope. Scientists have agreed that stress is not what happens to someone -- those outside forces are the stressors -- but how a person reacts to what happens. "Mind and body are inextricably linked, and their second-by-second interaction exerts a profound influence upon health and illness, life and death. Attitudes, beliefs, and emotional states ranging from love and compassion to fear and anger can trigger chain reactions that affect blood chemistry, heart rate, and the activity of every cell and organ system in the body, from the stomach and the gastrointestinal tract to the immune system." -Psychologist Kenneth Pelletier of the Stanford University Corporate Health Program "The fundamental element of mind/body medicine - the elicitation of the relaxation response - can be traced back to the earliest civilizations. It appears that one of our most basic bodily avenues to better health is the simple following of the breath, in and out, and the avoidance of distracting thoughts." Dr. Herbert Benson, Cardiologist
Dr. Benson and his colleagues have taken this universal activity and extensively researched and adapted it; today mind/body medicine and self-care has been shown to be effective and essential in improving our health and, thus, is growing in acceptance to become a third modality in health care, taking its place next to surgery and pharmaceuticals.
 | "Over time, chronic excessive exposure to stress can lead to physical symptoms and exacerbate many illnesses. Just as stress affects our body, so too it affects the ways we feel, think, and act...By using stress reducing strategies, you can enjoy life's challenges without burning out." | The Wellness Book
by Benson, Stuart and BensonHenry Mind/Body Institute Staff |
Stress reactions often come from our survival instincts. For example, when our ancesters were hunters and gathers and there were large animals prowling around, it was a good thing that stress would force us to act. We would see, feel or sense the danger and our awareness would rise. When faced with danger our reflex is to either fight or run for our lives. In the end stress was there to save the day. Once the problem was over the stress was gone. In today’s world, rarely are our stressors life threatening. Most of the time, we aren’t out there fighting lions or opposing tribes. Instead we have chronic build up of stress which begins to manifest itself throughout our bodies. Being in a state of chronic stress can result in problems of depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, high blood pressure, irregular heart rate, metabolic changes, immune system and other health challenges, relationship issues, and lowered effectiveness and productivity at work. Stress is a normal part of life. In small quantities, stress is good -- it can motivate you and help you be more productive. However, too much stress, or a strong response to stress, is harmful. It can set you up for general poor health as well as specific physical or psychological illnesses like infection, heart disease, or depression. Persistent and unrelenting stress often leads to anxiety and unhealthy behaviors like overeating and abuse of alcohol or drugs.
 | Sponsored by the Army National Guard, and the Office of the Chief, Army Reserve.
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Stress, Productivity, and Your Immune System Seminars for students, employees, and hard drivers. Learn to: Make stress work for you; Increase productivity without working harder; Effective stress management can help you to feel better and get sick less often;
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Stress and A Healthy Ticker Workshop A Stress Management/Quality of Life Program “Stress management may very well be an intervention you’d want every cardiac rehabilitation patient to be exposed to,” says Blumenthal, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. “It has the potential to not only improve their quality of life but also potentially impact their medical health outcomes.”
What is Cardiac Psychology? Cardiac Psychology is a branch of health psychology which identifies the beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that increase or decrease one's likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease. (The Coronary Prone Behavior Pattern - CPBP). Participants will identify the degree to which they have the Coronary Prone Behavior Pattern. The class will emphasize how to change the Coronary Prone Behavior Pattern.
Lessons will be taught through lecture and demonstration. Demonstrations will include : guided imagery exercises, mental focus, relaxation and meditation exercises. Participants will experience first hand the power of their mind over the body (how the body is responsive to the mental images we create) and how the relaxing the body effects the mind.
Participants will learn how to: Identify destructive patterns; Change angry thought patterns and reactivity; Become more optimistic (through positive imagining or "guided
imagery", and positive thoughts); Relax in way that is healing to the body and mind;
Who would be interested in taking this seminar?
People concerned about preventing or healing heart disease in one's self, one's spouse, or other loved ones. People suffering from stress related illnesses. People prone to anxiety or depression (high risk factors for heart disease). And people who get sick easily and need immune system support.
Particpants will gain: Understanding of the epidemic of heart disease and what to do about it. Practical stress management techniques that will reduce their risk of heart disease. Knowledge of underlying beliefs and attitudes that cause chronic hostility other high
risk behaviors. Breathing techniques, relaxation and guided imagery tools. Anger management skills. Communication skills for relationshipenhancement.
New Study Shows Naps May Reduce Coronary Mortality
Is taking naps good for your heart? New research from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Athens Medical School (UAMS) in Greece suggests that the answer may be yes. In a new large, prospective study, researchers found that midday napping (siestas) reduced coronary mortality by about one third among men and women.
