April is National Stress Awareness Month

Kacey Flores, PA-C, Physician Assistant, Coastal Gateway Health Center

What is stress?

Stress is a physical and emotional reaction to life’s challenges. When you are under stress, your body reacts by releasing hormones that produce the “fight or flight” response, which increases your heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. Stress also causes increased sweat and muscle tension.

Recognizing Stress

To be stressed occasionally is a normal coping mechanism. However, long-term stress (chronic stress) may contribute to or worsen a range of health problems, including sleep disorders, digestion disorders, headaches, asthma, infertility, weight gain, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental illnesses.

Managing Stress

Managing stress is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. There is no drug to cure stress, but our bodies have a built-in relaxation response that can counteract stress. Relaxation techniques have been shown to reduce blood pressure and inflammation and even improve blood glucose control in people with type 2 diabetes, which is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and the number one cause of kidney failure, lower limb amputations, and adult blindness.

Relaxation techniques often combine breathing and focused attention on pleasing thoughts and images to calm the mind and the body. Examples include yoga, mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing exercises, and progressive muscle relaxation.  In contrast to the stress response, the relaxation response slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and decreases oxygen consumption and levels of stress hormones.

Other ways to reduce stress include taking time for yourself, ensuring you are eating balanced meals, sleeping 7-9 hours per night, and exercising regularly. Keep your workload under control and communicate often or ask for help.

Recognizing When You Need More Help

If you are struggling to cope, or if the symptoms of your stress won’t go away, it may be time to talk to a healthcare professional.  If you are in immediate distress or are thinking about hurting yourself, call, text, or chat at 9-8-8. This 3-digit number will route you to the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, where trained counselors will listen, understand how your problems are affecting you, provide support, and connect you to resources, if necessary. The Lifeline provides 24-hour, confidential support to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. 

The Bottom Line

April has been named National Stress Awareness Month to bring attention to the negative impact of stress. Managing stress is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle and overall well-being. Knowing how to manage stress can improve mental and physical health and minimize the worsening of multiple health-related issues.