Modern life is full of pressure, frustration, and stress. Worrying about job security, being overworked, driving in rush-hour traffic, arguing with your spouse, even dealing with medical bills—all these create stress.

According to a recent survey by the American Psychology Association, more than half of all Americans report being concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives. Most people are feeling overscheduled, overextended, and overstressed. By far, the most commonly reported source of stress in people’s lives is workplace stress.

A Northwestern National Life Insurance Company study found that one in four employees rank their jobs as the greatest source of stress in their lives. And according to Gallup, 80 percent of employees suffer from job stress, with nearly 40 percent reporting that they need help in managing their stress.

According to a Princeton Survey Research study, three-quarters of employees believe that there is more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.

Many studies suggest that stress is a contributing factor in the development of chronic and degenerative conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. High stress levels at work also lead to job burnout, reduction in productivity, ill health, job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and increased turnover.

How Stress Affects Your Body

 When you experience stress, your pituitary gland responds by increasing the release of a hormone called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). When the pituitary gland sends out this burst of ACTH, it is like an alarm system going off deep inside your brain. This alarm tells your adrenal glands, situated atop your kidneys, to release a flood of stress hormones into your bloodstream, including cortisol and adrenaline. These stress hormones cause a whole series of physiological changes in your body which can increase your heart rate and blood pressure, shut down your digestive system, and alter your immune system. Once the perceived threat is gone, the levels of cortisol and adrenaline in your bloodstream decline, at which point your heart rate and blood pressure and all of your other body functions return to normal.

If stressful situations pile up one after another, your body has no chance to recover. The long-term continuous activation of the stress-response system can disrupt almost all of your body’s processes. Here are the ways different systems of your body respond to stress:

• Digestive system: Stomachache or diarrhea is very common when you’re stressed. Stress hormones slow the release of stomach acid and the emptying of the stomach. The same hormones also stimulate the colon, which speeds the passage of its contents.
• Immune system: Chronic stress tends to dampen your immune system, making you more susceptible to colds and other infections. Typically, your immune system responds to infection by releasing several substances that cause inflammation. Chronic systemic inflammation contributes to the development of many degenerative diseases.
• Nervous system: Stress has been linked with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and dementia. Over time, the chronic release of cortisol can cause damage to several structures in the brain. Excessive amounts of cortisol can also cause sleep disturbances and a loss of sex drive.
• Cardiovascular system: As mentioned earlier, stress causes an increase in both heart rate and blood pressure and increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Each person may react to a specific stressor differently. Some people are naturally laid-back about almost everything, while others react strongly at the slightest hint of stress. If you have had any of the following conditions, it may be a sign that you are suffering from stress:

• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Back pain
• Relationship problems
• Constipation
• Shortness of breath
• Depression
• Stiff neck
• Fatigue
• Upset stomach
• Weight gain or loss
• Diarrhea

The Economic Costs of Stress

 Job stress costs American businesses hundreds of billions of dollars a year in employee burnout, turnover, higher absenteeism, lower production, and increased health care costs. The American Psychological Association estimates that 60 percent of all absences are due to stress-related issues, costing US companies more than $57 billion a year. Workers reporting themselves as “stressed” incur health care costs that are 46 percent higher, or $600 more per person, than other employees. American businesses spend more than $26 billion each year in disability payments and medical bills for stress-related conditions.1-2

It is little wonder, then, that the rising cost of health insurance has become the single biggest expense facing many American businesses. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2004 Annual Employer Health Benefits Survey, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums increased an average of 11.2 percent in 2004—the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth—and these premiums rose at a rate about five times that of inflation and workers’ earnings. Cardiovascular disease, America’s number one killer, affects 71 million Americans each year, and costs the nation nearly $400 billion in treatment and lost productivity—and that is only one of many conditions proven to be related to stress!

The Health Effects of Work Stress

• Twice the rate of heart and cardiovascular problems
• Two to three times the rate of anxiety, depression and demoralization
• Twice the rate of substance abuse
• Two to three times the rate of infectious diseases
• Five times the rate of certain cancers
• Three times the rate of back pain
• Two to three times the rate of interpersonal conflicts
• Two to three times the rate of injuries

Personal Impact

Stress is a very expensive epidemic, because it not only leads to direct costs of its own but also aggravates just about every other form of illness. Like every other national expense, the health care costs of stress have to come from our pockets, in the form of taxes, increased product costs, and health insurance premiums. Current estimates say that stress costs every person in America $195 per year, or $780 for a family of four. This does not even take into account the extra expense incurred by the effects of stress on other conditions, such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, and chronic pain. According to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, health care expenditures are nearly 50 percent greater for workers reporting high levels of stress.

Stress not only affects your health and your pocketbook, but it seeps into every aspect of your life, slowly sapping the joy out of your day-to-day activities. In fact, stress—particularly financial stress—is one of the most common reasons why families split apart. It is also the leading cause of a whole host of psychological, emotional, and social ills, including violence, depression, and substance abuse.1-2

Our Personal Health Care Bill

(based on a family of four) Heart Disease $5,520 / year $460 / month Cancer $2,876 / year $240 / month Diabetes $1,808 / year $151 / month Chronic Pain $1,643 / year $137 / month Stress $ 780 / year $ 65 / month (Calculated by taking the total health care cost of these diseases and dividing it by the total population.)

Did You Know?

• Workplace stress costs the nation more than $300 billion each year in health care, missed work and stress reduction efforts.
• Stress is responsible for 19 percent of employee absenteeism and 40 percent of employee turnover. • Stress is responsible for creating 60 percent of the cost of workplace accidents.
• Research shows that 60 to 90 percent of doctor visits are stress-related.
• A landmark 20-year study conducted by the University of London concluded that unmanaged reactions to stress were a more dangerous risk factor for cancer and heart disease than either cigarette smoking or high cholesterol foods.
• 90 percent of all disease is caused or complicated by stress.

