Stress

What is stress? Try reading up on health articles and you will often encounter this word. The question is, do we really know what stress means? Do we know what the stress symptoms are like?

Stress in general is a word used to describe a state of mental, physical and emotional strain and suspense. While for some people, it may mean pressure or distress itself. In a nutshell, stress is the response to events that are threatening or challenging.

There have been many studies done that shows proofs on how our health is greatly affected by how we react to stressful events in life-setbacks or deadlines at work, conflicts and losses at home. Studies show that stress and anxiety can actually crumble our body's immune system. In fact stress has even become linked with the common cold. "Our mind reacts with the same body response by releasing stress hormones equal to the degree of our fear, worry or sense of threat. It brings about changes in the body's biochemical state with extra epinephrine and other adrenal steroids such as hydrocortisone in the bloodstream. It also induces increased palpitation and blood pressure in the body with mental manifestations such as anger, fear, worry or aggression." This simply means that stress causes anomalies inside our body that makes our bodies more prone to mental and physical illnesses. Furthermore, a whole section of medical problems, known as psychosomatic disorders, often result from stress. The medical problems are cause by an interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties. Among the most common psychosomatic disorders are ulcers, asthma, arthritis, high blood pressure and eczema.

There are several risk factors that lead to stress and the elderly. Some include a past history of depressive illness, inadequate social support, and serious illnesses such as a stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Some reports have suggested that life stress may also be related to late-life depression (Glass 1997). There are also many internal and external stresses that many women are susceptible to in their fifty's. The possibilities of intra and interpersonal strains make this a time of insecurity about aging for many women. Some of these strains are widowhood, divorce, declining income, aging and developmental changes, obstacles to successful aging, and role constancy

There are other issues to consider in relation to stress. For example Cortisol (the stress hormone released by adrenal glands), raises blood pressure and break down stored energy reserves in the face of a real or perceived threat (stress). Long-term release of this hormone cortisol, kills memory-forming neurons thus increasing the risk of brain aging in later life.

However, some people said that the real culprit is our inability to cope and react to certain stressful situations. Stress and anxiety are unavoidable and since we can't eliminate stress, we can learn how to manage stress and anxiety. Stress management is a technique used to change how we react to certain stress and teach ourselves to react better to stress and anxiety.

5 Stress Management tips;

Retirement