All you need to know about stress

Stress gets bad press with good reason. While some degree of stress can be a normal reaction to life events and can motivate us into action, too much stress can be harmful. Here are some ways to cope when the stress becomes too much.

Women are enduring more stress at every stage of their lives than ever before – from juggling increased job pressures and family schedules to finances and careers. It’s not only dramatic life-changing events that can cause stress and affect our  health, but ongoing day-to-day demands and  tasks can add up and cause stress.

Stress is our body’s natural response to a perceived physical  threat or danger. Experiencing acute stress is  the body’s way of switching to ‘red alert’, telling the adrenal glands to pump adrenalin and cortisol into the  bloodstream, increasing blood pressure, speeding up the breath rate, and  priming the muscles for action. Ideally, once the perceived threat subsides, the body returns to  its  balanced  resting state.

The fight or flight response places acute stress on the  body, and as it’s generally a result of an incidental situation such as the threat of an intruder, an attack, or a near-accident, it is usually only a temporary event and does not have long-lasting effects on the  body or mind.

If the perceived threat does not go away, however, stress accumulates and can become toxic. When the physical effects of stress build they can cause real physical symptoms such as a dry mouth, blurred vision, heart palpitations, nausea, headaches, muscle  tension, sweating and high blood  pressure. In its most prolonged state, chronic stress has been linked to disrupted emotional wellbeing, heart disease, poor immunity, high blood pressure and cancer (though this last  link is still contentious).

While women suffer their highest rates of stress in their 20s, according to the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, these rates gradually decline over the course of women’s lives. They shrink to negligible levels for  most by the time they are in their 70s.

The good news is if you take a look at your life right now, it  is possible to pinpoint what’s causing a  build-up of teeth-grinding moments and to develop  strategies to keep stress at bay. The level of  stress we experience depends on how we respond to our perceived stressors and the way we deal with  these situations.

Resources

For further information on stress log on to www.jeanhailes.org.au or call 1800 151 441.

Information on the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health can be found at www.newcastle.edu.au/centre/wha

Thanks to the Foundation’s psychologist Janet Lowndes for her input into  this article.

Inspiration from the sea

Marinara sauce

Oysters are renowned for their powers as aphrodisiacs. In  fact, it’s the zinc which offers the  zing. But oysters are not the sole source of zinc – other seafoods, like crabs, lobsters, mussels and prawns also provide zinc and copper. In the spirit of romantic pasta eating, the Foundation’s national magazine presents a delicious marinara sauce for lazy  summer nights.

Ingredients 1 kg mussels in their shells (about 30) 1 handful cockles or pipis (optional) 200 mL water slice of lemon 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large clove garlic 1 small red chilli, seeds discarded (optional) 1 small onion 400 g ripe tomatoes A few strands of saffron (optional) 300 g scallops 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Method

Put the cleaned mussels and cockles into a broad, shallow cooking pot with the water and slice of lemon. Cover the pot and put it over a moderate heat. Let it cook for a few minutes, shaking the pan  occasionally, until the mussels and  cockles have opened.

Allow to cool enough to handle, remove them from their shells and keep to one side.

Chop the onion finely, peel and chop the tomatoes and chop the seeded chilli very finely.

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the whole peeled clove of garlic and cook until browned. Discard the garlic. Add the onion to the pan, stir for a few minutes until softened, then add the chilli, the peeled chopped tomatoes, and the saffron. Cook gently for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook the pasta while the sauce is cooking. When the pasta  is just about ready, add the scallops to the tomato sauce, then the mussels and pipis. Add the parsley at the last  moment.

Drain the pasta and put it into a heated serving bowl.  Add  the seafood sauce and some freshly ground pepper, toss  it all together and serve. Do  not  add cheese.

Variations:

• Strain the water in which the mussels were cooked and  add it to the water in which the spaghetti is cooked.

• Use prawns instead of scallops.

• Add a few oysters

• Serve with linguini or spaghetti neri (black  spaghetti).

From Color Me Healthy: why you should eat almost  everything by  Rita Erlich and Dr Alice Murkies.

You can  purchase this book online at http://shop.jeanhailes.org.au/ or  by calling tollfree on 1800 151 441.

This resource was developed with the support of the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

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The Jean Hailes Foundation magazine is designed to be informative and educational. It is not intended that The Jean Hailes Foundation magazine provide specific medical advice or replace advice from your health professional. The Jean Hailes Foundation does not accept any liability to any person for the information or advice (or the use of information or advice) which is provided in this magazine or incorporated into it by reference. Information is provided on the basis that all persons reading the magazine undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content. 

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Note: This article is an archive. Whilst the Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health has made every effort to ensure this information was accurate at the time of publication, the article content has not been updated since the date listed below.

Content created December 01, 2005