Occupational Stress

Before proceeding, answer the following questions to get a better handle on occupational stress. If you are presently employed, answer these questions as they relate to your job. If you are not working now but have worked, answer these questions as they relate to your last job.

How often do you feel that you have too little authority to carry out your responsibilities?

How often do you think that the amount of work you have to do may interfere with how well it is done?

How often do you not know what opportunities for advancement or promotion exists for you?

How often do you think you will not be able to satisfy the conflicting demands of various people around you?

How often do you worry about decisions that affect the lives of people you know?

How often do you feel unable to influence your immediate supervisor’s decisions and actions that affect you?

How often do you feel that your job affects your family life?

How often do you feel that you may not be liked and accepted by people at work?

What is Occupational Stress?
Occupational stress is an extremely difficult construct to define. Obviously, it is stress on the job, but stress on the job occurs in a person. Here is where we run into problems, since any worker brings to the job a level of predisposition to be stressed. Several sources of occupational stress exist. Some of these stressors are intrinsic to the job. Some are related to the employee’s role within the organization, some to career development, some to relationships at work, and some to the structure and climate of the organization.

Interacting with these work stressors are the individual’s characteristics. These are brought to the workplace rather than being a function of it, but they are important ingredients in occupational stress, nevertheless. These characteristics include the worker’s level of anxiety and neuroticism, tolerance of ambiguity, and Type A behavior pattern.

Added to the brew are the sources of stress that come from outside the workplace and outside the worker. These extra organizational sources of stress come from family problems, life crises, financial matters, and environmental factors. Mix it all up and out come symptoms of occupational health problems that may develop into full-blown disease. Different workers have different levels of anxiety and tolerances of ambiguity, and different workers experience different amounts of family and financial problems. To assume that all of these ingredients can be quantified is naïve.

Why is Occupational Stress of Concern?
One of the reasons why occupational stress has been receiving so much attention of late is that businesses are genuinely beginning to care about employee welfare. You don’t buy that? Well, how about this? Work stress is costing businesses billions of dollars.

It is estimated by the International Labor Organization that stress on the job costs businesses over $200 billion annually. These costs include salaries for sick days, costs of hospitalization and outpatient care, and costs related to decreased productivity. Other stress-related factors are catching the eyes of business leaders. For instance, health-benefit costs to employers have increased dramatically.

Employees trained over a long period of time, at great cost, may break down when stressed on the job. They may make poor decisions, miss days of work, begin abusing alcohol and other drugs, or die and have to be replaced by other workers who need training. All of these are costly.

American businesses have taken note of employer-employee relationships. Fear of government regulation in support of employee health has led some businesses to act now rather than “under the gun” later. In an attempt to attract the best employees, some companies have beefed up their fringe-benefit packages. Programs to reduce occupational stress and promote physical fitness are included as such inducements.

Occupational Stress and Disease
The link between occupational stress and disease is a difficult one to prove since the workers’ characteristics and the stressors outside of the workplace complicate this relationship. There is, however, evidence that supports the conclusion that occupational stress is related to illness and disease. This evidence falls into two categories: physiological and psychological.

Physiological
Physiological arousal accompanies occupational stress. Airplane pilots have been found to have an elevated heart rate and military pilots have elevated blood pressure during takeoff and landing. However, blue-collar jobs that are paced by machines have also been found to be physiologically arousing. Further, jobs that involve a hurried pace and relative lack of control over that pace by the worker lead to increased heart and blood pressure rates.

Many studies have implicated occupational stress in the development of illness and disease. The relationship of cardiovascular disease to occupational stress has been a consistent finding among researchers. In addition to coronary heart disease, work stress has been linked to hypertension, diabetes, and peptic ulcers.

Psychological
Occupational stress also has consequences for your psychological health. For example, it has been found that some occupational stressors can result in low self-esteem, increased job tension, and lower job satisfaction.

Occupational Stressors
Workers report more occupational stress when work objectives are unclear, when they have conflicting demands placed upon them, when they have too little or too much to do, when they have little input into decisions that affect them, and when they are made responsible for other workers’ professional development.

