Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. Too much stress on your mind and body can make you feel miserable, worried, sad and ill. Stress can cause both mental and physical symptoms. Common stress reactions include tension, irritability, inability to concentrate, and a variety of physical symptoms that include headache and a fast heartbeat. However, anything that forces us to adjust can be a stressor. This includes positive events such as getting married or receiving a promotion. The potential causes of stress are numerous. Your stress may be linked to outside factors such as the state of the world, the environment in which you live or work, or your family. Stress affects your body as much as food and exercise. A combination of emotional and physical pressures, it can either help you with challenges and problems or make them many times worse.

Stress can affect both your body and your mind. Stress affects virtually everyone at some time in their life. Stress can be brought about by a traumatic accident, death, or emergency situation. Stress can also be a side effect of a serious illness or disease. Stress triggers changes in our bodies and makes us more likely to get sick. It can also make problems we already have worse. The long term and short term effects of stress on the body manifest itself irrespective of the age groups. When the trigger is repetitive, prolonged or unanticipated, then it becomes pathological. The effects of stress affect not only man, but also animals. Like pain, stress should also be viewed as a warning. One of the more debilitating symptoms of stress is panic attacks, which can be really frightening, and take over your life if you don’t learn how to deal with them.

Causes of Stress

The common causes and risk factor’s of stress:

• Alcohol or drug abuse.
• Caring for a chronically ill family member.
• Lack of social support.
• Family history.
• Perfectionism.
• Threats of physical violence.

Symptoms of stress

Some sign and symptoms related to stress are as follows:

• Shortness of breath.
• Lack of confidence.
• Moods change for no reason.
• Excessive fatigue.
• Tired a lot of the time.
• Disturbed sleep.

Treatment of stress

• The treatment of your stress will vary greatly depending on the types of symptoms you are experiencing and how severe they are.
• Behavioral therapy helps you weaken the connections between troublesome situations and your habitual reactions to them.
• Estrogen therapy can be used to improve urinary frequency, urgency and burning in postmenopausal women, and the tone and blood supply of the urethral sphincter muscles.
• Meditation can help relaxation, and practising yoga or the alexander technique may help to relieve muscle pains and help to control breathing in stressful situations.

Stress is the physical and mental response of the body to demands made upon it. Stress has been examined scientifically for the past twenty years, and there are several things that have become evident. Stress is the result of our reaction to outside events, not necessarily the events themselves. Different things cause stress in different people. Some of the things students commonly cite as causes of stress include: examinations, returning to study, pressure of combining paid work and study, poor housing, overcrowding, noise, difficulties with personal relationships, parents or problems at home. If you have cancer and are not having any side effects from treatment or they are easy to manage, you may feel less stress than someone who is having many side effects. For others, just thinking about cancer may cause stress. Very often stress results from an accumulation of many different pressures which build up gradually without us noticing. Social support is the single most important buffer against stress. Social support means spending time with your family and friends.

Stress caused by work is the second biggest occupational health problem. Many people respond to stress by eating, drinking or smoking much more than is usual: some engage in risk taking behaviour. Stress is not only harmful to your health and wellbeing - it can also harm relationships - so it is vital to identify the causes of stress and address them as soon as possible. After a heart attack or stroke, people who feel depressed, anxious or overwhelmed by stress should talk to their doctor or other healthcare professional. These feelings are relatively common, and help is available. Students often complain that when they feel stressed they find it hard to concentrate, feel tired all the time, perhaps start to miss lectures and deadlines and feel they can’t cope. Other methods to try to relieve stress are deep relaxation, imagery and exercise. These activities can be considered complementary therapies when they are used together with conventional cancer treatment.

Causes of Stress

The common causes and risk factor’s of Stress:

• Lack of variety.
• Inability to finish a job.
• Death of a relative.
• Family disfunction such as abuse or alcoholism in the home.
• Lack of preparedness from middle school.
• Inability to influence decision making.
• Fighting unnecessary battles.

