Effect Of Stress On Your Health

 

Definition of stress

Stress is now generally accepted as the principal woe of our 21st century lives. It is a rare instance when one can find someone not touched by the effects of our fast-lane world.  Suggesting to you that we have found two electronic devices capable of resolving your stress problems may sound like a bold statement but we are confident that the two devices we are going to mention are capable of doing exactly that!  They are the Heartmath emWave Personal Stress Reliever and the RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device  What follows will help you understand better what stress is and how it affects you and most of all, how one of these devices is likely to help you.

Surprisingly tricky to calibrate and quantify, one could say that stress is the wear and tear an individual undergoes in response to day-to-day demands and worries. Change, illness, injury or career and lifestyle changes, are common causes of stress. However, it is the tension and pressure one feels in response to everyday events such as traffic congestion, work pressure, too many emails, that are likely to do the most harm.

One’s mind and body likes to be naturally in equilibrium and it is stress that disturbs this balanced state that causes disruption. Stress arises when events do not run as we would like or anticipate and we are unable to manage our reaction. Stress expresses itself in the form of resistance, tension, disappointment and strain, throwing off our physiological and psychological balance. If our balance is disturbed for too long or too often, the stress can become disabling and create numerous health problems.

It has been mentioned above that calibration and measurement of stress is a difficult task and the consequences of stress are frequently missed or misunderstood. We look at outside events as the source of stress, the fact is that stress is really caused by our emotional reactions to events and the way we deal with them. It is not unusual for stress to exist in an individual but to go unnoticed until manifesting itself in health problems. Many people have simply adapted to stress in an unhealthy way, resigned to thinking it’s “just the way it is”. Inability to recognize build-up of stress and to deal with management of stress has brought about what is best described as a pandemic of low-level depression and anxiety.

Effects of Stress on Your Health

The effects of stress in people are seen physically, mentally and emotionally. According to the American Institute of Stress, up to 90% of all health problems are related to stress. Too much stress can contribute to and agitate many health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, depression and sleep ailments. A number of studies have been undertaken and show the debilitating impact of stress on one’s health:

·        Three 10-year studies concluded that emotional stress was more predictive of death from cancer and heart disease than smoking. People unable to manage their stress effectively were found to have an alarming 40% higher death rate than non-stressed individuals.

·        A Harvard Medical School study of 1,623 heart attack survivors found that when subjects got angry during emotional conflicts, their risk of subsequent heart attacks was more than double that of those remained calm.

·        A 20-year study of over 1,700 older men conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that worry about social conditions, health and their personal financial affairs all significantly increased the risk of coronary disease.

·        More than 50% of heart disease cases are not explained solely to the generally accepted risk factors of high cholesterol, smoking or lack of adequate exercise.

·        A study by the Mayo Clinic of coronary disease victims found that the greatest predictor of future coronary events such as cardiac arrest, heart attack and heart related death was psychological stress.

It is small wonder that with stress being such a commonly found malady, a large number of professionals and therapists has evolved offering a varied selection of treatments, therapies and courses, many of which are are expensive to say the least. It is not all bad news. We have discovered, researched and reviewed two products designed to reduce stress and which should prove to be both effective and affordable. The Heartmath emWave Personal Stress Reliever and the RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering device, have both been found to be effective in relieving stress and lowering blood pressure.  There is common ground in the objectives of the devices but reference to a product review for each should make clear the fundamental differences.