THE STRESS
EPIDEMIC
I n the clinical sense, stress refers to ‘a situation that causes
discomfort and distress for a person,’ and can lead to other
mental health problems with physical repercussions. Stress is
now considered a normal part of life, however studies show
that 75% to 90% of all doctors visits are for stress-related
issues. Stress has become a modern age epidemic.
Stress has a long list of effects on the body, including
headaches, neck pain and back pain, muscle tension, insomnia
and lack of proper sleep, digestive issues, frequent colds and
infections, low energy, clenched jaw and grinding teeth, to
name a few. The only ones reaping the rewards from stress
are Big Pharma.
The biggest problem with stress is that we have been treating
its symptoms – such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart
disease, insomnia – instead of its cause.
Children are taking more pain medications than ever before;
thirty-somethings are suffering with resurfacing acne and
digestive issues, and a compromised immune system has
become the norm, with a huge increase in older adults suffering
with shingles, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases
– all said to be enhanced by stress.
The best remedy for stress is to set limits or boundaries,
and find moments to take... a... breath… For some this may
mean cooking, or gardening, taking a yoga class, or going
out for a walk. We need to restructure our lives and learn to
live among or below our financial means, declutter, learn to
delegate and to say ‘no thank you’. It’s the realization that we
need to simplify our lives now, before we’re paying the price
through illness.•
Chocolate for stress
18
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“Slow down,
and everything you are chasing
will come around and catch you.”
– John DePaola
Managing Monkeys
In a 1974 article in the Harvard
Business Review, entitled
“Who’s Got The Monkey?”
authors William Oncken Jr.
and Donald L. Wass tell
the tale of an overburdened
manager who allows his
employees to delegate upward.
When a manager takes an
unsolved problem from his
subordinates, he is allowing a
figurative monkey to leap from
the employee’s back to his back. When a manager has too
many monkeys, he is increasing his own load, probably
failing to solve the problems effectively.
Oncken and Wass offer a well defined basic law for
‘managing monkeys’:
“At no time while I am helping you will your problem
become my problem. The instant your problem becomes
mine, you will no longer have a problem.
I cannot help someone who hasn’t got a problem.
You may ask my help at any appointed time,
and we will make a joint determination of what
the next move will be – and who will make it.”
A recent study conducted in Switzerland found
that people who rated themselves “highly stressed”
were able to lower their stress hormones after eating
chocolate every day for two weeks.
The subjects ate 1.4 oz of dark chocolate daily.
Doctors took urine and blood plasma samples at the
beginning, halfway through, and at the end of the
study, and found lower levels of the stress hormones
Cortisol and Catecholamines by the time the
two-week study concluded.
Moderation is key, of course, since most chocolates
are high in fat and sugar. Other healthy foods that
are known to help reduce stress are avocados,
swiss chard, and salmon.