Effects of Stress

In today's fast-paced, clamoring world, the body may find itself in frequent fight-or-flight responses to work pressures, noise pollution, overcrowding and other stressful situations where direct, physical outlet would not be appropriate. Under prolonged stress, the body's adaptive and resistance mechanism may become exhausted, and hormonal changes may take place that weaken the body's defenses against disease. A link between emotional stress and certain types of cancer has been suspected for more than a century; recent animal tests have suggested that cancer-susceptible mice are much more likely to contract the disease when exposed to constant stress. Stress also has been linked to illnesses characterized by an immune-system defect, but so far, theories along this line have not been proved.

One of the most impressive and useful studies of stress and sickness had its origins at the turn of the century in the work of Dr. Adolf Meyer, a Johns Hopkins professor who kept "life charts" on his patients. These charts indicated that illness usually occurred around the time that major events took place in the patients' lives. Later researchers Holmes and Rane at the University of Washington refined and systematized these findings, specifying the most stressful life events and assigning them differential point values. The more changes an individual undergoes during a given time span, and the more points he or she accumulates, the greater the likelihood of a serious illness or accident.

How can I control Stress?

One of the most important findings of these studies is that most people can exercise a degree of lifestyle restraint to control the number of stress-inducing changes. The lesson is that not all change is bad, but that there are recognizable thresholds beyond which additional change becomes health-threatening.

Other research points toward the benefits of regulating emotional and physiological response to stressful events; thus, many people are learning to counteract life's pressures through breathing exercises, meditation techniques and regular participation in sports. In medical studies conducted at Harvard and elsewhere, it was found that these relaxation techniques can block the action of epinephrine and norepinephrine, the adrenal hormones directly responsible for stress-induced changes.