Wednesday, December 8, 1999

Stress and the stressed
Stress is difficult to define in totality. "It is the sum total of all non-specific biological phenomena elicited by adverse external influences".

Stress and the stressed
By Dr S.Shah & Dr K.C. Kanwar

Stress is difficult to define in totality. "It is the sum total of all non-specific biological phenomena elicited by adverse external influences" (Dorland's Medical Dictionary). One feels stressed when one is confronted with the unexpected — for example, a near collision on the highway, or when one encounters suddenly a deadly beast on the way. In such circumstances one feels shaken and continues to be so even after the crisis is over. In the process, one feels psychologically disturbed, emotionally drained, physically sapped out and may even sweat heavily without being subjected to any physical exertion. The body reacts to stress by elevating blood pressure, increasing metabolism, boosting the heart and breath rates and by pumping three to four times more blood to the muscles. Stress spares none — not even those who advise how to prevent it.Stress, worry, tension and even anxiety are closely related terms used most often synonymically even by the experts. Stress over the extended period not only depletes the stress-related hormones but also weakens the immune system by suppressing the body's killer cells, making us vulnerable to many diseases — minor and major.

Worry is the prime contributor to human stress. According to the American Institute of Stress, as many as 90 per cent of visits to primary-care physicians are stress-related. Are all worries genuine and unavoidable? Perhaps not, considering the arithmetic of worries.

A recent international survey of worries has shown that at least in 40 per cent of the cases we worry about things which never happen at all, in 30 per cent about things which have already happened and hence cannot be remedied; 12 per cent are needless health worries and another 10 per cent are miscellaneous avoidable worries. Barely eight per cent worries, according to this survey, were genuine and the rest avoidable.

People respond to stress and anxiety variedly; some are more stress-hardy, others more worrisome but none free of these. There is a gender difference too. When men and women tend to worry about the same things, it hurts men more because they tend to keep things bottled up. Stress-hardy are those who try to solve stressful problems rather than fall victim to them. Ignoring stress or brooding over worries are counterproductive. Stress, as are worries and anxiety, though an inescapable part of human lifestyle, is manageable to a large extent even without the help of a doctor.

Signs of stress: There is no gadget which can measure stress digitally. Certainly, stress can be read on the face of the stressed. Stress affects the person as a whole. His body, mind, feelings and even behaviour are affected! The most common symptoms of stress comprise pain in the head and neck region, teeth grinding, nail nibbling, disturbed sleep and an overall nervous and shaky personality. Unmanaged stress leads to high blood pressure, migraine and even to digestive problems, including the irritable bowel syndrome and hyperacidity. Insomnia is common and so are dizziness and overall fatigue in the stressed. Other symptoms include poor concentration, vague anxiety and fear for no apparent reason. A stressed person feels suspicious of others. He drinks or smokes more than before.

What stress does to the system: The body fights stress in many ways, primarily by involving both the nervous and endocrine systems. Hypothalamus — the stress centre in the brain — responds to alarming events by altering the autonomic nervous system and by activating the pituitary gland which, in turn, signals an excess release of the stress hormones like adrenaline, cortisol etc, which put the body in a state of alertness to react appropriately and less intensely to the anxiety-provoking events. If this does not happen, the body gets worn down by constant stress-induced physiological stimulation.

The stress hormone, adrenaline, for example, raises the blood pressure. Adrenaline also stimulates the release of fatty acids and glucose into the blood stream with a view to providing fuel to the "silently fatigued" muscles but this increases the risks of strokes and heart diseases among the stressed. The underlying fear in worry also causes an increase in the level of certain neurotransmitters such as dopamine which too, like stress, hormones, helps keep the body in a state of preparedness.

How to combat stress in ways other than the body's involuntary response? There are many ways but not all individuals respond identically to any of these. The simplest strategy is "never to worry alone". Talk worries over to your confidants — it certainly helps. Adopt a healthy lifestyle. Exercise is invigorating. It dispels worries. When under tension, distract yourself by engaging in soothing activities like gardening, listening to music or watching TV. Be positive, avoid loneliness, attempt socialising and try to shun avoidable worries. There are other alternative therapies to combat worries and release tension like hypnotherapy, faith therapy, yoga and meditation, all of which seem to work but with only those who are "amenable to such approaches".

People under prolonged stress tend to have poor diets — they consume more junk food, caffeine and alcohol. Good nutrition is a powerful ally when it comes to dealing with stress. Even though there is no dietary "magic bullet" to kill stress, diet does neutralise it to a considerable extent. We do not require expensive and fancy foods to fight stress. A judicious use of the routinely available dietary items is helpful.

Dietary essentials like vitamins and minerals get depleted in many human ailments including when one is under continuous stress. The body under prolonged stress needs extra B-vitamins to keep fit the nervous system, which bears the brunt.

Anxiety, irritability and mood swings have been associated with the deficiency of B-vitamins, especially B6 found abundantly in banana and avocados. Fish in particular is rich in B vitamins. Vitamin C, and zinc supplementation, seemingly boost the immune system which is weakened during the state of prolonged stress and anxiety. Good sources of vitamin C, include citrus fruits, guavas, Indian gooseberry (amla) — and many fresh vegetables like cabbage and capsicum. In fact, any food rich in antioxidants fights stress.

