By : Dr. Naheed Ali, Author of Are You Fit To Live 

CAN YOU MANAGE 

Stress is one of the leading factors of acquiring a major illness and not knowing how to manage stress can lead you down an ailing path. Although not all stress is bad stress - its important to be able to distinguish between stressors and identify the root of your stress as this will aid in  you overcoming it.From an overall perspective, stress can lead to headaches, dizziness, nausea, digestive problems, nervousness, tenseness, confusion, perspiration, heart palpitations and other long term illnesses. Over time, the hormonal changes associated with stress that your body undergoes tends to affect almost every organ there is, beginning from the brain to the lower abdominal organs.Some of these affects are unequivocally more serious than others, but the key thing in overcoming stress is to realize, with life comes some sort of stress and one of the most important life-long skills a person can develop is knowing how to function under stress. 

According to Dr. Jay Winner, author of Take the Stress Out of Your Life , there are two types of stress. Good stress is referred to as “eustress” and bad stress as “distress.” These terms refer to the body’s reaction to stress and not to a particular stressor (i.e., stressful event).  For instance, a wedding is often stressful and usually is considered a good thing (at least at the time… or the people wouldn’t bother getting married). However, there may be a lot of anxiety and worry leading up to the ceremony. Anxiety and worry are usually thought of as distress.With eustress, there is also an adrenaline response, but it is felt as excitement and enthusiasm. 

Eustress and distress are defined by the person’s reaction to an event; not the event itself.

With stress, the heart rate increases, blood is deviated from the intestines to the muscles, pupils dilate, sweat glands activate, and your body becomes more ready for a physical response which can lead to a host of severe health problems especially when there is a long period of distress involved. 

In general certain people can withstand more stress than others but more specifically, whatever the stress you are faced with its important to practice distress prevention and management as Dr. Winner leaves us with some healthy tips to live by : 

1. Learn patience with others -- This is important since the emotion most strongly associated with heart disease is anger and hostility. One way to have more patience is to realize that when people are rude they are usually suffering in one way or another.

2. Decrease the frustration of failure -- Instead of thinking you are worthless when things go wrong, realize progress comes from learning from our mistakes. Ask, “What can I learn from this?”

3. Decrease the stress of waiting -- You chose the shortest line at the grocery store, but it ends up being, by far, the slowest line.  As you think of your list of other errands, you become more and more irritated. Instead, realize that if you want your groceries, you need to stay in that or another line. Also think about how busy you usually are. Waiting in line gives you the perhaps rare opportunity to just relax. You could list the things in life for which you are grateful, meditate on your breath, talk to one of the other customers or look at a magazine. If you, instead, are waiting in traffic, you could enjoy some relaxing music.

4. Keep things in perspective -- One way to keep things in perspective is with gratitude. Take time each day to say (to ourselves or others): “I feel lucky to have (blank) in my life” or “I feel privileged to have (blank).” Think of your health, family, friends, etc.

5. Learn a relaxation exercise -- Learning to relax for a specified period of time will help you learn to relax through the day. You can listen to a free relaxation exercise at www.stressremedy.com/relax.

6. Relax through the day -- The present moment can only be the way it is. Much of our stress comes from wishing things were different. As we pursue our goals of changing the future, we need to enjoy the process. To do so, let go the thoughts of “I wish this or that were different.” Then enjoy a breath or other present moment sensation and relax one of your muscle groups. This only takes a couple of seconds, but doing it multiple times a day will decrease your overall stress level.

In an interview with Dr. Howard Schubiner - Director of the Mind Body Medicine Center at Providence Hospital in Southfield, MI, Dr. Schubiner tells us : As a physician and researcher, I have devoted the last 7 years to developing a model and program to address stress-related illness. We have conducted research to demonstrate that pain is a common response to stress, including such syndromes as tension and migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, pelvic-bladder-abdominal pain syndromes, TMJ syndrome, and others. Stress also commonly causes insomnia, depression, anxiety and fatigue.

There are many simple things that people can do to overcome these syndromes, Dr. Schubiner explains. The first step is to look at the illness as being caused by stress, rather than by a structural/physical/medical problem. Usually an exam by a good doctor and a few simple tests will suffice to rule out a tumor, infection, fracture, etc. 

The second step is to realize that stress can cause real pain, real symptoms, and real changes in the body that lead to these symptoms. This is important to assure the person that they're not crazy, weak, or imcompetent; they're simply human and human beings are constructed to get physical (and psychological symptoms) when they are stressed as an alerting, danger alarm.

The third step is to understand that by dealing with the stressors, the person will be able to reverse the symptoms. This is important to give them a sense of empowerment, rather than falling into fear and despair. Deep breathing and meditative exercises can help with this step to decrease the sense of fear that will only lead to more pain and other symptoms.

The fourth step is to actively deal with the issues that are presenting in the moment. Active self-care and assertively taking action helps to focus the attention on the underlying problem causing the symptoms. In this way, the person is solving both the cause of the stress-related illness and the results of it!

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