2023-05-19 22:05:08
People react to stress differently, and how you react can influence your risk of developing serious health problems, including heart disease. Here are some tips from Lisa Hardesty, PhD, a clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Mayo Clinic Health System:
Your body’s response to stress may include muscle aches, headaches, back strain, stomach pain, and other physical symptoms. Stress can make you tired, disturb your sleep pattern, and make you irritable, forgetful, and unable to control your temper. And when stress persists, the body stays on alert for days or weeks, which can result in bigger health problems.
Periods of excessive and overwhelming stress can have direct effects on health, such as higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels. While the indirect effects include increased behaviors and habits that result in a deterioration in health and physical functions, smoking, excessive eating, or lack of physical activity.
It is a good idea to control your stress levels when it comes to your overall health. Given the direct effects of stress on health, studies are now being conducted that look more closely at the effect of managing stress on reducing the risk of heart disease. People who’ve had a heart attack or stroke and feel depressed, anxious or overwhelmed with stress should contact their health care team for additional help.
After eliminating or modifying external stressors, it is time to build specific skills and control techniques. And there are many things that can be done to manage stress and to find resources that will help me to do so. As a psychologist, I usually ask people to adopt ideas that fall into each of the following categories: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Ideas that can be adopted include:
■ Leverage your strengths:
Consider completing the following sentence: “I feel most energized, satisfied, and full of life when I…”.
■ Participation in social activities:
Chat with a colleague or loved one, or reconnect with an old friend online.
Giving to others:
Try volunteering or doing charity work without waiting for anything in return.
■ Start doing something new:
Get creative, start doing something new and try it for five minutes every day to start.
■ Start a diary:
Pay attention to your daily life and record your diary and what happens with you to review and benefit from it or stop there.
■ Watch your health:
There are many healthy things you can do to reduce stress, including:
■ Exercise regularly.
■ Resisting negative and disastrous thoughts.
■ Avoid smoking and caffeine intake.
■ Eat foods of nutritional value.
■ Maintain a healthy weight.
When stress persists, the body stays on alert for several days or weeks, which can result in larger health problems.
Stress can make you tired, disrupt your sleep pattern, and make you irritable and forgetful.
1684601787
#Tips #stress #harm #heart #health