Current Treatments

Unlike most other diseases that affect Americans, there really isn’t any routine medical treatment for stress. Some doctors will prescribe antidepressants, such as Zoloft® or Prozac®, while others will prescribe an anxiolytic medication, such as imipramine or Buspar®. Because stress is due to an emotional reaction to life events and is not a biochemical condition like diabetes, drugs have a limited ability to alleviate stress. The most effective way to help relieve stress is through lifestyle habits such as improved spinal alignment, exercise, breathing exercises, and coping strategies.

Lifestyle Solutions

After decades of research, it is clear that the negative effects associated with stress are real. Fortunately, many companies have been taking the lead in addressing the epidemic of stress by instituting workplace wellness programs that include a significant stress-reduction component. The most effective of these programs are the ones that integrate physical activity and nutritional programs alongside stress-management training. Businesses that have instituted activity-based workplace wellness programs have enjoyed a $3.00-$5.00 return on every dollar invested in the form of decreased health care costs, decreased absenteeism, increased productivity, decreased employee turnover, and reduced insurance costs.

The Congressional Caucus on “Stress Prevention: Its Impact on Health and Medical Savings” found that “some of the leading conditions that cause the greatest health burden in this country—heart disease, stroke, cancer, and severe depression —are linked to stress and to a large extent are preventable.” One study on the risk of heart disease found that employees who are involved in an activity-based stress-reduction program at work have only one-third of the heart-related conditions afflicting those who were not involved. In addition, one-time cardiac patients, by learning to manage stress, reduced their risk of having another heart attack or heart problem by 74 percent!4 Although you may not always be able to avoid stressful situations, there are a number of things that you can do to reduce the effect stress has on your body. 

Exercise

Exercise is a good way to deal with stress because it is a healthy way to relieve your pent-up energy and tension. It also helps you get in better shape, which makes you feel better overall. By getting physically active, you can decrease your levels of anxiety and stress, and elevate your moods. Numerous studies have shown that people who begin exercise programs, either at home or at work, demonstrate a marked improvement in their ability to concentrate, are able to sleep better, suffer from fewer illnesses, suffer from less pain, and report a much higher quality of life than those who do not exercise. This is even true of people who had not begun an exercise program until they were in their 40s, 50s, 60s or even 70s. So if you want to feel better and improve your quality of life, get active!

Spinal Alignment

One of the consequences of stress is a tendency to unconsciously tense up our muscles—especially in the upper back and shoulder region. This chronic tension, often coupled with poor posture, frequently causes the vertebrae of the spine to become misaligned. As you read in previous chapters, this misalignment causes irritation of the spinal nerves, and this irritation, in turn, often leads to more muscle tension. In this way, muscle tension becomes both the cause and the consequence of stress—all the while, the misalignments of the spine worsen. This vicious cycle will continue until the affected area of the spine is realigned. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this on your own; it requires the care of a spinal alignment specialist. Most people experience a noticeable improvement in their stress almost immediately after a spinal adjustment.

Nutritional Supplements

There are two types of nutritional supplements that can help with stress: those that help to reduce stress, and those that help the body better cope with the effects of stress. Supplements that help to reduce stress belong to a class of herbs that help the body relax. Herbs such as chamomile, skullcap, valerian, and lavender help to clear a hurried mind and calm intense emotions. People typically drink these herbs as teas.

Supplements to help the body better cope with the physical effects of stress are the B-vitamins and zinc. When you are under stress, your need for zinc and the B-vitamins goes up considerably. If you don’t have enough of these, your health will suffer, which is why people often become sick when they are under a lot of stress. Taking a B-complex supplement along with zinc will help to protect your body from the negative effects of stress.

Healthy Thinking

Most stress is caused by two factors: dealing with change and feeling out of control of the events in our life. While we cannot always foresee the changes we will face in our lives, we can exert control over how we plan to meet each day: we can choose whether we shall act with purpose throughout our day or whether we shall simply react to what life throws at us. Being in a reactive mode is a very stressful place to be. External events seem to control your actions, rather than your actions determining the external events in your life.

Psychologists call this the “locus of control.” Those with an external locus of control—in which the external world dictates their actions—are always in a state of anxiety and stress and frequently suffer from depression. Conversely, those with an internal locus of control, who act with purpose regardless of how chaotic their external environment is, experience a greater sense of peace and empowerment.

Most Americans have an external locus of control and, because our world is in a constant state of change, feel stressed much of the time. The simplest way to shift from the stressful external locus of control to a tranquil internal locus of control is to take charge of the events in your life.

An event, in this context, can be any activity you engage in: a phone call, dinner, a meeting, watching television. List all of the events that you participate in on a daily basis and decide which ones are genuinely important to you and which ones matter less. For example, is spending time with your child or partner more important than watching the depressing evening news?

Once you have your list, schedule your time to act on those things that have the highest value to you. This brings you to an internal locus of control. Too often, we focus on things that seem urgent at the expense of things that are truly important. The key here is to act with purpose and to avoid procrastination. Procrastination is the killer of dreams. When we procrastinate, our events control us, our stress level increases, and we don’t feel good about ourselves.

Relaxation Techniques

There are a variety of ways to relax and there is no one way that is best for everyone. The most important point is to make relaxation a habit. Some people feel guilty about relaxing because they think they always have to be accomplishing something. Well, the good news is that relaxing is accomplishing something. It is giving your mind and body the opportunity to rest and rejuvenate, which are essential to a sense of health and well-being. There is more information about relaxation in chapter 12.