STRESSless: natural strategies to help you cope

Better Nutrition, Nov, 1998 by Stephen Langer

"`Til death do us part." While this commitment is usually reserved for wedding ceremonies, it is also an appropriate description for the relationship we all have with stress. While the stressors we face and coping mechanisms we choose may vary, we will never truly be stress-free. Surprisingly, this is a good thing since a certain amount of stress is actually good for us.

In her book, The Whole Mind, Lynette Bassman, Ph.D., discusses Hans Selye's theory of stress, saying, "A main tenet of Selye's theory is that stress is essential to life, and is inevitable. Without it, we would function inadequately, and eventually, die."

However, a review of the medical literature over the past 20 years reveals that stress contributes to approximately 80 percent of all major illnesses: cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin rashes, ulcers, ulcerative colitis, emotional disorders, musculoskeletal disease, and infectious ailments of all kinds. And, the bill for these medical problems is not low.

The New York-based American Institute of Stress reports that as many as 75 to 90 percent of visits to physicians are related to stress, "at a price tag to American businesses of $200 to $300 billion a year," according to Industry Trak, a news service.

Is stress "good" or "bad"? In light of this dual nature of stress, the answer is: "both," depending on the particular stress, the particular person, and how much stress we're talking about.

In general, it is not stress which causes physical symptoms and disease, but how our bodies respond to stress. Here, let's take a look at some of the most common causes of stress, the effects, as well as natural strategies to help us reduce the impact that stress can have on our lives and health.

Stress ... it's all in a day's work?

It's a fact that work is often a source of stress, as are work-related stressors, such as changing jobs or losing a job. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor has said that: "workplace is the greatest single source of stress, no matter what you do or how much you earn."

One recent study, reported by Janet Raloff in Science News, showed the dramatic impact that job insecurity can have on health.

The study began with a rumor (that turned out to be true) which caught fire among 666 London-based government workers that their department was about to be Sold to a private company. These employees were all part of the Whitehall II Study of the long-term health of 10,000 British civil servants. If the rumors were true, they wondered what would happen to them. Would the department be down-sized? Would the nature of the work change? Would individual salaries be cut?

These intimidating uncertainties upset the workers throughout the four years from the first rumors until the department's privatization. Their health steadily declined by many measures. Among the negative health effects, blood cholesterol soared, and the rate of heart disease rose by 40 to 60 percent. In addition, they tended to stop exercising, gained weight, slept more than nine hours a night, and, in contrast to controls, separated from or divorced their mates more frequently. Coincidental? Probably not, since other workers in the study whose job security was not threatened showed none of these tendencies, although the health of both groups was similar at the start of the study.

Habits that can aggravate stress

On top of overwhelming pressures and stress, some people smoke and drink alcohol immoderately, and the nutrients which these habits drain from the system tend to aggravate stress even more. Smoking compounds the negative effects of stress by over-stimulating adrenal secretion, often contributing to adrenal insufficiency, and constricting blood vessels, which can lead to headaches. Caffeine is another addictive substance that should be avoided during bouts of stress.

Nutritional approaches to stress reduction

Both emotional and physical stress rob the body systems of a wide range of nutrients.

Relative to physical stress, a Finnish review of three placebo-controlled studies, reported in the German publication, International Journal of Sports Medicine, reveals that heavy physical activity increases the risk of contracting colds and other respiratory ailments. It also demonstrates that a daily supplement of vitamin C, taken regularly, helps to protect against these health problems.

In the first study, the subjects were school children skiing in the Swiss Alps. In the second, the subjects were military troops training in northern Canada. And, in the third, they were participants in a grueling 90-kilometer running race.

A significant reduction in the incidence of colds was seen in all three studies in the groups that supplemented with 600 to 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily, compared with those who did not supplement with the vitamin.

Another study, involving lab animals, was done at University of Kerala, India, to learn whether livers that were stressed by cigarette smoke could be protected by vitamin C.

Rats that showed increased resistance to lipid peroxidation and greater activity of free radical scavenging enzymes were fed 100 mg of vitamin C daily per gram of body weight for 90 days. This study demonstrated that daily mega-doses of vitamin C did protect the liver from oxidative damage caused by cigarette smoke. For decades, researchers have stated that one cigarette can deplete 25 mg of vitamin C from the system.