We know that most of the problems faced by employees in the corporate sector are related to lack of physical activity and stress. But how exactly does stress affect one’s health? To know that, we need to have an in-depth understanding of stress.

WHAT IS STRESS?

Stress is an adaptive response. It is the ‘wear & tear’ our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment. It’s the body reaction to an event that is seen as emotionally disturbing, disquieting or threatening. When we perceive such an event, we experience what one stress researcher, Walter Cannon, called the ‘fight or flight response’. To prepare for fighting or fleeing, the body increases its heart rate, blood pressure, more blood is sent to the heart and the muscles and the respiratory rate increases. As a positive influence, stress can help compel us into action; it results in a new awareness and an exciting new perspective. As a negative influence, it results in feelings of distrust, rejection, anger and depression, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, hypertension, heart diseases and stroke.

ASSOCHAM ON STRESS

According to the ASSOCHAM survey (July 2006) among the top 270 CEOs in India, 66% were under stress, out of which 11% found job stress too much to handle. Moreover, there was a clear lack of understanding about stress, how it is caused, and how it affects health. Some of the stress busters that were being used were: spending time with family and friends, reading books, yoga and listening to music.

This study and various other similar studies point at the need of the hour, that is Stress Management through techniques, which not only help us to relax physically and mentally but also help in handling and cope with each arising situation competently.

HOW DOES STRESS AFFECT YOU?

While a certain level stress is necessary to avoid boredom, high levels of stress over a sustained period can damage your health. There are various common symptoms of stress, which in isolation may or may not show stress, but several together show that stress is having an effect. The symptoms can be grouped in to the following sections:

• Physical symptoms

• Performance effects

PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS

These mainly occur as your body adapts to perceived physical threat and are caused by release of adrenaline. Although you may perceive these as unpleasant and negative, they are signs that your body is ready for the explosive action that assists survival or high performance. Faster heart beat, increased sweating, cool skin, cool hands and feet, feelings of nausea or ‘butterflies in stomach’, rapid breathing, tense muscles, dry mouth, desire to urinate and diarrhea are the symptoms of survival stress, or the ‘fight or flight’ response. All this is the end result of the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.

PERFORMANCE EFFECTS

Adrenaline has various negative effects negative effects in situations where ‘Fight or Flight’ is not the case.

• It interferes with clear judgment and makes it difficult to make the time to make good decisions.

• It can seriously reduce your enjoyment of work.

• Where you need good physical skills, it gets in the way of fine motor control.

• It causes difficult situations to be seen as a threat and not a challenge.

• It consumes mental energy in distraction, anxiety, frustration and temper. This is energy that should be devoted to the work in hand.

• It damages the positive frame of mind you need for quality work by:

• Promoting negative thinking

• Damaging self confidence

• Narrowing attention

• Disrupting focus and concentration

• Making it difficult to cope with distractions.

Continuous sympathetic stimulation for longer periods of time due to prolonged stress leads to various health problems. Various studies have shown that stress at work place leads to hypertension as well as bowel disorders.

A study done in Laval University, Quebec revealed that at workplace, cumulative exposure to job strain resulted in significant increases systolic blood pressure. Women were also found to be prone to the same problems, but the effects on men were more pronounced.