Symptoms of Stress

Some sign and symptom related to Stress are as follows:

• Increased heart rate and blood pressure.
• Lack of Concentration.
• Dry mouth.
• Tight muscles.
• Speech problems increase.
• Interests and enthusiasms diminish.
• Change in voice.

Treatment of Stress

• Practice deep breathing exercises.
• Eat a nutritious meal or snack.
• Severe instances of depression should be treated with medication that acts on the brain chemistry, affecting the chemical pathways associated with mood.
• Monoamine oxidase inhibitors have been prescribed for some time.
• Estrogen therapy can be used to improve urinary frequency, urgency and burning in postmenopausal women, and the tone and blood supply of the urethral sphincter muscles.

Everyone is familiar with stress. In small doses, stress can actually be beneficial to us. Mental responses to stress include anxiety, adaptive stress, and depression. The potential causes of stress are numerous. Your stress may be linked to outside factors such as the state of the world, the environment in which you live or work, or your family. Where stress enhances function it may be considered good stress. However, if stress persists and is of excessive degree, it eventually leads to a need for resolution, which may lead either to anxious or depressive behavior. In small doses, stressors can help give us increased energy and alertness, even helping to keep us focused on the problem at hand. This type of stress is good. People may refer to the experience of this type of stress as feeling “pumped”. Everyone reacts to stress differently. Each of us has a different level of pressure and anxiety that we can handle without a bad outcome. Only you can assess your level of tolerance to stressful situations.

Some stress is normal and even useful. It can help if you need to work hard or react quickly. The long term and short term effects of stress on the body manifest itself irrespective of the age groups. When the trigger is repetitive, prolonged or unanticipated, then it becomes pathological. The effects of stress affect not only man, but also animals. Like pain, stress should also be viewed as a warning. One of the more debilitating symptoms of stress is panic attacks, which can be really frightening, and take over your life if you don’t learn how to deal with them. The best treatment for stress is to prevent getting into situations that are likely to overwhelm your ability to cope. This is not always possible because the stressors may often come from outside sources that are beyond your control. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, physical exercises, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, various natural and alternative methods, personal growth techniques, visualization and massage are some of the most effective of the known non-invasive stress busters.

Treatment of stress

• The treatment of your stress will vary greatly depending on the types of symptoms you are experiencing and how severe they are.
• Meditation can help relaxation, and practising yoga or the alexander technique may help to relieve muscle pains and help to control breathing in stressful situations.
• Practice deep breathing exercises.
• Estrogen therapy can be used to improve urinary frequency, urgency and burning in postmenopausal women, and the tone and blood supply of the urethral sphincter muscles.
• Eat a nutritious meal or snack.
• Behavioral therapy helps you weaken the connections between troublesome situations and your habitual reactions to them.

A stress test, sometimes called a treadmill test or exercise test, helps a doctor find out how well your heart handles work. Stress can be difficult to understand. The emotional chaos it causes can make our daily lives miserable. It can also decrease our physical health, sometimes drastically. The test continues until you reach a target heart rate, unless complications such as chest pain or an exaggerated rise in blood pressure develop. You will continue to be monitored for 10 - 15 minutes after exercising, or until your heart rate returns to baseline. A stress test is performed to determine causes of chest pain, the exercise capacity of the heart, appropriate exercise levels in those beginning an exercise program, and to identify rhythm disturbances during exercise. There may be additional reasons that your health care provider requests this test.

A stress test is less accurate in young or middle-aged women with symptoms that are not typical of heart disease. Exercise stress tests may  be performed with echocardiography or nuclear imaging techniques. A stress test, is almost the same as the exercise stress test, except doctors will give you a small amount of a radioactive substance just before the end of the exercise part of the test. This radioactive substance is not harmful to your body or your organs. Another type of stress test uses drugs instead of physical activity to produce the effects of exercise during the examination. The test can give information about the size of the heart’s chambers, how well the heart is pumping blood, and whether the heart has any damaged or dead muscle.

How to prepare for the test?

