Empowerment: The Key to a Healthy Stress Response
Noel Peterson, ND
Feeling stuck in a relentless grind at work? Does it feel like the harder you work, the more insurmountable your task - with little hope for change in the future? Your perception of lacking control in the face of work related stress may be more health damaging than the stress itself. Labor surveys show that Americans are working longer hours than ever in history and that most families have more than one wage earner in the household. Most of us cannot avoid feeling stress in our daily lives, but how our minds and bodies react to stress is what determines its impact on our health.
In a study funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, researchers from Duke University Medical Center found that people with aggressive, hard driving personalities who push themselves to perform well on the job are much more likely to suffer stress induced maladies if they feel unable to shape the course of their work destiny.
Researchers measured salivary levels of the stress hormone cortisol in 74 healthy African American men between the ages of 18 and 47. In general, workers who were more ambitious and control-oriented released higher amounts of cortisol compared to their more "mellow" co-workers. Interestingly, among the "go-getters" who also felt "unempowered" to change their workload, promotion, or salary level, cortisol levels surged dangerously high to levels associated with hypertension, heart disease, immune system breakdown, and other serious health problems.
"Vigorously responding to work stressors can be a positive coping strategy, if you have influence over the stressors you are handling," said co-author Gary Bennett, Jr. in a related press release. "But when you continually encounter stress in your job that cannot be alleviated, your body reacts to that by overproducing stress hormones."
Our Adrenal Stress Index test utilizes the same testing technology used in this study, with additions that we believe are essential to fully evaluate the impact and causes of stress on the body. Our panel measures total salivary secretory IgA, an important marker for immune function, and Antigliadin Secretory Immune Globulin A that is produced when wheat protein causes stress in the body. All together, this panel of tests provides an important window for assessing how stress is affecting the body.
Stress induced changes in cortisol and DHEA levels have direct bearing on cardiovascular health, bone integrity, mood, blood sugar metabolism, cognitive function, headaches, muscle spasms, fatigue, anxiety, premature aging, and many other conditions.
So what can you do? Start by giving yourself a big slice of your day or week devoted to charging your own batteries. Use this time for reading, exercising, long walks, or any other activity that feeds your spirit. We can help too. Our multidisciplinary approach to your stress reactions includes nutritional and herbal support to antidote stress's impact on your body, hormonal support, physical medicine techniques including Rolfing and myofascial trigger point release of stressed out muscles, fortification of the body's inner strength through acupuncture, and neutralizing emotional triggers through behavioral medicine.
Source: Bennett GG, Merritt MM, Williams RB. The effects of John Henryism and job control on cortisol responses to stress [abstract]. 21st Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine; 2000 April 5-8; Nashville (TN).