Zinc, potassium and magnesium are a few minerals which, in particular, need to be replenished in the people under continuous stress — physical or psychological. Non-vegetarian foods are generally rich in zinc viz. egg yolk, meat and sea food. Oranges and bananas are rich in potassium, an electrolyte that conducts nerve impulses and helps keep the brain neurotransmitters working properly.

Other good sources of potassium include poultry, dairy products, nuts and pulses. Magnesium is another mineral crucial to the body's general defence against stress. Whole wheat is an excellent source of magnesium along with soyabeans, bananas and peanuts. Whole grains help speed supply the amino acid tryptophan to the brain that increases the levels of serotonin which acts as a sedative for the frayed nerves. Richly pigmented fruits and vegetables (like cherries, black grapes, plums, tomatoes, carrots and beetroot are rich in a variety of carotenoids and flavoniods, both of which fight free radicals produced excessively by the body under stress.

If nothing works, consult your doctor who has many drugs in his armoury to contain stress.

Let’s target men first

The global AIDS epidemic is driven by men, but many prevention programmes continue to target women instead of seeking to change men's sexual behaviour, according to a new report.

"HIV is primarily transmitted through sex between men and women," says AIDS and Men: Taking Risks or Taking Responsibility? published by the Panos Institute in London.

"But because men have more sexual partners than women, because men tend to control the frequency and form of intercourse and because women are physiologically more susceptible to HIV, it is men's behaviour which determines how quickly, and to whom, the virus is transmitted," it adds.

It is also because they are economically dependent on men, that many women are unable to convince their partners to change their behaviour, the report says.

Surveys of sexual behaviour show that in every society men also have more sexual partners than women. This means more opportunity to contract and transmit HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

The phenomenon is not restricted to one culture or region of the world. In a British survey, 24 per cent of men but only 7 per cent of women claimed 10 or more partners in their lifetime.

And a World Health Organisation study showed that in Sri Lanka, 3 per cent of women and 4 per cent of men interviewed had had at least one casual sex partner in the previous 12 months. In Guinea Bissau the figures were 38 per cent men and 19 per cent women, and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 45 per cent men and 10 per cent women. In each of the 15 other countries in the survey, more men had casual sex partners than women.

The Panos report argues that men's sexual behaviour is strongly influenced by perceptions of masculinity. Most cultures expect men to be sexually active, often with more than one partner. Men are also expected to take risks, which leads many to reject condoms as unmasculine and consider sexually transmitted infections as no more than an inconvenience. — TWMF & Panos

(To be concluded)

What’s in a face?
By Stanniforth Webb

Research at St Andrews University in Scotland has revealed that women find men with feminine features more attractive than men with masculine features. Anthropologists say the sexes have been getting more alike for the last hundred thousand years. If this is the product of growing “girl power”, the similarities are likely to go on getting greater.

Ian Penton-Voak of the University is a member of the research team involved. He says: "Men and women both prefer a female face to look more feminine than average. We looked for and identified the differences and either increased or decreased those differences (in images we showed people) and we found that men preferred women's features to look more feminine than average. Feminine features are a small chin, wide lips, a large distance between the top of the eye and the eyebrows, and thin arched eyebrows."

These features are influenced by the sex hormone oestrogen during growth and during puberty. A good supply of oestrogen is linked to health and good reproductive capacity in adult women. So the theory is that men have evolved to find attractive the faces that mean good health and plenty of children.

But how do women like men to look? Says Dr Penton-Voak, "This was a complete surprise to us. We found that women — and men — preferred slightly feminised faces."

Why? Ian Penton-Voak explains: "We think it may have something to do with the perceived personality that people attribute to these faces — like warmth, honesty and goodness as a parent." — Courtesy: BIS

Shopmobility for the disabled
By Alan Osborne

For most British people, shopping in large stores in city centres is an agreeable activity. But for the disabled, shops can be forbidding places, difficult to get into and even harder to move around in.

But things are much better today than they were even five years ago, thanks to the Shopmobility movement. In essence, Shopmobility seeks to provide disabled people with the means of moving about within town and city centres and within individual stores under their own control and at their own pace.

This normally means the free use of wheelchairs or electric scooters provided at the site and backed up by the attendance of shop staff and volunteers. There is a National Federation of Shopmobility (NFS) but in practice each scheme is independent in its operation and its financing pattern.

Shopmobility began in the early 1980s when three disabled members of a driving club in the town of Peterborough mounted an active campaign to persuade the town to provide facilities for disabled people in a planned new shopping development. As a result, the first Shopmobility was created in 1981. By the end of 1996 the number of Shopmobility schemes had grown to more than 150.

Mrs Joss McLeod, National Officer of the NFS, says that on an average about 70 per cent of the initial capital — for buying wheelchairs and scooters, etc — for Shopmobility schemes is provided by charities, 25 per cent by local authorities and the remaining 5 per cent by businesses themselves. Running costs are mostly met by the local government.

For a Shopmobility scheme to be included in local road-signs, the Department of Transport insists on the scheme being open to all people with disabilities. In addition, it should have both manual and powered vehicles, should be within 40 m of a dedicated car-park; and be open for at least four hours on normal shopping days.

For disabled people, the merits of the scheme are self-evident. For shops, there is the additional bonus that it brings in more customers and burnishes the shop's reputation for public spiritedness in the community.