Lack of Participation
One of the factors of the workplace and the organization’s modus operandi that is related to stress is the degree of participation. Workers’ perceptions of the degree of participation in the decision-making process, the degree to which they are consulted on issues affecting the organization, and their involvement in establishing rules of behavior at work have proven to be related to job satisfaction, job-related feelings of threat, and feelings of self-esteem. Others have found that nonparticipation is related to overall poor physical health, escapist drinking, depression, dissatisfaction with life, low motivation to work, intention to leave the job, and absenteeism.

Role Problems
A clear sense of your role in an organization and a sense that you can ‘play the part’ are important in keeping stress at a minimum. A variety of role-related problems may arise for workers who lack these feelings.

Role Overload
When job demands are so great that the worker feels an inability to cope, stress will develop. You can imagine the feeling of having too much to do in too little time.

Role Insufficiency
When workers lack the training, education, skills, or experience to accomplish the job, they feel stressed. A poor fit between workers’ talents and the organization’s expectations creates disharmony and dissatisfaction.

Role Ambiguity
When aspects of the job and workplace are unclear, frustration and stress are likely to develop. Workers should know the criteria for career advancement, the priorities of the organization, and generally, what is expected of them.

Role Conflict
Sometimes, workers are caught in a bind. Two supervisors each expect something different. The worker may be faced with conflicting demands. This is the ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ dilemma.

Job Dissatisfaction
The factors that are typically thought related to dissatisfaction on the job are salary and conditions of the workplace. However, even if workers were paid well and worked in hygienic conditions, they might still be dissatisfied. A class of work related factors, called motivational factors can affect job dissatisfaction. These factors include the degree of stimulating tasks involved, the amount of recognition for jobs done well, relationships with fellow workers, and the amount of encouragement to take on responsibility.

The Workaholic
Too much work, even if you enjoy it, can itself be an occupational stressor. Some of us either enjoy our work so much or find so little pleasure in our nonworking lives that we immerse ourselves in our jobs.

Workaholics have the following characteristics:

Tend to become energetic and intense
Prefer work to play
Sleep less than most people
Tend to blur the distinction between work and play
Have difficulty taking vacations
Can and do work anywhere and everywhere
Spend most of their waking time working
Frequently eat while they work
Work hard at making the most of their time
To combat workaholic, try these tips:

Focus on the work you most love doing, and try to find ways to stop doing, delegate, or minimize the parts of your work that you dislike.

Try to stay in touch with the positive aspects of your work; the pleasure of doing work that fulfills you, the freedom, the opportunity to be of service to others, or other aspects of your work you find rewarding.

Ask yourself, “What work would I do for free?” Then try to evolve your work in that direction.

Schedule open time into your work life. If, for instance, you now schedule work-related appointments every thirty minutes, try to evolve toward scheduling them every forty-five minutes instead.

Decorate your workplace to create an environment that pleases you. You deserve it.

Build friendships at work. Arrange to spend quality time with coworkers.

Use your time; don’t let it use you. Decide how much time you want to spend working, and then limit your work time accordingly. For example, you might arrange to stop working at 5:30 pm by making a commitment to go running with a friend every workday at 5:45.

Learn to say “no” to demands on your time. If this is difficult, say that you’d like some time to think about it, then say “no” later.

Heavy involvement in work usually entitles you to have a good deal to say about the way you work. How might you change or restructure your work to make it more fulfilling?

The workaholic enjoys work and, therefore, might not notice the harm it is doing. The family often suffers more than the workaholic since time is taken away from them. Family responsibilities are also added to them because of the workaholic’s work style. To intervene between workaholism and poor family health, time should be scheduled for family activities that will get the workaholic away from the telephone and job commitments.

Burnout
Too much work or frequent frustration at work can lead to a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion. This syndrome is called burnout. Burnout is an adverse work stress reaction with psychological, psychophysiological, and behavioral components. Moreover, burnout appears to be a major factor in low worker morale, high absenteeism and job turnover rates, physical illness and distress, increased alcohol and drug use, marital and family conflict, and various other problems.

