Stress and Its Effects
What is Stress?
Simply stated, stress is the physical response to a perceived threat to one’s well being. The body’s reaction to a stressful thought can be helpful in a “fight or flight” situation. However, when the events of day-to-day life are causing constant stress, the load on the physical body is damaging and the immune system is compromised.In addition, lifestyle habits like poor diet, lack of exercise, excess alcohol consumption and environmental stressors like air and water pollution add to the load.
Stress and Dis-Ease
It is generally accepted that stress causes dis-ease. Various sources report that:
- Forty-three percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.
- Seventy-five to 90% of all doctor's office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints.
- Stress plays a part in headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, or arthritis in addition to depression and anxiety.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) declared stress a hazard of the workplace. Stress costs American industry more than $300 billion annually.
- The lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50%, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions
- Stress is related to eating disorders and obesity which is a serious threat to our nation's overall health and medical system.
Stress is costly
The cost of stress to the economy is enormous. For example:- Americans spend nearly $90 billion seeking medical care for back pain each year
- Corporate health benefits cost the average company 45 percent of its after-tax profits
- Workers experiencing high stress were over two times more likely to be absent more than five times per year
- Cost of migraine headaches to employers ranged from $5.6 billion to $17.2 billion annually due to decreased productivity and missed work days
