Don't Sleep Your Life Away...Just Your Stress!

We've been talking a lot about that ugly word - stress - and how to combat it.  I don't know about all of you, but I have always thought the winter holiday season was pretty stressful - traveling, eating poorly, remembering gifts for everyone, combined with our busiest season at work - until now, that is.  It almost seems like I'm busier and more stressed out right now than I was during the holidays!

Well, if you haven't started on your New Year's Resolutions yet, I have a new one to add to your list: reduce stress by getting more sleep!  A new survey by Huffington Post revealed that lack of sleep was the number-one cause of stress among survey participants, and getting more sleep - even a short nap - helped alleviate that stress.

But how much sleep do you really need?  Sleeping too much can cause almost as many problems as too little, and is a major sign of depression.  Check out this article from The National Sleep Foundation to help you gauge how much is beneficial for you - you might be surprised to find you should be aiming for more hours per night.  I know I was!  I've decided that from now on, I'm going to set an alarm for 9:00 pm to remind me to start getting ready for bed.  That might be a good trick for you to use as well!

What other stress-relieving tips do you have?

~Heather

Feeling Stressed at Work?

As President Ronald Reagan said "It's true, hard work never killed anybody, but why take the chance?" With many people working hard these days, it's becoming more common to see risks of heart disease popping up in stressed individuals. Not that it hasn't been a secret that increased stress levels can lead to high  blood pressure, but work stress may be contributing to a slightly higher heart attack risk.

Recent research published in the journal Lancet shows that job strain can increase the risk of heart attack. With national unemployment at 8.1, many people are facing the pressure to perform on the job. There's nothing wrong with a little healthy competition and hard work, but let's not send our tickers into a tizzy.

This study was done over a 20 year span of time (1986-2006) and brought in data from 200,000 patients. The research found that people with highly demanding jobs and little freedom to make decisions are 23 percent more likely to have a heart attack. We can rest-assured that the risk of suffering from a heart attack due to job stress is relatively low (3.4%) compared to smoking (36%) and not exercising (12%). However, it is important to relax at the days end. The good news is that the increased risk for heart disease due to stress isn't as high as we originally thought.

What we found to be really interesting is the "fight or flight" instinct that takes over when we're stressed. It doesn't have to be job related - we have so much going on in our lives and people to take care of, that we begin to take on stresses we never thought we'd carry. It's important to remember that our stress levels affect us in many areas of our lives, be aware and find something that eases any stresses - like knitting!

What do YOU do to calm your nerves?

Want to read more? Visit ABC to read the full article. 

High Stress Job Raises Women's Risk of Heart Disease

We had a feeling stress played a part in heart attacks, but we didn't fully believe it. Last night we stumbled upon a couple of articles from ABC News and msnbc's blog outlining just what we had suspected: stress does take a toll on our hearts. We were stunned by this statistic:


"U.S. women who rated their job strain as high were 67 percent more likely to have a heart attack, and 38 percent more likely to experience a stroke or high blood pressure, compared with women who said their job strain was low."

The high levels of stress talked about in this recent study (published yesterday by PLoS One) are levels that exceed what our body can handle or properly manage. I do want to add this in, any level of stress, whether it be manageable or not, still affects our tickers. So, don't discount any level of stress!

How does high stress contribute to heart related problems? Our blood pressure increases (one of the most common risk factors), a build-up of plaque in arteries and insulin resistance. People who are under stress tend to drink or smoke excessively and have been known to have poor eating habits. All of these factors contribute to heart disease related problems and all increase when we deal with an abnormal amount of stress.

The key to managing stress? Everyone finds a different way to relax and de-stress. As avid, one might say obsessive, knitters we find that stress leaves our fingertips with knits and purls. Yoga, running and kickboxing are also great stress relievers. What's one way YOU de-stress?