The symptoms of burnout include:
Internal changes: emotional exhaustion, loss of self-esteem, depression, frustration, and a trapped feeling

Self-medication: increased use of alcohol, tranquilizers, and other mood-altering drugs

Changed job performance: increased absenteeism, tardiness, use of sick leave, and decreased efficiency or productivity

Social withdrawal: pulling away from coworkers, peers, and family members

Increased physical complaints: fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, stomach upset, and susceptibility to illness

Increased overtime and no vacation: indispensable to the organization, reluctant to say no to working on scheduled off-days

Skipping rest and food breaks: continually having no time for coffee or lunch breaks to restore stamina

Diminished sense of humor: inability to laugh at daily, on the job situations

Pessimism, paranoia, rigidity, callousness, feelings of loneliness, guilt, and difficulty in making and explaining decisions

If you dislike your job and it is causing you to either feel ill or behave in ways that are detrimental to your career and/or home life, you can always quit that job. Short of that, you can ask for a change in job responsibilities, or you can request a less stressful job within the same organization. If you are experiencing burnout, learn to organize your time better and to say no when asked to take on additional jobs. Here are some rules that might help:

Don’t take work home

Do not discuss business over lunch

Take a full lunch hour

Discuss your feelings about occupational stress with whomever is close by whenever those feelings develop

Recognizing that your perceptions of your occupational stress are as important as actual events precipitating that stress, you will need to intervene in these perceptions. These suggestions should help:

Look for humor in your stressors at work.

Try to see things for what they really are.

Distinguish between need and desire.

Separate your self-worth from the task.

Identify situations and employ the appropriate style of coping.

Managing Occupational Stress
In conclusion, occupational stress may be difficult to define and measure because of the personal stressors people bring to their jobs and their varying personality characteristics, but we all know when we are experiencing it. Fortunately, we can manage occupational stress by using the stress model to set up roadblocks between occupational stress and illness and disease. We can change jobs, perceive the stressors associated with our jobs as challenges rather than burdens to bear (perception intervention), practice relaxation techniques, and exercise regularly to use up the accumulated products of stress. However, anything we do is our own choice. Grinning and bearing it won’t help; neither will always complaining about our jobs or our bosses.

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Stress and Life Situations

Stress begins when a particular event disorients you and knocks you out of balance. You are nudged or shoved into an unbalanced state and need to right yourself. This life situation could be a change in temperature, a threat from another person, death of a loved one, or some other change in your life to which you need to adapt. We all know, however, that the same situation presented to different people may result in different reactions. That is because different people will interpret the situation differently. This is termed their 'cognitive appraisal' and can be controlled.

We have a life situation that is perceived. Such feelings as fear, anger, and insecurity or feelings of being overpowered, frustrated, pressured, or helpless may be results of perceiving a life situation as stressful. These feelings lead to physiological stimulation. If physiological stimulation is chronic or prolonged, illness or disease may result. In addition, stress can lead to other consequences, like inefficient performance and interpersonal relationships at work, school, or home.

Setting Up Roadblocks
Once the succession from a life situation through emotion, physiological stimulation, insight, and susceptibility to illnesses and other consequences is understood, it is then possible to hamper these consequences from occurring. Intervention entails setting up roadblocks at different points on the stress model.

For example, even though a life situation requiring adaptation presents itself to you, a roadblock between that life situation and the next phase could be set up. This roadblock could consist of prescribed medications (tranquilizers, sedatives), drugs, or an assertion on your part that you will just not permit yourself to consider this situation as upsetting. Regarding the last option, you might decide to focus upon the positive aspects of the situation.

A roadblock between the perception phase and the emotion phase can also be established. To prevent disturbing physiological stimulation, you can employ various kinds of relaxation techniques to tame potential emotional reactions. The blocks between it and poor health must consist of some form of physical activity that utilizes the stress resources.

Some stress management programs teach people meditation, yoga, or time management. Your goal, however, will not be to eliminate all of your stress. Remember, there is a minimum amount of stress that we need to have in our lives. Thus, it is impossible, and undesirable, to eliminate all stress.

The Positive Stress: Eustress
Stress has positive consequences. Stress that leads to positive consequences is what we call eustress. When stress leads to actions that are beneficial to the person, it is called eustress. And when stress encourages optimum performance, that is also attributable to eustress. You probably have experienced stress that made you consider yourself better for the experience when it was over - either it was a positive life event that required significant adjustment, or a more threatening event that led you to make important changes in your life.

