As a Type-A recovering lawyer, stress used to be my main source of fuel. I ignored the notion that stress could be harmful and rolled my eyes at the so-called experts who all said basically the same thing. What eventually got my attention was my own experience with the damaging effects of chronic stress. Too many years of unchecked stress combined with failing to take regular breaks caught up with me toward the end of my law career and resulted in three trips to the emergency room and numerous tests for a variety of stomach disorders. According to a Catalyst work report, 75-90% of all doctor visits are for stress-related complaints; however, of the over half dozen different doctors I saw, none of them asked me how life was going and whether stress was interfering with my productivity or ability to thrive.
What Are Your Sources of Stress?
According to that same Catalyst report, 68% of employees are stressed to the point of feeling extremely fatigued and out of control. Forty-four percent of employees report losing one hour or more a day in productivity due to stress. In addition, twenty-two percent of employees say they miss more than six work days a year due to stress. The report details that most employees feel stress in four main areas:
1. Workload levels;
2. Interpersonal issues;
3. Job security; and
4. Juggling work and personal life.
In addition to the pressures of working in Corporate America, many people are caring for aging parents or chronically ill children. A friend of mine has a young daughter who has regular seizures which require extended care, and a close relative weakened both her physical and mental health during the year she cared for her ailing mom. Regardless of your source of chronic stress, this is what it's doing to your body:
What Chronic Stress Does to Your Body & Why It's Bad:
New research in the area of chronic stress reveals that it actually ages us down to the cellular level. Our chromosomes are capped by telomeres. Telomeres look like the plastic tips on the ends of your shoelaces, and their function is to keep your DNA safe. Telomere shortening can serve as a biomarker of aging, and high levels of chronic stress correlate with telomere shortening. This was illustrated by researchers Elissa Epel and Elizabeth Blackburn who studied moms who cared for chronically ill children. Each participant was given the Perceived Stress Test, and various biological measures were taken. What they found was that those moms with the highest levels of perceived stress had telomeres that were far shorter than those moms with the lowest levels of perceived stress; in fact, those women in the high stress group were found to be physically a DECADE older than the women with lower rates of perceived stress.
Many of us can't change the actual sources of our chronic stress, but we can control how we react to those stressors. Luckily, the biological processes that are negatively impacted by chronic stress can be slowed and even reversed with the right tools.
Have You Tried This?
In addition to the tried and true methods of stress reduction such as exercising regularly, meditating, social interaction, and getting more sleep, here are two additional ways to repair cellular aging from chronic stress:
1. Don't diet. Yes, you read that correctly! One study by A. Janet Tomiyama and her colleagues found that those people who restricted their calories actually raised their cortisol levels. Elevated levels of cortisol in the body are a negative by-product of chronic stress and also contribute to the collection of belly fat. In another study led by Amy Kiefer examining the dieting attempts by a group of pre- and post-menopausal women, she found that in both groups, the more strict the dieting attempts the shorter the telomere length, and that was regardless of age, smoking and body mass index.
2. Eat pistachio nuts. Chronic stress can lead to scars on your blood vessel walls, and if these scars aren't repaired, they can lead to plaque. Research by Sarah Gebauer shows that pistachios, which are high in good fat, improve vascular functioning, including both a drop in blood pressure and a lowering of bad cholesterol. As with other types of nuts, the goal is to eat pistachios in moderation.
Remember, the goal isn't to eliminate all stress. Some stress is good for our bodies; however, repeated, chronic stress needs to be managed. In doing so, you might just be adding back years to your life!
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Paula Davis-Laack, JD, MAPP is the founder and CEO of The Marie Elizabeth ® Company (www.marieelizabethcompany.com), which helps high-achieving professionals become more resilient in their daily lives. She is a stress management coach, resilience educator, author, and speaker. Paula uses her research-based "Find Your Strong" program to help clients manage stress, perform at their best, and build strong, healthy lives.
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References
Catalyst (2011, July). Work stress. Retrieved September 6, 2011, from
http://www.catalyst.org/publication/231/work-stress
Epel, E.S., Blackburn, E.H., Lin, J., Dhabhar, F.S. et al. (2004). Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(49), 17312-17315.
Gebauer, S.K., West, S.G., Kay, C.D., Alaupovic, P., et al. (2008). Effects of pistachios on cardiovascular disease risk factors and potential mechanisms of action: A dose-response study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 88(3), 651-659.
Kiefer, A., Lin, J., Blackburn, E., & Epel, E. (2008). Dietary restraint and telomere length in pre- and post-menopausal women. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(8), 845-849.
Singer, T. (2011). Stress less: The new science that shows women how to rejuvenate the body and the mind. New York: Hudson Street Press.
Tomiyama, A.J., Mann, T., Vinas, D., Hunger, J.M. et al. (2010). Low-calorie dieting increases cortisol. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72(4), 357-364.