• Do not eat, smoke, or drink beverages containing caffeine or alcohol for 3 hours before the test.
• If you take insulin to control your blood sugar, ask your physician if or how much insulin you should take the day of the test.
• Wear comfortable shoes and loose clothing to allow exercise.
• During the test you will not be sedated and therefore once the test is completed you will be able to drive yourself home.
• Tell your doctor if you are taking sildenafil citrate and have taken a dose within the past 24 hours.

What the risks are?

• Stress tests are generally safe.
• Chest pain or may faint or collapse.
• A heart attack or dangerous irregular rhythm rarely occurs.

Stress and anxiety are often contributing factors involved in many of the causes for patients coming for hypnotherapy. Stress and anxiety triggers are everywhere and the symptoms can cause many problems if left ignored. Anyone can learn stress management techniques, which include yoga, self-hypnosis and meditation. You can attend classes, or buy books to learn and develop these kinds of stress management techniques, but there are also some very simple relaxation techniques that you can find out about here, and which can be practiced in your own home. Stress, either quick or constant, can induce risky body-mind disorders. Immediate disorders such as dizzy spells, anxiety attacks, tension, sleeplessness, nervousness and muscle cramps can all result in chronic health problems. Stress is everywhere and is often indirectly responsible for the vast majority of work absence and personal unhappiness.

Effective stress management strategies

• Exercise is the best possible way to combat immediate stress.
• Maintain a reasonable diet and sane sleep habits.
• Modification of Life-style (Nutrition, Sleep, etc.)
• Change your attitude and perceptions that affect your responses.
• Avoid the impossible dream.

Stress Headaches

Stress is by far the most common headache “trigger.” Pain is itself a major stressor, physically and mentally. Pain can make the normal stresses of daily living all the worse. Major life-changing events like marriage, birth of a child, or career changes all are sources of stress. Sometimes the stress can be removed or resolved. In cases where the stress is uncontrollable, a woman can learn to change her own physical and emotional reactions to stressful situations. Compared to men, women often experience more of the types of stress that provoke headache. For people with daily or near-daily headache, it’s often much harder to be aware of stress, because their stress may be nearly constant.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death in the united states. Suicide, like any medical disorder, does not happen instantly or “out of the blue.” Usually, it is preceded by emotional turmoil such as depression, agitation, significant anxiety, impulsivity, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Many young people who attempt suicide are afflicted by depression or other mood disorders or substance abuse. Other emotional problems linked to suicide include conduct disorders (especially aggressive behavior), borderline personality disorder, and high levels of hopelessness. Suicide among children under the age of 14 is rare. Suicide by children under the age of 9 is extremely rare. Suicide prevention is as much a science as it is an art. Although applying scientific psychotherapeutic techniques can be effective, the gentle art of dealing with the suicidal person makes all the difference.

Signs of emotional illness or distress

• Depression.
• Agitation.
• Significant anxiety.
• Impulsivity.
• Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

General treatment

• This depends on the severity of the illness, and on the predisposing factors.
• Mild illnesses may respond to discussing the stresses, and finding better ways to deal with them.
• Encouragement to think and act positively (cognitive therapy) may be helpful.
• Treating depression without medication is like treating diabetes without insulin, especially when it is severe.

If stress is not handled properly, more serious illnesses may result. Some herbs known to help with stress relief by supporting the adrenal glands, brain and metabolism to over come the accumulation of biological stress. Most herb should be taken for a number of months for optimal resistance-building effects. Herbal treatment always has a significant chunk of followers. Herbs are natural stress relievers with little or no side effects. Herbs are used as single herb product or a combination product in the stress management therapy. Herbal therapy has been known to reduce and in some instances eliminate the symptoms of stress. Herb usages in conjunction with behavior and lifestyle modification can resolve the symptoms of physical, as well as psychological stress. Natural therapies have been around for centuries and continue to be gentle, natural, effective and safe.

Herbs for stress relief

The following different herbs have medicinal values in the treatment of stress:

• Kava Kava or simply Kava is the latest sensation in the stress management therapy. It is a derivative of the pepper family ‘Piper methysticum’.
• Valerian is said to be the oldest among the herbal stress relievers. It is mentioned even in Ayurvedic literature. It is akin to the drug ‘Diazepam’ which is used to calm down a person.
• Scull Cap is used as a nerve tonic. It stabilizes the mood during the period of stress.

