Stress: Causes and Consequences - Essay Example

?Stress: Causes and Consequences Introduction Stress has been shown to have a potent effect on physical and mental health. The following discussion will consider the issue of stress with reference to the patterns of changing health across the developed world. Initially, the term stress will be defined and illustrated. Then the potential health impacts of stress will be outlined. Subsequently, the prevalence of stress and stress related health problems (both physical and mental) will be examined. Finally, ways to deal with stress and mitigate its negative health effects will be explored Stress Defined Walter Cannon, working in the 1930s, was one of the first scientists to identify stress and the stress response. According to the Stress Management Society website Cannon “established that when an organism experiences a shock or perceives a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to survive.” (The Stress Management Society) Cannon declared that when a human being perceives a threat they respond with a 'fight or flight' reaction. The hormones released have a range of impacts on the human body: 1. They make us temporarily stronger and able to run faster and fight harder. 2. They increase heart rate and blood pressure. 3. They increase oxygen and blood sugar levels. 4. They increase sweating to counteract increased heart rate and blood pressure. 5. They divert blood away from the extremities and to the core of our bodies. 6. They focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of everything else. (The Stress Management Society) All of these physiological changes enhance our ability to respond to a threat. An athlete or a soldier in combat, as a result of this stress response, becomes quicker, stronger and more able to respond to threats. In this sense, in the short-term, the stress response has positive consequences. This stress response is not a simple on/off switch. Small threats and small stressors evoke a limited stress response. Major threats evoke a stronger stress response. Therefore, stress in and of itself is not a negative. For example, an executive about to make a major presentation will experience the stress response and may become more mentally nimble, better able to respond to questions and their presentation will benefit from their stress response. However, too much stress or stress of too long a duration becomes a problem. Too little stress can also be a problem. The BBC Health website on stress makes a useful distinction between stress and dis-stress, “stress becomes a problem - 'distress' - when there's too much or too little. Too little stress leads to boredom, depression and “in an effort to find stimulation, many people do things that are harmful to themselves (such as taking drugs) or society (for instance, committing a crime).” (BBC Health, 2007) Too much stress has a range of negative health effects, the body cannot sustain the stress response over the long-term: It is akin to running a motor at too high rpms, the body, run at too high rpms, wears down and burns out. The following section of this discussion will examine the negative health impacts of too much stress. The Health Impacts of Stress The BBC Health website provides a useful summary of the negative health impacts of stress: Too much stress, on the other hand, can result in a range of health problems including headaches, stomach upsets, high blood pressure and even stroke or heart disease. It can also cause feelings of distrust, anger, anxiety and fear, which in turn can destroy relationships at home and at work. (BBC Health, 2007) It is particularly important to note that excessive stress has diverse negative impacts on both physical health and mental/emotional health. The National Health Service website identifies a host of medical conditions that can develop as a consequence of excessive stress levels. These include: chest pains constipation (an inability to empty your bowels) diarrhoea (passing loose, watery stools) cramps or muscle spasms, when your muscles contract (shorten) painfully dizziness fainting spells, where you temporarily lose consciousness biting your nails nervous twitches pins and needles (paraesthesia), a cold, burning, prickling or tingling sensation in your arms, legs, hands or feet feeling restless sweating more sexual difficulties, such as erectile dysfunction (an inability to get or maintain an erection) or a loss of sexual desire breathlessness muscular aches difficulty sleeping (due to physical problems) (National Health Service, 2010b) The extensive list presented by the National Health Service as the consequences of excessive stress makes plain that excessive stress is uncomfortable. However, this list does not include the most significant long-term health impacts of excessive stress: Long-term stress overload has profoundly negative impacts on coronary health. Long-term excessive stress leads to high blood pressure (hypertension) which in turn leads to coronary disease, heart attacks and stroke. These are the most devastating long-term health impacts of excessive stress. The Whitehall II study has followed the health of approximately 10,000 London-based civil servants since 1985. Research based on this study and published in the European Heart Journal in 2008 directly links chronic heart disease (CHD) and stress: “Cumulative work stress is a risk factor for CHD and neuroendocrine stress responses, especially among the younger, working-age population.” (Channdola, et al., 2008) Summarizing the study Health and Safety Practitioner adds, “The study finds that workers under 50, who said work was 'stressful', were nearly 70 per cent more likely to develop heart disease than the stress-free.... [and] that cumulative stress at work can lead to CHD through direct activation of neuroendocrine stress pathways, and indirectly through unhealthy behaviours that can be caused by stress, such as poor diet and smoking.” ( "Occupational stress link to heart disease”, 2008) In other words, excessive stress is unhealthy, a fact that is exacerbated by the fact that stress often leads to other negative lifestyle behaviours that further undermine physical health. In an editorial on the study The Practitioner noted that the prevalence of stress might even be greater for employes who are not civil servants: “Finally, it is worth considering that people in other occupations may be exposed to even greater work-related stress and therefore, possibly, to a greater risk of CHD.” (“Work-related stress increases risk of CHD”, 2008) The link between excessive stress and CHD is firmly established and irrefutable. The range of negative physical health impacts is very diverse. Excessive stress undermines one's immune system. Consequently, Clougherty and Kubzansky (2009) have even identified a direct link between stress and susceptibility to air pollution: Excessive stress suppresses one's immune response and increases their vulnerability to air pollution and the negative respiratory effects of air pollution. One can extrapolate from this finding and presume that excessive stress, by lowering the effectiveness of one's immune system, increases vulnerability to other types of pollution. It can also be assumed that by suppressing the immune system stress increases one's vulnerability to seasonal flu and a wide range of illnesses. Excessive stress and related problems such as insomnia, also has profoundly negative impacts on mental and emotional health. Again, the National Health Service website identifies the extensive range of these mental and emotional impacts of stress overload: anger depression anxiety changes in behaviour food cravings lack of appetite frequent crying difficulty sleeping (due to mental health problems) feeling tired difficulty concentrating (National Health Service, 2010b) Again, these are all unpleasant and uncomfortable symptoms. More importantly, they have profound implications for a wide range of indirect consequences of stress. Food cravings as a result of stress can lead to obesity which is a growing health problem throughout the developed world. Difficulty sleeping and concentrating can impair productivity at work and undermine parenting skills and relationships, as can anxiety, anger and depression. Clearly, excessive stress has diverse and far-reaching negative health impacts. It causes physical health problems, most notably CHD, heart attacks and stroke. It also causes mental and emotional health problems. Further, excessive stress often leads to unhealthy lifestyle choices that further undermine physical health. Health and Stress in the Developed World In a bitterly ironic article entitled “Exporting the U.S. Lifestyle”, Emily Holbrook reports that obesity, work-related stress and chronic disease are the three fastest-growing categories of ill health in the United States and that those problems are expanding throughout the developed world. (Holbrook, 2009) As noted earlier, chronic disease particularly CHD is a byproduct of excessive stress and obesity is often a result of poor lifestyle choices that result from stress. A recent Australian study directly links work-related stress to weight gain and obesity. (Magee, et al., 2010) Therefore, the three most important health problems in the developed world are directly or indirectly linked to excessive stress. Simply put, stress, obesity and chronic disease (often side-effects of excessive stress) are growing health problems throughout the developed world. In the United States an American Psychological Association study in 2007 revealed alarming statistics for excessive stress. The study results included, “one-third of Americans feel they are living with extreme stress” and “about half of Americans (48%) feel that their stress has increased over the past five years.” (“Stress & burnout statistics: Physical & psychological symptoms of anxiety stress”) Moreover, it is reasonable to assert that the significant recession that has occurred since this data was compiled has increased stress as people have faced redundancy and credit contractions. In the United Kingdom, according to the National Health Service studies indicate that “over 400,000 people in Britain experienced work-related stress that was making them unwell” and “that around one in six workers thought that their job was stressful.” (National Health Service, 2010b) According to the Health and Safety Executive more than one-third of all work related illnesses (1450 of 4230 per 100,000 employees) in the United Kingdom are directly related to stress (see “Table 1: Work Related Illness in the UK” on the following page). As noted earlier, many diseases and illnesses not directly categorized as stress (such as headaches