Stress Really Is Killing Us
Mladenoff Clinic of AZ • July 15, 2018
There are new clues that the high levels of stress many people endure every day are taking a deadly toll.
White, working-class Americans are dying in middle age at a rapidly increasing pace, reversing a long-standing trend toward greater life expectancy across all races and social classes, according to a
new report
from economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton.
Daniel Keating
Much of this alarming trend comes from "deaths of despair," especially opioid addictions and overdoses, suicide, and alcohol-related diseases. To stem this epidemic, they argue that we need to understand the underlying reasons why this is happening. Case and Deaton make a plausible case that "slow moving and cumulative" social forces -- lack of labor market opportunities and fraying of the accustomed social fabric -- are key explanations. They reject arguments that attribute this trend to income alone or to a decline in virtue.
But an even more basic cause lies hidden at the intersection of psychology and biology -- a widespread stress epidemic that is affecting this group dramatically at the present but threatens all of us unless we soon understand the source of this trend and take steps to address it.
Stress-related disorders and diseases have been on the rise in the whole population for decades, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including those leading to these deaths of despair, but also to
heart disease,
obesity, and
diabetes.
National
surveys by the American Psychological Association
that also capture how stressed, anxious and overwhelmed we feel show a similar increasing pattern. And it shows up in our bodies, even before we get sick or start down the many roads to self-harm.
A recent
study by the Hamilton Project
looked at the "physiological stress load" in the US using biological markers tied to cardiovascular, kidney and liver function to create a stress load index. This physical stress load, a precursor to many diseases, has increased in striking fashion since the late 1970s, and it is getting worse as each new age group enters adulthood.
We should see this increase in mortality for what it is -- a leading indicator of what could be in store for many of us. What social forces are producing the broader stress epidemic, and how do they "get under the skin" to cause long-term damage? One major clue comes from a closer look at the stress load index.
It has increased for everyone, but with marked inequality -- it has risen more sharply for those with fewer social and economic resources but also more for the middle class compared to the well off. There is a clear line that connects increasing inequality in income and opportunities, to increases in stress and mortality that hits some groups earlier than others.
A central biological pathway is from excess cortisol -- the fight-or-flight hormone -- that characterizes being over-stressed for long periods of time. This "stress dysregulation" leads to risky health decisions, like addiction or overeating, and directly to many health problems linked to excess cortisol.
Why are white, working-class Americans showing the earliest effects? Surely African-Americans and Hispanics have been experiencing inequality at equal or higher levels over these same decades. The key lies in different starting points in perceptions of control -- stress is largely a psychosocial phenomenon, though, of course, material deprivation also plays a role.
Minorities have gained some ground materially, in relative terms, over recent decades, but they also did not start with an assumption of being in control in the wider society. Losing a sense of control that you believed you had, whether real or not, justified or not, creates stressful dislocations.
We have seen this pattern before. In the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the group that saw itself as having substantial control -- middle-aged Russian men in particular -- experienced a similar loss of control, economically and in terms of cultural identity as the "socialist vanguard." They also
died younger, suffering dramatic increases in early mortality.
If we understand what is actually happening -- socially, psychologically and biologically -- we can see that this effect is not going to be limited to just one group in the future. My colleagues and I have reported a pattern of increasing inequality being tied to worsening population outcomes -- not for mortality, but for the health, achievement and social engagement of adolescents in rich Western countries. But what we also found was that this was not inevitable.
Countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Sweden and others) that controlled income inequality and maintained investments in human development -- such as early childhood and parenting support, education, and social safety nets in health care and unemployment -- did not experience these increasing problems in adolescent and youth development.
Slow-moving and cumulative social forces "get under the skin" early in life and can show up decades later in morbidity and mortality. The risk is magnified in light of very recent research showing that high levels of stress experienced by expectant mothers or by babies can make fundamental biological changes in infancy -- through what are known as epigenetic changes, which alter how genes work -- that can endure over a lifetime.
This burden of stress dysregulation in young Americans from early life adversity amplifies the stress epidemic by making more of us vulnerable, and by increasing the total amount of ambient stress we all experience everyday in our schools, our workplaces, our social media, on our highways, in our malls -- in effect, throughout our communities.
Increasing inequality and decreasing investment in human development place all of us at risk -- a stressful recognition itself in the current political environment where there is the potential for going even further in the risky direction. Resisting these trends is essential to health, because the consequences will show up for all of us for decades to come.
Source: CNN.com Read the full article here.
