DrWinner.org - Step 3, Stress Management

Stress can often have several deleterious effects on your health. It's important to understand that stress comes in many forms both good and bad. There's good stress such as a family wedding, the holidays, getting ready for a vacation and then there's the stress that unfortunately we cannot control natural disasters, unexpected financial problems, the loss of a loved one, difficulties economically that are unanticipated. And then stressors that we deal with on a day-to-day basis as they relate to our job and our family. The key to stress is understanding it and managing it since it's not all bad, often times under certain stressful situations we can actually produce some of our best work. Stress comes in basic sources that involve: environmental, social, psychological and physiologic. People handle stress in multiple different ways but as we've discussed in some of the other seven steps it's important to utilize physical exercise to help manage stress, to use a proper diet and so too some supplements can prove to be beneficial as well. Sleep patterns are also important since stress can alter our normal patterns of sleep. Stress can cause various symptoms: fatigue, chronic headaches, irritability, loss of appetite, forgetfulness, sleep disorders like insomnia. It is felt that the majority of major illnesses have some foundation in the ability to manage stress properly as it relates to neurovascular and cardiovascular disease; and possibly even the predisposition to certain cancers and metabolic disorders as well as affecting our immune system making it easier for us to get some infectious disorder.

Stress can be short term, impending weather systems such as a hurricane or tornado. Or long term such as a loss of a loved one, significant alteration in your economic status, or unfortunately an illness that is chronic to you or a loved one.

So how do we approach some of these issues? There are various texts that you can refer to. One that you may find helpful is a text called “The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook” Edition Five by Drs. Davis and McKay and Eshelman. There's also a very to the point book called “Stress Management for Dummies” by Dr. Alan Elkin and Dr. Paul Rosch. Also a very easy to read and somewhat lighthearted yet rather helpful text was written several years ago called “Don't Sweat the Small Stuff”. There are various versions of this but I suggest if you haven't read the first, you may find it very helpful. There's a chapter in this book called "Don't Catch the Ball" which is very interesting reading. There are many other sources you may find helpful but they can not all be listed here.

Some other recommendations. It's important to look at your diet, please refer back to the section on nutrition but consider again focusing on good quality organic foods with an emphasis on fresh vegetables , fresh fruit and focus on products that will help you handle the destruction of free radicals, those foods that are high in antioxidant content.

Try to avoid certain foods that we often times are drawn to during times of stress; those that contain high sugar content, junk food type products, at least in any large quantity. Limit soft drinks, white floured containing products, general snack foods and chips if you can.

Limit your intake of caffeine since it can interfere with sleep. Especially do not have any coffee containing caffeine or any caffeine beverage after 4:00 preferably after noon.

Limit your alcohol intake. Avoid tobacco and mood-altering drugs.

Regular exercise and refer to the section on physical fitness with regard to exercising your body for some tips and suggested reading, Note, it is important to work out preferably four to six times each week and if possible go for a walk, 20 to 30 minutes, at least four to six times a week if not every day.

Learning to relax is not so simple in our society but it is important again to focus on taking some personal time. You may need to refer to some of the books discussed and even others that talk about biofeedback and stress management techniques that help us relax. It is important to take at least 30 minutes to an hour out of every day to try to relax.

Good sleep habits, see the section regarding this for more details, is a must.

There are times when prescription medications will need to be considered. If this is serious enough that you have not found any enjoyment in the activities you normally do over at least a two week period or you just feel depressed and down for over a two week period, consider getting in touch with your physician and allied healthcare practitioner. It is important to look into this a little further and make sure there's not a significant medical underlying condition or a condition for which you may require more formalized medical help such as the early onset of depression. Especially in young people it is often rather difficult to make this diagnosis and often trained medical personnel are necessary to assist in obtaining a correct diagnosis.

There is much to say about the power of positive thought. Books have been written about it but clearly keeping yourself with positive thoughts and a positive mind state can be very beneficial.

Spend some time with friends, rekindle a hobby and taking a day off can be very therapeutic when you're under significant stress. We all will live with stress. The key is learning how to manage it and getting help when needed to manage the stress of day-to-day life. Further correspondence on this topic will be forthcoming.