12 Good Reasons to Reduce Stress This Year

 

We hate being stressed and it’s not good for our health, so here’s how to cope with it better.

Whether due to family, work, financial or personal struggles, we all experience some stress in our lives. While a certain amount of stress is normal and can help us perform better, chronic stress can be hazardous to our health. That’s why it’s a good idea to reduce the stress in your life as much as possible.

Here are some ways chronic stress may affect your health:

• Heart health: A constant release of stress hormones may contribute to heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Long-term stress may even lead to a heart attack.
• Immune system: Chronic stress suppresses our immune system, making it easier to get sick and harder to recover from illnesses.
• Headache/muscle pain: Stress may cause chronic muscle tension in the shoulders, neck and throughout the body. This tension may also lead to headaches and migraines.
• Reproductive issues: In men, chronic stress may lower libido and cause erectile dysfunction or impotence. Stress may affect women’s libido, menstrual cycles and the ability to get pregnant.
• Digestive problems: Your digestive system may respond negatively to stress, leading to heartburn, acid reflux, diarrhea or even vomiting.
• Mental health: Stress can cause irritability, aggression and sadness, which may lead to long-term issues such as depression, anxiety or burnout.

Stress may also spur these behaviors, which can have an effect on your mental and physical health:

• Drinking: Having an occasional drink to relax after a hard day may be harmless. But if you start drinking most nights to reduce stress, it could lead down a dangerous path toward alcoholism.
• Smoking: While smoking may relax you in the moment, your body learns to crave cigarettes when you need stress relief, causing you to smoke more. This can contribute to health issues.
• Drug use: Stress increases our vulnerability to many types of addiction. Self-medicating can lead to becoming addicted to the drugs we are using, even over-the-counter drugs like sleep aids.
• Eating habits: Stress may lead to eating much more or much less than usual, causing unhealthy weight gain or weight loss.
• Sleep quality: Stress may get in the way of quality sleep. This is a vicious cycle because when we get less sleep, we feel tired, sluggish and even more stressed the following day.
• Relationships: If you aren’t feeling your best, you’re probably not acting your best around others. This can damage relationships, which can have a major effect on your mental health.

How to Cope with Stress

Making small changes to your daily routine can have a big impact on helping you manage stress. Here are a few good stress-busters:

• Just breathe: When you’re in a high stress moment, inhale for 10 seconds and then exhale for the same amount of time. Repeat until you feel yourself calm down.
• Exercise regularly: Burn off stress and anxiety by doing something physically active, like walking, running, dancing or boxing.
• Sleep more: Allow yourself time to get 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Make changes to your nighttime routine to help you ease into sleep.
• Find “me” time: Commit to taking at least 15 minutes for yourself each day. Meditate, read a book, do yoga or enjoy any activity that helps provide stress relief.

If you continue to feel overwhelmed by stress, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Mental health professionals can often provide advice and targeted tips to help you more effectively manage stress.

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10 Symptoms Women May Not Notice Before a Heart Attack

 

These symptoms may be experienced days or even weeks before a serious cardiac event.

It’s usually pretty easy in movies and television shows to spot someone having a heart attack. The incident is depicted by someone grabbing their chest as they experience sudden and intense chest pain. But in real life, symptoms of a heart attack are often more subtle and may come on more gradually, especially in women.

The most obvious sign of a heart attack is pressure, pain or tightness in the chest. But here are some less obvious signs of a heart attack that may occur, especially in women. They may go unnoticed or may be attributed to another cause. These symptoms may not only appear during a heart attack or immediately prior to it, but some symptoms may even be noticeable for days or weeks before the event occurs.

Less Obvious Signs of a Heart Attack:

1. Pressure, pain or tightness in the arm, neck, shoulder, jaw, back or abdomen
2. Feeling of fullness
3. Shortness of breath
4. Unusual fatigue or weakness
5. Sleep problems
6. Breaking out in a cold sweat
7. Anxiety
8. Indigestion
9. Dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting
10. Nausea or vomiting

Women may experience symptoms for weeks before an actual heart attack occurs. Early symptoms may be mild and they may come and go. Over time, symptoms may become more intense. Unfortunately, many women who notice these symptoms either ignore them, attribute them to something else or are misdiagnosed when they see a doctor.

During a heart attack, women’s symptoms may also be more subtle than men’s symptoms. This may cause women to not seek treatment as quickly as they should, which may explain why women are less likely to survive their first heart attack than men.

If you are a women and experience any of the symptoms listed, consider that they may be related to an impending heart attack, especially if you have any risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking or a family history of heart disease. Pay attention to these symptoms and see a doctor. If your doctor shrugs off your symptoms or attributes them to something else but you feel they may be related to a cardiac issue, press the subject. The risks of a possible heart attack are too great to ignore.

Can Too Little Sleep Cause High Blood Pressure?

 

If you needed another good reason to get enough shut-eye, here it is.

Sleep may be one of the most overlooked keys to good health. Getting enough quality sleep is an essential part of your well-being. When you don’t sleep enough, you may not only feel tired, cranky and irritable the next day, but you may also be contributing to serious health issues. One of the more serious problems that can occur when you get too little sleep is that your blood pressure may increase.

It is recommended that adults get 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep each night. While an occasional night of less sleep won’t have much effect on your overall health, routinely getting less than 6 hours of sleep each day has been shown to be bad for your health. When it comes to blood pressure, the less you sleep, the more impact it may have on your blood pressure.

How does a lack of sleep affect blood pressure?

One reason a lack of sleep affects blood pressure is that sleep helps manage stress hormones like cortisol. If you don’t sleep enough, your body can’t properly regulate these hormones, which can lead to high blood pressure.

Can high blood pressure contribute to poor sleep?

Not only does poor sleep contribute to high blood pressure, but high blood pressure may also contribute to poor sleep. Many people with elevated blood pressure are more prone to chronic stress and anxiety. This can negatively affect your ability to sleep well. So it becomes a cycle of poor sleep increasing blood pressure and increased blood pressure possibly making it harder to sleep.

Are there other ways that sleep can affect blood pressure?

Sleep and high blood pressure may also have another connection—sleep apnea. If you have this condition, your breathing periodically stops during sleep, resulting in reduced airflow. It can cause you to sleep poorly, wake up frequently and gasp for air during the night. Sleep apnea deprives your body of oxygen and is a major risk factor for high blood pressure. 

What can you do to prevent high blood pressure?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure and only about 1 in 4 people with high blood pressure have it under control. If you are concerned about developing high blood pressure or are trying to lower already elevated blood pressure, follow healthy lifestyle habits like limiting sodium, eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking. Also be sure to get enough sleep because this often overlooked daily habit can have an effect on your blood pressure.

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Date Last Reviewed: December 14, 2022

Editorial Review: Andrea Cohen, Editorial Director, Baldwin Publishing, Inc. Contact Editor

Medical Review: Perry Pitkow, MD

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