| Stress:
America's #1 Health Problem
from -Reader's
Digest.com
An Overlooked Epidemic
In 1983 Time magazine declared that stress was "the epidemic
of the '80s." What does that say about us now?
In the two decades since that declaration,
we've welcomed into our lives cell phones, beepers, the Internet,
24-hour news, and self-managed retirement plans. The workplace
has been revolutionized -- a few times. So have the financial
markets. Shopping choices have proliferated (funny how tomatoes
now come in grape, cherry, plum, and pear variations), meaning
decision-making is harder than ever. Beyond our control are the
more insidious concerns of terrorism, a one-world economy, and
global warming. If someone asked you to describe life today in
one word, it's a pretty good bet that word wouldn't be "calm,"
"serene," or "tranquil."
Given its profound influence on our physical
and mental well-being, stress may well be America's No. 1 health
problem. The American Institute of Stress estimates that 75 to
90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for illnesses
caused or made worse by stress. Included in that category are
high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. That's
why the Live It Down Plan's stress-reduction component is so important.
If you can learn how to relax and be more sanguine about the "24-7"
world we live in, you can make major progress in lowering your
heart attack risk and improving your life.
What Is Stress?
According to the Encyclopedia of Stress, "stress" is
one of the most frequently used but ill-defined words in the English
language.
We say we're stressed when we're late for
work and when we can't pay our bills. We laugh about the stress
of the holidays and cry over the stress of a divorce. Even an
ostensibly happy occasion -- such as the birth of a child -- can
be stressful.
The encyclopedia defines stress as a "real
or interpreted threat to the physiological or psychological integrity
of an individual that results in physiological and/or behavioral
responses." In other words, stress is any change in your
world that evokes some reaction from you. If you're a neatness
nut, having 10 people staying in your house for a long weekend
could be incredibly stressful; but if you don't mind chaos and
clutter, then let the fun begin. If you thrive on to-do lists
and deadlines, a week with absolutely nothing to do and nowhere
to go could make you crazy; another person might feel positively
reborn.
"People talk about stress as though
it's a bad thing," says stress researcher Catherine M. Stoney,
Ph.D., a psychology professor at Ohio State University, "but
stress exists inside us. It's really the interaction between what's
in our environment and how we cope and deal with it."
Stress is often linked to a short-lived
event, such as an argument. But it can be prolonged as well. In
fact, the persistent yet subtle pressures of modern-day living
are an ever-increasing -- yet harder to diagnose -- cause of stress.
Doctors identify three main classes of stress...
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