By Toni Bishop-McWain, Cardiovascular Service Line Leader, OSF HealthCare
You undoubtedly face multiple stressors each day, such as, taking care of a family, tackling a huge workload, or just trying to make ends meet. Each one may be a minor inconvenience on its own; but combined, you may feel as if the walls are caving in.
Stress and Your Health
Too much stress over an extended period of time is bad for your health. When we experience stress, our bodies respond by producing adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline elevates blood pressure, increases your heart rate, and boosts energy. Cortisol, a stress hormone, alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system. Cortisol also affects the regions of your brain that control fear, motivation, and mood. When our body is constantly exposed to these hormones, it can lead to a variety of health problems such as, anxiety, depression, digestive problems, sleep problems, weight gain, and memory impairment.
Stress and Your Heart
Long-term stress is also bad for your heart. Individuals who are often stressed are more likely to have heart disease, chest pain, high blood pressure, or irregular heartbeats. Studies also link stress to changes in the way blood clots, which increases the chance of having a heart attack.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans. It is important to gain control of your stress before it gains control of you. However, research also shows the way in which people cope with stress may just make matters worse.
Coping With Stress
Do you find yourself eating to calm down? Or perhaps you procrastinate or have a hard time concentrating on any one thing. Others turn to alcohol or smoking to help relieve stress. If you respond to stress in an unhealthy way, this can make matters even worse.
Next time you feel stressed, instead of turning to unhealthy habits to cope, try these healthy ones!
- Be active! Exercising releases those feel-good hormones, endorphins. Go to the gym, take a walk, or simply take the stairs at work. All of these can help relieve your stress and make you feel better instantly.
- Maintain a positive attitude. Stress can put you in a bad mood, or even lead to depression. When you feel yourself getting down from high stress levels, call up an old friend or turn on your favorite movie. A positive attitude can go a long way!
- Don’t turn to alcohol, caffeine, or cigarettes. The effects of these drugs on your system can worsen the effects of stress. These habits can increase your blood pressure and may damage artery walls.
- Make a checklist. Stress can cause a person to procrastinate, try to do too many things at once, or impair one’s concentration. When feeling stressed because you have too many things going on, make a prioritized checklist and tackle one task at a time.
- Enjoy a healthy diet. Many people turn to food when they are feeling stressed. This can lead to weight gain, which is a whole other stressor in itself. It is important to maintain a healthy weight to keep stress levels low. In addition, fruits and vegetables have lots of crucial vitamins and minerals to keep you feeling good.
Decreasing your stress is important for your heart and for your overall health. Learning how to manage your stress levels in a healthy way will give you peace of mind, and perhaps, a longer, healthier life.
The Center for Healthy Lifestyles at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center offers a “Stress Less for Success” course to help you learn to cope with your personal stressors. Please visit osfstjoseph.org/calendar to register, or call 309-661-5151 for more information. To learn more about the Cardiovascular Services available at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, please visit osfstjoseph.org/services/cardiovascular.
Toni Bishop-McWain, RN, MSN, is the Cardiovascular Service Line Leader at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington and at OSF Saint James — John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac. Toni is certified in critical care and neuroscience. She has her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in nursing from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.