Basic HTML Version
Best Strategy
for
BEATING
S
SS
by
Norman
L.
Shoaf
Do you know the one winning strategy to coping with this 20th-century killer ?
H
YPERTENSION-exces–
sive stress- has been
called the silent killer.
Why? Because it
usually doesn' t produce any
apparent physical pain or
other warnings before doing
its ultimate damage.
But a killer
it
is, neverthe–
less.
Stress is a major factor in high
blood pressure, in strokes, heart
attacks and coronary-artery dis–
eases. No other single force is more
responsible for the worldwide epi–
demic of drug and alcohol abuse.
Stress is often a central catalyst in
health problems, in family prob–
lems, sometimes even leading to
mate and child abuse.
How many of us have suppressed
inner anger when we think the boss
did something unfair?
Who hasn't worried over how to
make ends meet in today's finan–
cially uncertain times?
Hasn't almost everyone suffered
the loneliness of losing loved ones?
The frustrations of pursuing what
society calls success?
1 t all adds up to a condi tion that
has sometimes been descr ibed as
the disease of change.
What we need are effective
guidelines for dealing with stress,
because stress is not going to sim-
18
ply go away. The good news is that
there is a
winning strategy
against
stress.
Stress is not necessarily a nega–
tive force. Stress is not, after all,
just wbat happens to us, but
how
we react
to what bappens to us.
And how we react is controlled by
our minds and emotions.
The Role of Stress
To be alive is to be under a certain
amount of stress. As one autbor put
it , no one constructs a building with
tbe intention of just letting it sit
empty. The building is meant to be
utilized for sorne purpose-to with–
stand the reasonable stresses of
people, furniture, weight and use.
So it is with humans. The right
level of stress is perfectly accept–
able and productive.
One of the world 's foremost
authorities on stress, endocrinolo–
gist Hans Selye, says: "Most people
who want to accompl ish something,
who are ambitious, live on stress.
They need it." The right amount of
stress can push us to perform at our
very best.
Stress also serves to protect us in
hazardous situations. If we are
driving along in fast traffic and
another car swerves into our lane in
front of us, a lot of things immedi–
ately happen in our bodies-in the
brain, heart, muscular system. The
body marshals inner forces and
rises to meet the crisis, producing
the positive condition of trying to
avoid a collision.
But if the crises and pressures
around us become so frequent and
so intense that we are constantly
calling upon inner resources to
respond so dramatically, the stress
becomes debilitating. The body
simply cannot meet such de–
mands.
Says health educator Leo R. Van
Dolson: "When individuals are
repeatedly forced to ... accept con–
tinua) change, especially changes
involving conftict and uncertainty,
an adaptive reaction occurs · that
draws upon the hormones, causing
chemical reactions throughout the
body that damage its reserves of
energy."
Having too much stress, which
Dr. Selye refers to as
hyperstress.
can be destructive to both our
physical and emotional well-being.
And that is exactly what has hap–
pened in many cases in this hectic
world. Excessive stress has become
a harmful force in people's lives.
Hard Realities
Researchers have isolated stress as
a common factor in many cases of
disease. Different ailments may
attack more readily if a person has
faced emergencies or disappoint–
ments first.
Stress-related illnesses cost
The PLAIN TRUTH