and heart disease) may also be stress-related. In other words the figure of one-third is a minimum for stress-related illness in the workplace in the United Kingdom. In both the United States and the United Kingdom diverse statistics indicate that a minimum of one-third of the population is afflicted with excessive stress. It is reasonable to assume that these figures are consistent throughout the European Union and the developed world. Therefore, approximately one-third of people in the developed world suffer from excessive stress and are at risk of developing related physical, mental, emotional and social problems. Table 1: Work-Related Illness in the UK Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/swi/index.htm. Dealing With Stress On a more optimistic note there are a host of techniques that can be employed to reduce stress and its impacts. The Stress Management Society website notes, “it is physically impossible to be anxious [stressed] and relaxed at the same time” and relaxation techniques are one of the keys to reducing stress. (The Stress Management Society) These can include specific techniques such as yoga or meditation. However, even more mundane and less directed activities such as reading, dating and socializing can lower stress levels. Physical activity also contributes to reduced stress (and mitigates the elevated risk of CHD that excessive stress presents). The National Health Service “Stress” website identifies six specific techniques that can be used to reduce stress. These include deep breathing, healthy eating, adequate exercise, proper sleep, quitting smoking and relaxation techniques such as reading, a warm bath or gardening. (National Health Service, 2010a) The most important point to note is that combating stress is neither expensive nor complicated. However, it does require a concerted and consistent effort and a regular regimen of stress reduction techniques. Conclusions A simple and concise definition of stress is easy to come by. The quotation at the beginning of this discussion is more than adequate: 'When an organism experiences a shock or perceives a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to survive'. The impacts of excessive stress, particularly over the long-term, are more difficult to isolate and quantify. However, it is clear that stress has negative impacts on physical health and on mental/emotional well-being. The negative physical affects of stress are both directly linked to stress – chronic heart disease - and linked to negative lifestyle choices that may result from stress – such as overeating and obesity. The negative mental and emotional consequences of stress include anxiety, anger and depression. These consequences can then contribute to relationship problems and other social maladies. Excessive stress manifests itself in a diverse range of negative consequences. These concerns are of particular importance for two reasons. First, approximately one-third of the population in the developed world suffers from excessive stress. Second, the level of stress is increasing in our society. For all of these reasons stress makes a significant contribution to ill-health and to the cost of health care. References BBC Health. (2007) “Stress”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/mind_stress.shtml. Chandola, Tarani, Annie Britton, Eric Brunner, Harry Hemingway, Marek Malik, Meena Kumari, Ellena Badrick, Mika Kivimaki, and Michael Marmot. (2008). “Work stress and coronary heart disease: what are the mechanisms?” European Heart Journal. http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2008/01/23/eurheartj.ehm584.full.pdf. Clougherty, Jane E. and Kubzansky, Laura D. “A Framework for Examining Social Stress and Susceptibility to Air Pollution in Respiratory Health”. Environmental Health Perspectives, September 2009, Vol. 117 Issue 9, p1351-1358. Health and Safety Executive. “Self-reported work-related illness and workplace injuries in 2009/10: Headline results from the Labour Force Survey”. http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/swi/index.htm. Health and Safety Executive. “Work Related Stress”. http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/. Holbrook, Emily. "Exporting the U.S. Lifestyle." Risk Management 57.5 (2010): 45. Magee, Christopher A., et al. (2010) "Occupational factors associated with 4-year weight gain in Australian adults." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 52.10 (2010): 977+ National Health Service. (2010a) “Preventing Stress”. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Stress/Pages/Prevention.aspx. National Health Service. (2010b) “Stress”. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Stress/Pages/Introduction.aspx. "Occupational stress link to heart disease." (2008) The Safety & Health Practitioner 26.3, 8. Rosengren A, Hawken S, Ounpuu S et al. (2004). “Association of psychosocial risk factors with risk of acute myocardial infarction in 11119 cases and 13648 controls from 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): case- control study”. Lancet 364, 953-62 “Stress & burnout statistics: Physical & psychological symptoms of anxiety stress”. http://www.proactivechange.com/stress/statistics.htm. The Stress Management Society. http://www.stress.org.uk/. “Work-related stress increases risk of CHD." The Practitioner (2008): 7. Read More