STRESS IN OLDER MEN
A NEW DEFINITION OF OLD
This morning after reading an article
published from Oregon State University, I conclude:
AN OLDER PERSON IS ONE WHO CANNOT DEAL WITH
STRESS!
While it may sound farcical, there is an
element of truth to it, and much science behind it.
Now the article:
The study looked at two types of stress:
the everyday hassles of such things as Commuting, job stress or arguments with
family and friends; AND significant life events such as job loss or the death
of a spouse.
In my studies about immigrants and health,
I have found that Immigration, worse if you are forced to emigrate, but even
welcomed immigration is a very powerful life event, much closer in stress level
to the death of a spouse.
Both types of stress seemed to be harmful
to the health of the group of men studied.
The researcher has this to say: It is not
the number of hassles that does you in, it is the perception of them being a
big deal that causes problems. Taking things in stride may protect you.
She hit the nail on its head.
Here she is beginning to sound like,
Kabat-Zinn talking about Mindfulness or the Molecular Scientist turned Monk,
Mathieu Ricard, about dealing with every day events in life.
At the end of the study, 15 years later, one
in two the people who reported stressful events had died, whereas only one in
three of the people died who reported few stressful life events. When it came
to dealing with daily hassles, only onei in three with fewer hassles had died, whereas the
number climbs to one in two with moderate hassles and for those with most
hassles, two out of three had died.
MORAL OF THE STORY IS: EVERYDAY HASSLES ARE EVERY PRESENT AND HARD
TO AVOID BUT DO A FAVOUR TO YOUR HEALTH BY TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR ATTITUDES
ABOUT THEM! Be it a long line at the department store, a traffic jam or a long
wait at the airport or train station.
In the modern world, COPING SKILLS are what
is important, as my brother Joe would say: Don't make mountains of molehills!
Women are not spared either:
Stress
Decreases Attractiveness In Women's Faces, Study Finds. (that is for another
time to discuss)
That the stress is related to Ageing is
well known. The Australian Scientist Elizbeth Blackburn working in the USA won
a Nobel Prize in Medicine for her work on Telomeres, demonstrating how the
stress affects the body at the cellular level.
Accelerated telomere shortening in
response to life stress
Here is the abstract:
Numerous
studies demonstrate links between chronic stress and indices of poor health,
including risk factors for cardiovascular disease and poorer immune function.
Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms of how stress gets “under the skin” remain
elusive. We investigated the hypothesis that stress impacts health by
modulating the rate of cellular aging. Here we provide evidence that
psychological stress— both perceived stress and chronicity of stress—is
significantly associated with higher oxidative stress, lower telomerase
activity, and shorter telomere length, which are known determinants of cell
senescence and longevity, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy
premenopausal women. Women with the highest levels of perceived stress have
telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least one decade of
additional aging compared to low stress women. These findings have implications
for understanding how, at the cellular level, stress may promote earlier onset
of age-related diseases.
It is well known that women who care for a
disabled child ages a decade while doing so!
What is STRESS?
No one needs to be told, do you feel
stressed? The answer would be an universal YES. But what is it?
Before 1955, when the young Canadian
Medical Doctor appropriated the term, it was used in Physics to describe the
strain applied to a wire.
Now the term is universal, applies to human
beings and also animals and caged birds or restrained aquatic forms such as
Orcas.
But most people are not aware of the fact
that not all STRESS is bad and that there are two distinctive forms of STRESS:
DISTRESS AND EUSTRESS
Every one enjoys a bit of a stress, to
remain motivated, challenged or productive. When this gets out of hand, when it
becomes intolerable and out of control it becomes DISTRESS.
STRESS TOLERANCE is what we need to learn.
Some of us are adept at it intuitively. Women are attracted to men who are
perceived to have less stress and vice versa.
(I can never forget a Turkish Immigrant
high profile business woman telling me that she sleeps with her iPhone on, and
I thought: No wonder why you sleep alone!)
We all have to learn to manage the symptoms
of stress, not to eliminate it completely. All ancient philosophies, Buddhist
as well as Yogic, teach you skills but one has to practice it.
Just think about it, something as simple as
the Yogic Breathing exercise such as Pranayama, calms one down; but YOU NEED TO
PRACTICE IT!
This is a published summary of WAYS TO
BECOME STRESS-RESISTANT. Most people who are STRESS prone would see how
difficult it is to practice some of these, such as not being a perfectionist,
not feeling guilty. Here they are, practice is and you would become stress
tolerant as well:
STOP FEELING GUILTY
BE DECISIVE
AVOID BEING A PERFECTIONIST
SET PRIORITIES FOR YOURSELF
STOP PROCRASTINATING
PRAISE YOURSELF
LIVE AN OPTIMAL LIFESTYLE
It is also good to explore the sources of
STRESS in your life, which can be summarized as N U T S. Here is the research
behind it
in
one interesting experiment, researchers measured the stress hormone levels of
experienced parachute jumpers.
Jumping
out of a plane surely had to be stressful! Strangely, their stress hormone
levels were normal.
Stress
hormone levels were then measured in both people jumping for the first time and their instructors. They
found a big difference! On the day before the jump, student’s levels were
normal while instructors’ levels were very high. On the jump day, students’
levels were very high, while instructor’s levels were normal.
They
concluded that 24 hours before the jump, the instructors’ anticipation resulted in higher stress
hormone levels because they knew what to expect. The students were oblivious!
But
on jump day, the novelty and unpredictability of the situation made the
students stress hormone levels sky rocket!
Over
the next 30 years researchers conducted experiments showing that although the
type of stressors resulting in the release of stress hormones are different for
everyone there are common elements
to situations that elevate stress hormones in everyone.
In
essence, they discovered the recipe for stress: N.U.T.S.!
Novelty
Unpredictability
Threat to the ego
Sense of Control
When writing the
above, I am excited and grateful for the conversations about KLEISHA and its
reduction with friends in Malaysia.
In the Yogic
Philosophy compiled by Patanjali, five KLEISHA, structural defects of the mind
are mentioned.
Control of the above
is a step to HAPPINESS and of course in the context of this article, the
control of STRESS
Ignorance
EGO
Aversion
Attachment
Fear of Change
I am fortunate
enough to work with American Indians and live among them while I am with them,
and have marveled at their ability to develop a tolerance against a STRESS
which is historical, continuing, long lasting and generational.
I
realized that they laughed a lot, more than any other cultural groups I am
familiar with. Secondly they had a great concept of RELATIVES mitakuye Oyasin We are all Related
These
ancient customs which they brought it to fore, to confront the realities of
their fatal contact with outsiders, had scientific basis, I was to learn later.
I am sure
that is the scientific explanation of why KLEISHA REDUCTION also works, by its
practice of suppressing the fires of the Structural defects
(all the slides from a lecture I gave to a group of doctors}
