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Anti-Stress, Heart and Health

Each one of us has in one way or another become familiar with stress. While it seems to have achieved buzzword status, because of its negative association with tension, pressure, anxiety and frustration, it is a term that will live on in infamy. To add insult to injury, stress turns out to be a normal part of life. It is the body’s natural reaction to any change that takes place in our lives. But for all of the bad reputation that precedes it, stress is not just negative (distress); it can also be positive (eustress).

These two concepts were coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye, who wrote about how stress impacts an individual’s mind and body in the 1930s. His study, The Nature of Stress, is revolutionary because it introduced the world of medicine to the concept of stress as “a definable biological and medical phenomenon whose mechanisms can be objectively identified.”

Eustress or positive stress is brought about by situations that cause pressure and tension, but are generally happy occasions. Examples are starting a new job, getting a promotion, getting married or having a baby. This type of stress can be good for you—it provides challenges that motivate you to excel and triggers beneficial behaviors like enhanced alertness and increased response time.

The other type of stress is one you might be more familiar with and might be harmful to your health: distress. You experience distress when you constantly face challenges, causing interruption in your body’s internal balance. Short term negative stress may lead to physical symptoms like headaches or upset stomach. But chronic negative stress has been associated with irreparable damage to the heart, which may lead to cardiovascular diseases. This health concern was specifically cited by the American Institute of Stress.

Research has likewise suggested that chronic stress may alter an individual’s immune response. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that individuals who were subject to a chronic stressor (in this study, taking care of a spouse with a progressive dementia) “showed a poorer antibody response following vaccination [of the influenza virus].” The study concluded that “down-regulation of the immune response to influenza virus vaccination is associated with a chronic stressor...”

Additionally, negative stress can cause certain nutrients in the body to be depleted more rapidly. To cope with stress, the body uses up nutrients like vitamin C, whose antioxidant properties help neutralize free radical damage.

In order for the body to deal with stress and defend itself from the harm that it brings and still function effectively, it will need a constant supply of essential nutrients. While these may be obtained from food sources, environmental challenges have led to a significant decrease in the nutritional value of food we eat. This means that food may be insufficient sources of the essential nutrients that the body needs. As such, taking nutritional supplements can help restore nutrients that have been depleted by stress, as well as to help promote overall health.

In the end, it is important to keep in mind that what matters more than the stressors themselves is the way that you react to them. Whether they overwhelm you or not will greatly influence how your body will in turn react to them. However, a fit mind can only go so far without a health body. So stay healthy just as you stay focused. In your quest to stress less, both your mind and your body should be in good shape.