Stress effects all aspects of how we feel. There is no cure for human stress we must learn to modulate its impact. The only true adjustment is taking direct action to lower tension and unrealistic expectations. The other day I was so wound up with some much stress and tension I almost cut my 12-hour day short. Things settled down but not after an 8:30 AM crisis call from a patient living on Cape Cod. All at once, my day was diverted to needing to find a hospital bed for a client with a boat load of unrealistic anger and now suicidal ideation. Not easy. At this moment, I wish I could have gone home but there are scheduled cases who expect to be seen by me later in the day. I am only one clinician and have zero office help with some resentment. I cannot blow it off. Many have waited 3-4 weeks for one hour of my time. Everyone feels stress and some manage it better than others. For me, I work out in the home gym, and play ice hockey twice a week and I share time with my special grandson Parker who is now 3 and about to have a little sister join the family. But all too often, the main stress buster for me is a glass of scotch at 6:00 PM. I try to keep it to one, but this is no guaranty and I know this is not an effective way of lowering stress.

When the body is stressed, muscles tense up. Blood pressure and cortisol levels go up. This happens because stress releases the autonomic fight/flight response that activates when we are under threat. A sudden emergency, whatever it may be, can send us into the never never land of anxiety, fear, and autonomic arousal causing a variety of physical responses and inflammatory conditions. Headaches, neck pain, and upper body tightness all are the result of omnipresent stress. Muscle tension is a reflex reaction to stress—the body’s way of guarding against injury and pain. With sudden onset stress, the muscles tense up all at once, and then release their tension when the stress passes. For some individuals under great stress this sometimes does not work. “Chronic inflammation is a deleterious to health, resilience, and job satisfaction.

“Learned resilience can be taught and leads to reduced stress and psychological hardiness rather than psychological weariness.” according to Leo Polizoti, Ph.D., my colleague at the Direct Decision Institute Inc. Dr Polizoti studies the result of high stress of job functioning among many police agencies and understands the impact of chronic stress on job satisfaction. Psychological weariness is a drain on personal coping and adaptation to situational stress. I have felt the weariness triggered by high stress times here at the hospital. Sometimes it is only me hit by the stress. Others seem so chill and content.

Most physicians know that mindfulness techniques lower subjective levels of stress and tension. However, even though paced breathing puts the brakes on sympathetic overdrive, people do not use it long enough to create habits. This robs them of the propitious sense of wellbeing espoused by the adherents of the mindful way of living. “Meditating”, according to Dr. Woolery-Lloyd, initiates the relaxation response, which activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system and decreases cortisol and lowers inflammation.” It helps put the brakes on our alarm bells. A lot of biofeedback protocols can serve to reduce the levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the blood stream helping people feel better. Exercise in general will also afford you physical release and lowered stress and tension. As human beings, our physical health depends on our capacity to manage and lower inflammatory responses in organ systems throughout. Easier said than done.

Mindfulness has the potential to put the brakes on abnormal, elevated fight/flight activity and its pervasive role in the inflammatory and abnormal stress response. There is so much being published about the role of inflammatory disease in organ disease and failure taking a great toll on personal health. I wish we could measure it like a simple thermometer. The relaxation response is triggered when we use mindful strategies to find coherence. So, whatever your level of stress, for longevity and happiness you learn to manage it. It is nothing to ignore or laugh off and stress has been shown to cause health problems and deteriorating wellbeing. There is no cure for stress as it is everywhere. For health reasons redefining one’s emotions can be the source of coherence and greater mastery over the chronic diseases and conditions associated with unregulated stress.

There is accumulating evidence suggested that excessive inflammation plays critical roles in the pathophysiology of the stress-related diseases” such as hypertension, cardiac disease, pain, auto immune disease, depression, and anxiety. Stress reduction does not happen by itself. We are prompted about mindfulness techniques and ways to lower our tension and offload our stress one step at a time. I try this weekly with modest success. It works but people (including me) do not practice it enough.

Lloyd, C et al. (2002) Journal of Mental Health 11, 3, 255–265