Coping with Stress

Stress is a fixture of modern day life: Nearly 75% of adult Americans experience stress on a weekly basis, according to a Prevention magazine survey. Stress is a uniquely individual experience, and it's a normal, adaptive response to a perceived threat that prepares us to take defensive action. Stressors can be physical - requiring immediate physiological adaptation, chronic - as with illness or injury, and psychological or social - such as the everyday stressful events we face. Regardless of the type of stress, our bodies react the same - the body mobilizes fuels and increases heart rate and blood pressure, shuts down the systems not essential at the moment like digestion, and secretes stress hormones for the "fight or flight" response.

Modern Stress
Historically, the purpose of the stress response is to supply short-term solutions for emergency situations. Nature intends for this response to be followed by rest and regeneration to clear stress hormones from the body. Modern stress, particularly psychological stress, is different because the stressors are often non-physical, chronic, or unrelieved and can even be triggered in anticipation of a stressful event.

Detrimental Effects
Changes produced by long term stress are beneficial in the short term. But they can be detrimental when prolonged as the body is exposed to chronic levels of elevated stress hormones like cortisol produced by the adrenal glands. Chronic stress has been linked to digestive problems, lowered immunity, impaired thinking, and increased risk of coronary heart disease.

Links Between Stress and Heart Disease
Researchers recently found that short periods of psychological stress cause the body to take longer to clear fats from the bloodstream, making it more likely for that fat to be deposited in the arteries. Eating a high fat snack or meal during a time of stress, means that fat is going to be circulating in the blood longer. The take home message is to steer clear of high-fat foods during stressful periods. The antioxidant vitamins, C and E, may be helpful too. High fat meals can impair the ability of arteries to dilate. A 1997 study showed that pre-treatment of these antioxidants before a high-fat meal could prevent this effect. And in lab animals, doses of vitamin C have been shown to help blunt the cortisol response to stress. Studies also correlate measurable psychological symptoms with lower levels of vitamin C.

Another physical link between stress and heart disease, may be homocysteine - the compound produced in the body that can damage arteries when elevated. In one study, women who had to perform mental arithmetic in front of an audience responded to this psychological stress with significantly increased homocysteine levels. Since folic acid, B6 and B12 are needed to help maintain healthy levels of homocysteine, getting adequate amounts of these B-vitamins may be important in chronic stress.

Managing Stress
Strategies to manage stress more successfully are important for long-term health. Here are some suggests from stress experts:

• Find an outlet for life's frustrations. Set aside a time and do it regularly. Exercise is one of the best stress-reducers; yoga, biofeedback or meditation work well for others.
• Try not to dwell on things in the past or events in the future that are beyond your control.
• Find sources of social support - talking about problems with family or friends can be helpful

For some, counseling on how to employ emotion-focused or problem-focused coping techniques can help reduce stress and improve the way we respond.

A complete multi-supplement can help increase vitamin C and E intake, and ensures adequate amounts of the B-vitamins that may be important during stress. Supplements can also provide the nutrients needed to support immunity - zinc, vitamin A and others. Marginal intake of these nutrient could add to the negative effects of stress on the immune system.

References

1. Plotnick GD et al. Effect of antioxidant vitamins on the transient impairment of endothelial-dependent brachial artery vasoactivity following a single high-fat meal. JAMA 278:1682-6, 1997.
2. Stoney CM. Plasma homocysteine levels increase in women during psychological stress. Life Sci 64:2259-65,1999.