To read more
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press02122007.html
In an earlier study in the American Journal of Cardiology (Vol. 90, No. 1, pages 86–87), Blumenthal and his colleagues reported that stress management lowers costs. Heart patients who had participated in weekly stress-management classes had fewer medical problems and lower medical costs than those who received usual care.
“Stress management is relatively inexpensive to deliver when you compare it to angioplasty or bypass surgery, yet it could result in long-term cost savings,” says Blumenthal. | |
| Anxiety disorders are among the top reasons people miss work:social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia (214 million days)
posttraumatic stress disorder (113 million days)
generalized anxiety disorder (110 million days)
panic disorder (101 million days)
health conditions, each taking an average of 32 sick days a year. Those with back and neck pain miss 1.2 billion days; Anxiety and Related Disorders: 1.3 Billion Missed Days of Work
Every year adult Americans with psychological disorders, including anxiety disorders, miss 1.3 billion days of work, school, or other daily activity.
According to a recent report in the Archives of General Psychiatry, depression accounts for the greatest annual number of absences among mental disorders-387 million days; close behind are bipolar disorder (103 million days) and substance abuse (93 million days).
All chronic physical and mental conditions are responsible for 3.7 billion days of adult work absences a year. More than 50 percent of American adults have chronic arthritis 375 million days, stroke 221 million days; heart attack 204 million days; and cancer 71.5 million days.
IT IS POSSIBLE TO TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH AND IMPROVE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE. YOU CAN LEARN TO DO IT NOW.
Panic disorder, women, and heart Problems
A pounding heart, chest pain, shortness of breath: These symptoms describe a panic attack, but for older women, they may also be a signal of future heart trouble.
A recent study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, suggests that postmenopausal women who reported at least one panic attack during a six-month period were three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke over the next five years than women who didn't report having a panic attack.
Doctors speculate that a panic attack may cause rhythm problems or that stress hormones may harm the heart. In any case, the research findings may indicate a connection between panic disorder and heart problems. During a panic attack hormones flood the body to help it cope with an emergency, but over the long run, they make take a more serious toll-and something to discuss with a doctor. Find out more about panic disorder.
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The Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety disorders and to improve the lives of all people who suffer from them.
_________________________ My BOOK: Stress & A Healthy Ticker: On Preventing Heart Disease. by Diana Weiss-Wisdom, Ph.D. The Coronary Prone Behavior Pattern consists of the beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that increase one's likelihood of developing heart disease. These include: the tendency to get angry easily or chronic hostility (hot reactors), always being in a hurry (time urgency), pessimism (expecting the worst), consistent feelings of depression and isolation, the belief that we live in a 'dog eat dog' world (a pervasive attitude of competition in all situations). Stress and A Healthy Ticker is written as a parable: a young woman's father has a heart attack. She interviews a variety of health experts (physician, cardiologist, acupuncturist, sociologist, stress management coach, psychologist, and a physician recovering from heart disease) seeking advise for how to help her father heal. In the end, she recognizes the 'cardiac prone behavior pattern' in herself and ventures on a path to change her own life and her relationship with her father. At the end of each short chapter are notes from the author, highlighting the important learning points for preventing heart disease. ____________________ Heart disease is the leading cause of death for American women, and heart disease claims about 250,000 women's lives a year. That's nearly six times greater than the number of women that die from breast cancer, according to the American Heart Association. But it doesn't have to be this way, says Marianne J. Legato, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City and the founder of the Foundation for Gender Specific Medicine. "Without a doubt, 80% of coronary disease can be prevented with proper lifestyle modifications including healthy diet and increased physical activity," says Legato, author of several books including Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget.
