Managing Stress

Stress means something different to each of us. What causes you stress? Balancing your home life responsibilities and work? An upcoming assignment or presentation? Maybe it’s a hard day taking care of the kids and or a sick family member. I experienced stress performing risky procedures on sick patients when the schedule was overbooked and an unforeseen issue was encountered. In the late afternoon, with two more interventional procedures to go and patients to see, I succumbed to emotional eating of junk food and was so tired by the time I left, I was not a good family partner once at home.

Small amounts of stress are actually good for keeping our immune system functioning at a high level. For example, exercise causes oxidative stress acutely but that revs up our internal anti-inflammatory system which is good. Chronic stress, however, can overwhelm our immune function and lead to chronic disease due to inflammation. It also leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed and unable to cope with the pressure.