In any case, you were stressed for the better. That is eustress. Here are a few other examples:

Having to present an important report to a major client and getting pats on the back afterwards because stress made you prepare extra hard for it.

Asking the person you have a crush on since middle school to the prom because you've pressured yourself that now is the right time to do so.

Having a friend tell you what he or she does not like about your attitude and changing this ill trait to make yourself a better person

Taking Control
Managing stress is really just exercising control rather than giving it up to others or to your environment. So often we hear others say, “So and so made me angry!” No one can make you angry. Rather, you allow yourself to be angered by what so and so has said or done. When you describe your behavior as dependent upon another’s, you have given up control of that behavior to that other person.

The actual event does not necessarily have anger as its consequence. The anger was brought to that situation by you – not by the event or another person. On some days, the same event would not have resulted in your becoming angry. You may have been having a great day and telling yourself it was so great that nothing was going to ruin it. What’s more, nothing did! You are the master of your ship. You may not be able to influence other people to alter what they say or do, but you can alter your reaction to what they say or do. No one can tell you to do otherwise.

Thus, it is up to you if you want other people's behavior or actions to affect you and cause an impact. It is up to you whether you should practice relaxation techniques when faced with these kinds of situations or not. The practice of these techniques is a good example of taking responsibility for your actions and taking control of your life.

It would be dysfunctional to employ stress management techniques in a stressful way – and yet, that is not uncommon. The more you try to control stress and suppress it, the more stressed you will likely become; so take a breather. Since you have not bothered to use comprehensive stress management for the many years of your life, don’t rush into it now.

Making a Commitment
While you are advised not to rush into stress management, a beginning should be made immediately. That first step is significant since subsequent steps depend upon it. Since chronic or prolonged stress reactivity may result in your becoming ill, the longer you wait to begin controlling stress, the less healthy you can expect to be. If you’re healthy now, you want to maintain that status. If you’re persistently ill and that illness is exacerbated by stress, you can move towards health by managing that stress.

Determine your commitment to managing your stress by completing a contract with yourself. Don’t make the contract too stressful. Try to be realistic. Set both rewards and punishments for accomplishments and failures. There is no time like the present.

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Stress and the Body

Hot Reactors
Chronic stress can lead to poor health. Some people tend to react to stress with an all-out physiological effort that takes a toll on their health. We call these people hot reactors. If you notice that you get angry easily (you are often anxious or depressed, you urinate frequently, you experience constipation or diarrhea more than usual, or you experience nausea or vomiting), you may be a hot reactor. In that case, you may want to seek regular medical examinations to identify illnesses when they can be easily cured or contained and learn to use stress management techniques and strategies.

Psychosomatic Disease
People have died or have become ill from severe stress, when there seems nothing physically wrong with them. Some illnesses are easily seen as being physical, while others are assuredly recognized as being mental, yet it is impossible to deny the interaction between the mind and the body and the effects of one upon the other. The mind makes the body susceptible. These conditions are called psychosomatic.

Psychosomatic disease is not “all in the mind”, contrary to popular belief, but involves both mind and body. Psychosomatic disease is real, can be diagnosed, and is manifested physically. However, it also has a component in the mind, although it is not easily measured. That common cold may be a function of psychological stress, which decreases the effectiveness of the immunological system and results in the body being more vulnerable to cold viruses. That cold may also be caused by psychological stress using up particular vitamins in the body and leading to decreased effectiveness in combating viruses.

Psychogenic refers to a physical disease caused by emotional stress. Asthma is an example of this. Somatogenic psychosomatic disease occurs when the mind increases the body's susceptibility to some disease causing microbes or some natural degenerative process. Examples are rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.

Stress-related Conditions and Illnesses
Hypertension
This is the excessive and damaging pressure of the blood against the walls of the arterial blood vessels. There are several causes of hypertension. Excessive sodium (salt) intake may cause hypertension in those genetically susceptible. It can also be caused by a kidney disease, a narrow opening in the aorta (main blood vessel), and the use of contraceptives. However, these conditions cause only an estimated ten percent of all hypertension. Approximately 90 percent of hypertension is termed essential hypertension and has no known cause.