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Anxiety Disorders Make Wide Impact What the Research Shows (exerpted from www.apa.org) In the early 1980s, psychologist Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, and immunologist Ronald Glaser, PhD, of the Ohio State University College of Medicine, were intrigued by animal studies that linked stress and infection. From 1982 through 1992, these pioneer researchers studied medical students. Among other things, they found that the students' immunity went down every year under the simple stress of the three-day exam period. Test takers had fewer natural killer cells, which fight tumors and viral infections. They almost stopped producing immunity-boosting gamma interferon and infection-fighting T-cells responded only weakly to test-tube stimulation. Those findings opened the floodgates of research. By 2004, Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, and Gregory Miller, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, had nearly 300 studies on stress and health to review. Their meta-analysis discerned intriguing patterns. Lab studies that stressed people for a few minutes found a burst of one type of “first responder” activity mixed with other signs of weakening. For stress of any significant duration – from a few days to a few months or years, as happens in real life – all aspects of immunity went downhill. Thus long-term or chronic stress, through too much wear and tear, can ravage the immune system. The meta-analysis also revealed that people who are older or already sick are more prone to stress-related immune changes. For example, a 2002 study by Lyanne McGuire, PhD, of John Hopkins School of Medicine with Kiecolt-Glaser and Glaser reported that even chronic, sub-clinical mild depression may suppress an older person's immune system. Participants in the study were in their early 70s and caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease. Those with chronic mild depression had weaker lymphocyte-T cell responses to two mitogens, which model how the body responds to viruses and bacteria. The immune response was down even 18 months later, and immunity declined with age. In line with the 2004 meta-analysis, it appeared that the key immune factor was duration, not severity, of depression. And in the case of the older caregivers, their depression and age meant a double-whammy for immunity. The researchers noted that lack of social support has been reported in the research as a risk factor for depression, an insight amplified in a 2005 study of college students. Health psychologists Sarah Pressman, PhD, Sheldon Cohen, PhD, and fellow researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Laboratory for the Study of Stress, Immunity and Disease, found that social isolation and feelings of loneliness each independently weakened first-year students' immunity. In the study, students got flu shots at the university health center, described their social networks, and kept track of their day-to-day feelings using a handheld computer (a new technique called “momentary ecological awareness”). They also provided saliva samples for measuring levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Small networks and loneliness each independently weakened immunity to a core vaccine component. Immune response was most weakened by the combination of loneliness and small social networks, an obvious health stress facing shy new students who have yet to build their friendship circles. What the Research Means Emerging evidence is tracing the pathways of the mind-body interaction. For example, as seen with the college students, chronic feelings of loneliness can help to predict health status -- perhaps because lonely people have more psychological stress or experience it more intensely and that stress in turn tamps down immunity. It's also no surprise that depression hurts immunity; it's also linked to other physical problems such as heart disease. At the same time, depression may both reflect a lack of social support and/or cause someone to withdraw from social ties. Both can be stressful and hurt the body's ability to fight infection. All of these findings extend what we know about how stress management and interpersonal relationships can benefit day-to-day health, doing everything from helping us combat the common cold to speeding healing after surgery. The research is in synch with anecdotal reports of how people get sick in stressful times, but understanding exactly how psychology affects biology helps scientists to recommend the best ways we can build up immunity. How We Use the Research
Managing stress, especially chronic or long-term stress (even if it's not intense), may help people to fight germs. When burdened with long-term stressors, such as caring for an elderly parent or spouse with dementia, health can benefit from conscientious stress management.
Kiecolt-Glaser and Glaser confirmed this hopeful option by comparing the immune function of exam-stressed medical students given hypnosis and relaxation training with that of students without training. At first, the immune responses of the two groups appeared to both go down. However, closer inspection revealed that some students took this exercise more seriously than others. Those who didn't take relaxation training seriously didn't fare so well; those who practiced conscientiously did actually have significantly better immune function during exams than students who practiced erratically or not at all.
Finally, the newest findings on social stress underscore the value of good friends; even just a few close friends can help someone feel connected and stay strong. Social ties may indirectly strengthen immunity because friends – at least health-minded friends -- can encourage good health behaviors such as eating, sleeping and exercising well. Good friends also help to buffer the stress of negative events.
Sources & Further Reading
Edwards, K.M., Burns V.E., Reynolds, T., Carroll, D., Drayson, M., & Ring, C. (2006). Acute stress exposure prior to influenza vaccination enhances antibody response in women. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 20:159-68.
Glaser, R., Sheridan, J. F., Malarkey, W. B., MacCallum, R. C., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2000). Chronic stress modulates the immune response to a pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 804-807.
Glaser, R., Robles, T. F., Malarkey, W. B., Sheridan, J. F., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2003). Mild depressive symptoms are associated with amplified and prolonged inflammatory responses following influenza vaccination in older adults. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 1009-1014.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Glaser, R. (1993). Mind and immunity. In: D. Goleman & J. Gurin, (Eds.) Mind/Body Medicine (pp. 39-59). New York: Consumer Reports.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., & Glaser, R. (2002). Depression and immune function: Central pathways to morbidity and mortality. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53, 873-876.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., McGuire, L., Robles, T., & Glaser, R. (2002). Psychoneuroimmunology: Psychological influences on immune function and health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 537-547.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., McGuire, L., Robles, T., & Glaser, R. (2002). Psychoneuroimmunology and psychosomatic medicine: Back to the future. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 15-28.
Pressman, S. D., Cohen, S., Miller, G.E., Barkin, A., Rabin, B. S., Treanor, J. J. (2005). Loneliness, Social Network Size and Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination in College Freshmen, Health Psychology, 24, pages.
Robinson-Whelen, S., Tada, Y., MacCallum, R. C., McGuire, L., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2001). Long-term caregiving: What happens when it ends? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 573-584.
Segerstrom, S. C. and Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System: A Meta-Analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 130, No. 4.
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