Schedule an appointment. Call or Text (602) 524-0222. Email us at info@mladenoffclinicaz.com
As loving and caring parents, we naturally want to help our children feel better when the inevitable fevers, colds, and illnesses arise. Many of us will reach for popular over-the-counter remedies to suppress fever and alleviate symptoms, in the belief that these products are reliable. Yet, it is important to recognize that by suppressing fever, we are suppressing a critical immune response—one that has a necessary function in fighting illness. I can attest to the enormous fear that fever provokes in parents. By far, the greatest number of after-hours telephone calls are questions regarding the “management” of fever with drugs. Undue attention to a child’s temperature and mishandling of fevers generate a great deal of unwarranted parental anxiety, avoidable medical complications, and countless calls and costly visits to doctors and emergency rooms. As long as we remain captive to the medical myth that nature made a mistake in causing a fever during illness, our children will be put at risk. Yes, fever can be uncomfortable. A child with a high fever will often seem irritable, lethargic, glassy eyed, and listless. This alerts you that the body is mobilizing defense against disease and you, in turn, must care for your child in the most appropriate way: encouraging rest and fluids. On the other hand, there may be no reason to treat even a high fever if your child seems happy, active and alert. The pervasive belief that fever is dangerous and must be suppressed disregards the scientific evidence demonstrating its beneficial role in inflammatory diseases. The immune system depends on the fever to accomplish myriad tasks when gearing up to fight infections. “Fever phobia” is made worse by hearing myths about children being severely harmed by having a high fever. Many people know of children or adults who had a high fever and ended up with some sort of injury…brain damage or hearing loss. These problems are never caused by fever. The likely explanation is that they had a serious illness that gave them a fever, but it was the illness that caused the brain damage or other result. The fever was only the body’s attempt to fight the infection. “Doctors do a great disservice to you and your child when they prescribe drugs to reduce fever,” writes Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, pediatrician and author of How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor. “Fever phobia is a disease of pediatricians, not parents, and to the extent that parents are victimized by it, doctors are at fault.” Parents are left to fear that their child’s temperature will keep rising unless measures are taken to control it. Yet, reducing the child’s temperature will do nothing to make the child well, and our bodies have a built-in mechanism that will prevent an infection-induced temperature from reaching dangerous levels. Mendelsohn emphasizes that “only in the case of heatstroke, poisoning, or other externally caused fevers is this body mechanism overwhelmed and inoperative.” “Fever: Your Body’s Defense Against Disease” is the title of Chapter 7 in Dr. Mendelsohn’s book, an excellent resource for parents seeking a balanced and accurate perspective of the beneficial role of fevers in childhood. Dr. Mendelsohn condemns the useless and dangerous practice of fever suppression through drugs, and counters the myth that high fever causes seizures. “Many parents are fearful of fevers because they have witnessed a convulsive seizure and believe their child may experience one if the body temperature is allowed to rise too high. High fevers do not cause convulsions. They result when the temperature rises at an extremely rapid rate and are relatively uncommon.” Only a small percentage of children with high fever experience convulsions, and those who do suffer them do not have any aftereffects. Simple febrile seizures are self-limited and harmless, although they are one of the most frightening things that a parent can witness. Dr. Mendelsohn continues, “Fevers produced by viral or bacterial infections will not cause brain damage or permanent physical harm. Fevers are a common symptom in children and are not an indication of serious illness unless associated with major changes in appearance and behavior or other additional symptoms such as respiratory difficulty, extreme listlessness, or loss of consciousness. The height of fever is not a measure of the severity of the illness.” A child who appears very ill with a fever of 101°F would be much more of a concern to me than a child who feels fine, is drinking and playing, but has a fever of 105°F. Numerous studies have shown that fever enhances the immune response by disabling bacteria and viruses. Also, with a rise in temperature, iron is removed from the blood and stored in the liver, further disabling the rate at which bacteria can multiply. As a note of caution, when a fever arises in a newborn in the first few weeks after birth, there is a heightened level of concern. “Newborn babies may suffer infections related to obstetrical interventions during delivery, …aspiration pneumonia from amniotic fluid forced into the lungs because of overmedication of the mother during delivery…and exposure to the legion of germs that abound in the hospital itself,” writes Dr. Mendelsohn. Parents are advised to seek medical help if a baby runs a fever in the first two months after birth. As breastfeeding plays a critical role in preventing infections in infants, breastfed babies are superbly protected against a vast range of pathogens and have a lesser risk of developing fevers in the newborn phase. Mistrust of natural processes and reliance on drug-oriented medicine has obscured parents’ understanding of the importance of childhood illnesses and the necessity of fever as a vital aspect of the immune system. When a child has a fever, it is not necessary to artificially lower the temperature. It is, however, important for the child to take in plenty of fluids, because in this time of elevated body temperature, it is easy to become dehydrated. Broth, liquid electrolytes, and fruit juices are great choices because they replace electrolytes that are used up in the fever process. Rest during times of fever will allow the body to use its energy to fight off infection. Make a commitment to spend time with your sick child. Any time that you feel concerned about the way your child is acting, or if your instinct is that something is wrong, do not hesitate to call your doctor. Schedule an appointment with Dr. D by calling or texting our Arizona Wellness Clinic at 1 (602) 524-0222. Source: Susan Markel, MD, via Pathways linked here.
Have you ever noticed how stress settles in your shoulders, anxiety affects your stomach, or grief feels heavy in your chest? While modern medicine recognizes that emotional stress can influence physical health, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has explored this mind-body connection for thousands of years. In TCM, emotions and physical health are deeply interconnected. Each major organ system is associated with specific emotional patterns, and maintaining balance is thought to support both emotional and physical well-being.
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