Learn to Control Everyday Stress Before it Kills You

“Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.” -- American Playwright, Jane Wagner

SINCE WE ALL LIVE in reality -- well, most of us anyway -- we’re likely to experience stress. And, getting stressed out is hard to avoid. Every time I vow not to sweat the small stuff, I find myself getting drawn into a winner-takes-all NASCAR competition with the guy who cut me off in traffic. I’d better watch it; I’m one rude driver away from a permanent facial tic.

Apparently, I’m not alone. Recent medical studies indicate that a growing number of people are more stressed than ever. According to The National Institute of Mental Health, roughly one in three people suffers from moderate to severe stress, and on a daily basis. This can have grave and long-term effects on one’s health.

To most people, the very idea of stress has negative connotations. They see it as a painful or debilitating condition. But, physiologically, stress is merely the body's instinct to defend itself. This hard-wired feature aids us during emergencies, such as dodging a speeding car or fleeing a hard-charging wart hog.

The late Hans Selye, M.D., a Viennese-born endocrinologist who won international acclaim for his research on stress, was the first to explain that, for better or for worse, stress is a constant influence in our day-to-day lives. He also made an important distinction between positive stress, known as “eustress”: the type of stress you are likely to experience when you win the lottery or finish a 5K run; and negative stress, or “distress”: the stress brought on by a money woes, a bad relationship -- or a hard-charging wart hog.

Eustress is beneficial in that it can give us a competitive edge in performance-related activities, such as athletics or public speaking.

Distress, however, can be harmful. When distress is allowed to continue unabated, real problems can crop up. Prolonged distress has been shown to compromise the immune system, damage memory cells in the brain and increase the risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses, according to Bruce S. McEwen, M.D., author of “The End of Stress as We Know It” (Joseph Henry Press, 2002) and director of the neuroendocrinology laboratory at the Rockefeller University, a medical research center in New York City.

Experts agree that the key to successful stress management is to find and maintain a personal equilibrium between channeling eustress and reducing distress. In other words, being your best when faced with positive stress, such as a tough workout; and better controlling the negative stress that emerges during a traffic jam, for example.

To do this, it may be helpful to first examine the science of stress. Human beings are designed to respond instinctively in certain situations. For example, in times of emergency, the body shifts into a biological stress mode of “flight or fight” that galvanizes us into action. Our focus sharpens, our heart and lungs accelerate, the body releases adrenaline, all of which helps us respond quickly and decisively. It's how you might feel at the market when you turn around to discover that your 2-year-old has somehow scaled to the summit of the carefully-constructed pyramid of bean dip.

However, it’s the persistent nature of stress in our lives that can overload our body’s stress systems. In other words, we are not as biologically equipped to meet multiple stresses that often hit us simultaneously -- traffic jams, urgent appointments, job deadlines, unexpected house guests and our little canned-food climbers.

“The fact is, we're now living in a world where our systems are not allowed a chance to rest, to go back to base line,” says Dr. McEwen. “People are being driven by excess calories, inadequate sleep, lack of exercise, by smoking, by isolation or frenzied competition.”

So what can you do? Dr. McEwen advises such things as sensible eating, smarter exercise and moderate drinking. “It's a matter of making choices in your life,'' he says.

Here are five ways to help subdue the stress in your life:

Recognize it

This is the first, and most important, step. While it’s not difficult to do, it’s difficult to remember to do. Like flossing, I suppose. The idea here is that when you feel negative stress creep in, take a moment to recognize what’s causing it and how it’s making you feel. This will allow you to take action before the distress takes a firmer hold on you.

Breathe

Once you recognize the distress, breeeathe. Often the difference between stress and serenity is a breath away. That’s because when you breathe deeply, you engage your parasympathetic, or relaxation, response which can lower blood pressure and soothe your spirit.

Champion athletes also rely on breathing techniques to channel their stress before major competitions, and studies show that deep, diaphragmatic breathing seems to have the most immediate effect on reducing stress.

Leonard Holmes, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist who directs the Chronic Pain Program at the Hampton Veterans Administration Medical Center in Tidewater, Va., outlines a breathing technique that consists of taking three very deep, deliberate breaths. Try it right now: Breathe in through your nose and count silently and slowly to 3; push your stomach out rather than your chest. This allows you to breathe with your diaphragm and to get a deeper breath. Breathe out on a slow count of 6 -- through your mouth -- and as you do, visualize all negative stress melting off your body. Nice, eh? The best part of this stress-buster is that you can do it anytime, anywhere to gain control of almost any situation.

Exercise Right

It’s been verified repeatedly that exercise is a killer stress killer. But did you know that if you exercise too intensely, your body can register some of that as stress? That’s right. When you work out strenuously, your body releases adrenalin which is a stress hormone. Too much adrenalin can bring about adrenal exhaustion. Also, hard, or “anaerobic,” exercise can engage the fight-or-flight response.

The best exercise program to manage stress combines relaxing physical pursuits such as yoga, swimming or Pilates with moderate aerobic activity. To be sure you’re exercising in that “optimum zone,” monitor your heart rate; it’s a reliable indicator of how hard your body is working. There are several products that can help you do this. Polar makes a device that transmits your heart rate from a chest strap to a wrist watch: www.polarusa.com. MIO has a line of a new products that measure your heart rate and track calories burned without the uncomfortable chest strap. For more information, log on to www.miowatch.com.

Eat Right

The quality of the food you eat, in large part, determines the quality of the life you live. You can help your body manage stress better by including, and excluding, certain foods. First, strive to eat a balanced diet filled with fresh vegetables (organic if possible, lean meats (free range if possible) and quality fats found in extra virgin olive oil and fish such as wild salmon. The National Institutes of Health also offers this suggestion: Eliminate or reduce intake of caffeine or other stimulants since they just make things worse.

By putting the above strategies into action, you can slough off a lot of stress and free yourself up to live your best life.