Forty-one percent of the United States population aged twenty to seventy-four are hypertensive, although many of these people do not even know it, since hypertension occurs without signs and symptoms. Since blood pressure increases during stress, the relationship between stress and hypertension has long been suspected. Recognizing this relationship, educational programs for hypertensives have included stress management. Although hypertension can be controlled with medication, the possibility of disturbing side effects from these drugs has led to attempts to control hypertension in other ways. Since obesity, cigarette smoking, and lack of exercise correlates to hypertension, programs involving weight control, smoking withdrawal, and exercise, as well as decreased ingestion of salt, have all been used to respond to high blood pressure.

Stroke
Apoplexy (also called stroke) is a lack of oxygen in the brain resulting from a blockage or rupture of one of the arteries that supply it. Stroke is related to hypertension, which may also result in a cerebral hemorrhage. Stroke has been linked with high blood pressure, diet and stress.

Coronary Heart Disease
Heart attack kills more Americans than any other single cause of death. That stress is related to coronary heart disease is not surprising when we consider the physiological mechanisms that stress brings into play: accelerated heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased serum cholesterol, and fluid retention resulting in increased blood volume. Further, the stereotypical heart attack victim has been the highly stressed, overworked, overweight businessperson with a cigarette dangling from his lips and a martini in his hand.

Ulcers
Ulcers are fissures or cuts in the wall of the stomach and other parts of the intestines. For many years, it was thought that stress led to the excessive amounts of hydrochloric acid being produced in the stomach and the intestines. One theory explaining the effects of stress on the development of ulcers pertains to the mucous coating that lines the stomach. The theory states that, during chronic stress, secretions cause the stomach lining to constrict. This, in turn, results in a shutting down of mucosal production. Without the protective barrier, hydrochloric acid breaks down the tissue and can even reach blood vessels, resulting in bleeding ulcer.

Many cases of ulcers are caused by a bacterium called H. pylori. It is believed that H. pylori inflames the gastrointestinal lining, stimulates acid production, or both. Another major cause of ulcers is the ingestion of aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen and naproxenand piroxicam. These drugs promote bleeding in the stomach and can wear away its protective lining.

Still, stress can exacerbate the conditions in the digestive tract to make ulcers more likely to occur. Stress results in an increase in hydrochloric acid in the intestines and stomach, and a decreased effectiveness of the immune system that is marshaled to combat the invasion by H. pylori.

Migraines
Migraine headaches are the result of a constriction and dilation of the carotid arteries of one side of the head. The constriction phase, called the pre-attack or prodome, is often associated with light or noise sensitivity, irritability, and a flushing or pallor of the skin. When the dilation of the arteries occurs, certain chemicals stimulate adjacent nerve endings, causing pain.

The migraine is not just a severe headache. It is a unique type of headache with special characteristics, and it usually involves just one side of head. The prodome consists of warning signs, such as flashing lights, differing patterns, or some dark spaces. Migraines are a sign and symptom of a lifestyle gone awry. Signs and symptoms should be treated with either medication or meditation without eliminating the underlying cause. Rather than care for the migraine after it strikes, why not prevent it in the first place by changing your lifestyle?

Cancer
Although many people do not realize it, both the prevention and the treatment of cancer are suspected of being related to stress. Some researchers believe that chronic stress results in a chronic inability of the immune response to prevent the multiplication of mutant cells, which some believe are present but normally controlled in most people. The role of stress in the development of cancer is still being debated. Since cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US, research in this area has been and is presently being conducted.

Further, some support has been provided for the cancer-prone personality type. The cancer-prone person has been described as holding resentment, with the inability to forgive, using self-pity, lacking the ability to develop and maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships, and having poor self-image.

Tension Headaches
Headaches may be caused by muscle tension accompanying stress. This muscle tension may include the forehead, jaw, or neck. Once the headache occurs, it tends to fuel itself. It is difficult to relax when you're in pain. Treatment for tension headaches may include medication, heat on tense muscles, or massage. Others have also reported on the effectiveness of relaxation training for control and prevention of tension headache.

