Filed under: Prevention, Mind Body medicine,
stress, Women Heart Health, Men Heart Health
In a 1949 'Conference on Life and
stress and Heart Disease', health practitioners formally recognized that
stress contributes to chronic disease. They issued a definition of
stress as: "A force which induces distress or strain upon both the emotional and physical makeup."
However, not all
stress is negative in nature-- good
stress is called 'eustress'. The difference is basically that eustress taxes the physical and emotional systems in a rewarding way, which one finds satisfying and fulfilling-- and that 'distress', or bad
stress, taxes those systems in a negative way due to boredom, under-stimulation and dissatisfaction. Another way to put it is that under eustress, one feels in control and exhilarated, while under distress one feels out of control and insecure or unsafe. It is a chronic experience of unrelenting distress that triggers heart attacks in those with pre-existing heart conditions.
It is possible to master the ability of transforming the experience of bad
stress into an experience of good
stress. The best prevention for
stress-related disease, such as those that effect the heart, is to eliminate as much bad
stress in your life as possible-- and with the rest, to change your attitude or perception of those things not in your control.
