The Scenario
It's 6 am and your alarm clock goes off screaming at you with that horrible noise. You hit that snooze button to squeeze an extra 5 minutes of rest in hopes that it will make a difference. You run out of the house and inevitably you hit traffic. Your late for work again and the boss isn't happy. He gives you a warning and sends you off. Now it's time to refocus because you have to catch up on all that excess work from last week. Your mind is racing and you don't know where to begin. Later in the day your neck and lower back start to ache and a headache is approaching. You find it increasingly hard to concentrate with the task at hand. It seems the more stressed you get, the more your muscles and head start to ache. If only life could be a little easier.
Welcome to corporate America, where information moves fast and stress reigns. The situation described above is chronic stress and it effects millions of Americans. Technological advances were designed to make our lives easier but in essence it has only made it more complicated. Information grows so fast because we're always moving towards the future, which has caused the job market to become extremely competitive. Stress is inevitable and some is good (eustress) and some is bad (distress). Without stress, our lives would be boring and unfulfilling. However, too much stress or lack of ability to handle the stress, results in disease. Research is illustrating that even simple everyday stressors can affect our health and well being.
|
 |
What Is Stress?
Distress can be defined as a perceived inability to cope with perceived or real threat to one's mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well being, which results in a series of physiological responses and adaptations. Hans Selye, M.D. coined the term General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) to describe the 3 phases of the stress response.
GAS
Alarm Phase - Acute stress response or the flight or fight response. The body senses the stimulus sent by the brain and physiological triggering mechanisms to activate the nervous system and hormone release.
Resistance Phase - Back to homeostasis or balance to recover from stress inflicted.
Exhaustion Phase - Exhaustion of organ, death disease. Result of chronic stress and lack of coping ability.
When the body is stressed, stress hormones known as catecholamines or adrenaline, are released by the adrenal gland to elicit the fight or flight response. It doesn't matter whether the stress is physical or mental, the stress response is the same either way. The only difference in the stress response is the amount. The result is an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, fatty acids, glucose, and cholesterol in the blood. The fight or flight response was designed for movement, however, in the corporate environment there is no form of catharsis. Since energy floods the body and there is no efficient way to burn the fuel, fatty acids are placed in arteries to form plaque.
Side Effects Of Stress
Stress can eventually lead to the risk of heart disease, anxiety, depression, lowered immunity, diabetes, burnout, lack of concentration/focus, general fatigue, and musculoskeletal disorders.
Common muscular symptoms from stress and non/functional workstations are tightness in the lower back, neck, and shoulders. Being seated in a position for an extended period of time can result in taut and/or weak muscles in the entire body. After the common cold, problems associated with low back pain are the most frequent cause of lost workdays in adults. Carpel Tunnel Syndrome is another occurrence caused by a non-functional workstation.
This website is loaded with invaluable techniques to improve one's coping ability for stress. Acquiring these coping tools can help you live a happier, healthier, and more productive life.
INDEX | HOME | ERGONOMICS | ABOUT US | SERVICES | STRESS MANAGEMENT
© Health & Fitness Solutions, LLC • info@hfsworld.com • design by www.sarinaadams.com