The term “stress” often is used to describe the subjective feeling of pressure or tension. There is little evidence that stress leads to the development of true alcohol dependency or alcoholism. Because both drinking behavior and an individual’s response to stress are determined by multiple genetic and environmental factors, studying the link between alcohol consumption and stress may further our understanding of drinking behavior. Stress is usually thought of as harmful; but when the stress response is acute and transient, homeostasis is maintained and no adverse effects result. Under chronic stress, however, when the body either fails to compensate or when it overcompensates, damage can occur. A person who is under a lot of stress may experience a greater level of irritability. Alcohol actually induces the stress response by stimulating hormone release by the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands.

Danger signals for abuse of alcohol in reaction to stress

• Prior history of unhealthy or abusive drinking.
• Experiencing the stress as severe or unavoidable without the aid of alcohol.
• Lacking social support.
• Family history of drinking in response to stress.

Most of us suffer from stress in varying degrees. The breathing and relaxation methods used in yoga might help you if you have asthma, carpal tunnel syndrome, depression, low back pain, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis of the knees or memory problems. Modern medicine has provided therapeutic solution for stress relief but not without harmful side effects. Yoga stress relief, on the other hand, is not only more effective but also free of any side effect. Yoga offers many breathing skills for stress-affected individuals. These yogic breathing techniques are termed as ‘pranayama’. Pranayama is devised by yoga to create a synergy between the self-energizing life force and individual mind-body-spirit by scientific regulation of prana.

Yoga in stress management provides relief by making the body comfortable for the maximum flow of energy through asanas provides energy by pranayama and relaxes mind by meditation. Yoga can also be helpful when combined with other therapies for heart disease and high blood pressure. Almost anyone can start yoga stress relief but people with orthopedic problems should take the opinion of doctors before starting off. However, the movements and the postures in it are so simple and gentle, that no special effort is needed for practicing yoga stress relief. By practicing yoga stress relief as often as possible, we can build up our own natural responses to stress and relax our mind and body with greater ease and comfort.

Yoga and Health

Yoga is beneficial in the following health conditions.

• Mood swings.
• Asthma.
• Pain and bronchitis.
• Diabetes.
• Sleeplessness.
• Headache.

Stress can affect anyone from children to adolescents to adults. The causes of teen stress are totally different and they need somewhat different stress management programs for dealing stress. Different people react to stress in different ways. Some people may feel low or sad, some may lose their appetite or find it difficult to sleep. Others may become fearful, tense or anxious and experience strong physical feelings, such as feeling out of breath or having a racing heartbeat. Stress isn’t a bad thing. Without stress, life would be boring and seem meaningless. Stress can be the excited feeling we get when getting ready to go on a date or throw a party. The causes of stress are as varied as teenagers themselves, and their worries shouldn’t be brushed aside simply because of their ages. Everyone experiences stress, and most will experience distress from time to time. Relaxation exercises, reassurance and talking about their feelings with supportive family members or friends may help these teens and their digestive tracts to calm down.

Causes of Teen stress

The common causes and risk factor’s of Teen stress:

• Death of a relative.
• Going on a first date.
• Being over-scheduled.
• Divorce or separation of parents.
• Family disfunction such as abuse or alcoholism in the home.
• Being ahead or behind in physical development.
• Lack of preparedness from middle school.

Symptoms of Teen stress

Some sign and symptom related to Teen stress are as follows:

• Fast heartbeat.
• Increased urination.
• Lack of Concentration.
• Not enjoying activities you used to enjoy.
• Feeling resentful of others.
• Increase in the height.
• Change in voice.

Treatment of Teen stress

• Practice deep breathing exercises.
• Use pressure points to reduce headaches.
• Do muscle tension relaxation exercises.
• Eat a nutritious meal or snack.
• Behavioral therapy helps your teen to weaken the connections between troublesome situations and the habitual reactions to them. Reactions common to stress such as irritability, anxiety, depression, anger, and self-damaging behavior can be controlled.