Chronic stress has been linked to everything from sleepless nights and being overweight to heart disease and stroke! But, can an increase in your stress levels really make your COPD worse? The answer, according to Dr. Hetal Gandhi, cardiologist at the Heart and Vascular Center of Lake County, Chicago, is yes.
According to Dr. Gandhi:
When we encounter a stressful situation -- no matter how nerve-wracking it may be -- our body physically reacts, releasing hormones that enable us to deal with the circumstances: the well-known "fight or flight" reaction. These hormones -- adrenaline, which increases our heart rate, and cortisol, which elevates the blood pressure and increases the amount of blood sugar in our system -- were intended to help us to survive imminent danger.
But, what happens to those hormones when the source of our stress is not a wild animal trying to eat us for dinner but something much more subtle, like having a disagreement with our spouse, or being stuck in traffic? Do prolonged, continual irritants that occur on a daily basis also affect our bodies adversely? You bet they do.
Dr. Gandhi comments further:
What happens when our bodies release chemicals designed to fight danger, and the sources of this stress remain or we don't get sufficient rest recovery between one stressful event and the next? This prolonged, continual stress -- on and off, for days or weeks at a time -- is known as chronic stress. Chronic stress has been linked to numerous health problems, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, cardiovascular problems, headaches and stomach pain, depression, and a weakened immune system.
We have all heard that stress makes you sick, decreasing the body's ability to fight off infection, particularly colds, flu and respiratory illness. But, Dr. Gandhi goes one step further to suggest that stress can make other health conditions worse, as well, such as COPD, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
What can we do about it? Dr. Gandhi suggests the following tips:
- Get regular exercise - exercise regulates your mood, helps you burn calories and boosts your energy.
- Get plenty of sleep - adults should get at least 7 hours nightly.
- Share your feelings openly with someone you trust - or keep a journal.
- Spend time with friends and family - people who do this handle stress more effectively.
- Meditate - practicing meditation, guided imagery, yoga or other type of relaxation exercises has many benefits, including stress reduction.
- Eat chocolate - finally, you have permission to indulge your sweet tooth! A recent study suggests that chocolate has been found to decrease stress hormones in the body.
To read more of Dr. Gandhi's article, visit Chronic Stress Linked to Health Problems.
How do you relieve your own stress? Please share your comments.
As a retired psychotherapist,I shared my personal stress buster with my patients. It’s a very simple process:Ask yourself to visualize(with eyes closed) your favorite place where you felt relaxed and at ease;ie.your childhood bedroom,a breath taking view you can’t forget;etc.
Metaphorically,bring this image to your mind…remember smells,weather or anything that eased your stress level then.
It’s not fancy,but,many of my patients found it very helpful. A diversion to block out the current stress.
Hope it works for you. In short,take a quickie vacation!
I do volunteer work, caring for horses at a horse sanctuary. Horses are my fav animal & going to this beautiful ranch & helping to give love & care to the horses there is by and large relaxing & peaceful as well as fun, & gives me a sense of contributing good to the planet. It’s also a good learning experience for me. The drier climate in the area is defintely much better for my COPD, for which I have been diagnosed by my doctor.
The best thing is that most of the horses have become my friends, & I even have a fav one – my best bud. I have also developed friendships with some of the staff & some of the volunteers & this is also a positive addition to my life.
Other things that help me cope with stress in my life – and there has been a lot of it for sure – is just spending time with my husband & pets. I love being outside (preferably on warmer days in the area where I live as we get a humid wind chill factor here quite often) & I do gardening sometimes. Financial issues prevent me from doing other activities I love & grew up doing but I do what I can when I can. A couple of yrs. ago, my husband & I went hiking in some national parks with my summer hiking class I was taking at college at the time, & that was a wonderful & healthy experience & really lowers stress for me.