Why It’s Important to Master Stress

Stress has a powerful impact on various aspects of your life—not only can it affect your mood, energy level, relationships, and work performance, stress can also cause and exacerbate a wide variety of health conditions.

Impact on health

Persistent reactions to stress can lead to serious health problems, including:

Cardiovascular disease. One study that tracked over 68,000 healthy adults for eight years found that those who reported feeling constantly under strain and unable to cope, among other symptoms of chronic stress, were likelier to die of cardiovascular disease. The results of another study associated chronic stress with a 40-60% increased risk of coronary heart disease.

Digestive disorders. The “brain-gut” connection has a two-way effect: digestive disorders can Learn more about irritable bowl syndromecause stress, and the negative effects of stress can cause and aggravate digestive disorders. Part of the fight-or-flight response’s job is to halt digestion so the body can focus its energy on dealing with the perceived threat. Prolonged stress, then, can disrupt the normal digestive function and cause bloating, pain, and discomfort.

Accelerated aging. Elissa Epel, a professor at the University of California, has focused much of her research on the relationship between stress and telomerase (the enzyme associated with aging). Her studies show that people with chronic stress in their lives, such as mothers with chronically ill children, have markedly shortened telomeres. In fact, one landmark study found that these women aged on average ten years faster than women who did not perceive chronic stress in their lives.

Decreased immune functioning. Since the 1980s, research has found that stress can negatively affect the immune system. The American Psychological Association suggests that one cause of stress that might be most intricately linked to immune function is loneliness—people who don’t have a support system to lean on in stressful times wind up getting sicker more often.

According to the HeartMath Institute, other effects of stress include weight gain and obesity, headaches, irritability, diabetes, and insomnia, among others.

Impact on relationships

angry couple in their kitchen, not looking at one another If you have ever spent time with someone who is suffering from severe stress, you’ll understand the ways it can affect how you two relate—the anger, irritation, and frustration that comes from stress can easily influence the things we say and how we treat one another.

In a 2009 study, researchers Neff and Karney examined the lives of newlyweds and found that during periods of high perceived stress, people tended to react more intensely to the normal ups and downs in a relationship—creating, in effect, problems where there weren’t any. When we perceive high amounts of stress, we tend to blame or take out our frustrations on others. This can create real damage in a relationship, affecting communication and trust, which then becomes another source of stress.

Impact on job performance

Stress at work is very common—the fight-or-flight response reserved for true threats can often be triggered by a demanding manager or an upcoming deadline. But reacting to chronic stress can impair your ability to succeed at your job. In fact, stress can impact job performance in a variety of ways, including:

Physical symptoms that recur on work days (for example, upset stomach, headaches)
Difficulty making decisions
Dread of work days
Wanting to avoid or leave work
Emotional swings at work (for example, anger outbreaks or feelings of helplessness)
Procrastination
Inefficiency

Stress can lead to burnout—emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of low personal accomplishment that leads to decreased effectiveness at work. For example, in a recent study from the prestigious journal Archives of Internal Medicine, over 45% of practicing physicians are experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, which can lead to dangerous mistakes and lapses in judgment that could affect a patient’s health. A similar pattern of burnout is undoubtedly found in many other occupations, demonstrating the importance of stress management in the workplace.

college-age smiling girl against a white background

A real-life stress example

Sue's story is an example of how stress can affect health.

Consider Sue's story, which illustrates the impact that prolonged stress can have on health. Sue was a bright and talented high school student. She had always been healthy and done well in school. In the past year, she added more activities, including early morning swim practice, a college prep class, a role in the school play, and work on the school yearbook. She knew her schedule would be really busy, but she enjoyed all of the activities.

What happened?

Because of her busy schedule, Sue seldom ate dinner with her family. Her meals often consisted of fast food. She started drinking soda to boost her energy. At night, even though she was exhausted, she couldn't sleep because her mind was racing. She started getting sick and missing school, first because of strep throat and then mono. She also started having severe stomachaches.

How were Sue's health issues addressed?

Sue's pediatrician diagnosed her with irritable bowel syndrome and offered her some medication to relax her gut. But Sue's mother felt strongly that she didn't want her to take medication.

Instead, she began to work with Sue on her schedule and habits. She insisted that Sue cut one after-school activity and be home for dinner at least four nights a week. She took Sue to a Yoga is a spiritual tradition that began in India about 5,000 years ago. Historically its practices have been adopted by such religions as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. However, the practice of yoga is compatible with any religion, as well as atheism. The word yoga means union in Sanskrit. yoga class, where Sue began learning how to work with her breath, and to focus on the moment without fixating on worries about things that were out of her control. In the mornings before swim practice, she began doing 10 minutes of seated meditation with her mother.

After addressing the stress, Sue was still very busy, but she slept better, had more energy, and her stomach problems disappeared.

Straw-breathing exercise

Keep a pack of straws in your car and do this exercise whenever you're stuck in traffic.

Inhale normally and naturally.

Exhale fully through a plastic drinking straw, making sure you have exhaled all of the air out of your lungs.

Inhale normally (not through the straw).

Exhale fully out of the straw.

Repeat this exercise for 5 minutes.

http://www.apa.org/research/action/immune.aspx

http://www.heartmath.com/

http://yalestress.org/

Epel, E., Blackburn, E., Lin, J., Dhabhar, F.S., Adler, N.E., Morrow, J.D., Cawthon, R.M. (2004). Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.; 101(49): 17312–17315.

Epel, E.S., Lin, J., Dhabhar, F.S., Wolkowitz, O.M., Puterman, E., Karan, L., Blackburn, E.H. (2010). Dynamics of telomerase activity in response to acute psychological stress. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity; 24(4):531-9.

Hamer, M., Kivimaki, M., Stamatakis, E., Batty, G.D. (2012). Psychological distress as a risk factor for death from cerebrovascular disease. Canadian Medical Association Journal; 184(13): 1461–1466.

Jamieson, J.P., Nock, M.K., Mendes, W.B. (2012). Mind over matter: reappraising arousal improves cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress. J Exp Psychol Gen;141(3), 417-22.

Keller, A., Litzelman, K., Wisk, L.E., Maddox, T., Cheng, E.R., Creswell, P.D., Witt, W.P. (2012). Does the perception that stress affects health matter? The association with health and mortality. Health Psychology; 31(5), 677-84.

Moore, L.J., Vine, S.J., Wilson, M.R., Freeman, P. (2012). The effect of challenge and threat states on performance: an examination of potential mechanisms. Psychophysiology; 49(10),1417-25.

Neff, L.A. & Karney, B.R. (2009). Stress and reactivity to daily relationship experiences: How stress hinders adaptive processes in marriage. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(3), 435-450.

Richardson, S., Shaffer, J.A., Falzon, L., Krupka, D., Davidson, K.W., Edmondson, D. (2012). Meta-analysis of perceived stress and its association with incident coronary heart disease. The American Journal of Cardiology; 110(12):1711-1716.

Shanafelt, T.D., Boone, S., Tan, L., Dyrbye, L.N., Sotile, W., Satele, D., West, C.P., Sloan, J., Oreskovich, M.R. (2012). Burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance among US physicians relative to the general US population. Archives of Internal Medicine; 172(18):1377-85.

Steptoe, A., Kivimäki, M. (2013). Stress and cardiovascular disease: an update on current knowledge. Annual Review of Public Health, Jan 7.

Suarez, K., Mayer, C., Ehlert, U., Nater, U.M. (2010). Psychological stress and self-reported functional gastrointestinal disorders. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease;198(3):226-9.