Hot Reactors
Chronic stress can lead to poor health. Some people tend to react to stressors with an all-out physiological effort that takes a toll on their health. We call these people hot reactors. If you notice that you get angry easily (you are often anxious or depressed, you urinate frequently, you experience constipation or diarrhea more than usual, or you experience nausea or vomiting), you may be a hot reactor. In that case, you may want to seek regular medical examinations to identify illnesses when they can be easily cured or contained and learn to use stress management techniques and strategies.

Psychosomatic Disease
People have died or have become ill from severe stress, when there seems nothing physically wrong with them. Some illnesses are easily seen as being physical, while others are assuredly recognized as being mental, yet it is impossible to deny the interaction between the mind and the body and the effects of one upon the other. The mind makes the body susceptible. These conditions are called psychosomatic.

Psychosomatic disease is not “all in the mind”, contrary to popular belief, but involves both mind and body. Psychosomatic disease is real, can be diagnosed, and is manifested physically. However, it also has a component in the mind, although it is not easily measured. That common cold may be a function of psychological stress, which decreases the effectiveness of the immunological system and results in the body being more vulnerable to cold viruses. That cold may also be caused by psychological stress using up particular vitamins in the body and leading to decreased effectiveness in combating viruses.

Psychogenic refers to a physical disease caused by emotional stress. Asthma is an example of this. Somatogenic psychosomatic disease occurs when the mind increases the body's susceptibility to some disease causing microbes or some natural degenerative process. Examples are rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.

Stress-related Conditions and Illnesses
Hypertension
This is the excessive and damaging pressure of the blood against the walls of the arterial blood vessels. There are several causes of hypertension. Excessive sodium (salt) intake may cause hypertension in those genetically susceptible. It can also be caused by a kidney disease, a narrow opening in the aorta (main blood vessel), and the use of contraceptives. However, these conditions cause only an estimated ten percent of all hypertension. Approximately 90 percent of hypertension is termed essential hypertension and has no known cause.

Forty-one percent of the United States population aged twenty to seventy-four are hypertensive, although many of these people do not even know it, since hypertension occurs without signs and symptoms. Since blood pressure increases during stress, the relationship between stress and hypertension has long been suspected. Recognizing this relationship, educational programs for hypertensives have included stress management. Although hypertension can be controlled with medication, the possibility of disturbing side effects from these drugs has led to attempts to control hypertension in other ways. Since obesity, cigarette smoking, and lack of exercise correlates to hypertension, programs involving weight control, smoking withdrawal, and exercise, as well as decreased ingestion of salt, have all been used to respond to high blood pressure.

Stroke
Apoplexy (also called stroke) is a lack of oxygen in the brain resulting from a blockage or rupture of one of the arteries that supply it. Stroke is related to hypertension, which may also result in a cerebral hemorrhage. Stroke has been linked with high blood pressure, diet and stress.

Coronary Heart Disease
Heart attack kills more Americans than any other single cause of death. That stress is related to coronary heart disease is not surprising when we consider the physiological mechanisms that stress brings into play: accelerated heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased serum cholesterol, and fluid retention resulting in increased blood volume. Further, the stereotypical heart attack victim has been the highly stressed, overworked, overweight businessperson with a cigarette dangling from his lips and a martini in his hand.

Ulcers
Ulcers are fissures or cuts in the wall of the stomach and other parts of the intestines. For many years, it was thought that stress led to the excessive amounts of hydrochloric acid being produced in the stomach and the intestines. One theory explaining the effects of stress on the development of ulcers pertains to the mucous coating that lines the stomach. The theory states that, during chronic stress, secretions cause the stomach lining to constrict. This, in turn, results in a shutting down of mucosal production. Without the protective barrier, hydrochloric acid breaks down the tissue and can even reach blood vessels, resulting in bleeding ulcer.

Many cases of ulcers are caused by a bacterium called H. pylori. It is believed that H. pylori inflames the gastrointestinal lining, stimulates acid production, or both. Another major cause of ulcers is the ingestion of aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen and naproxenand piroxicam. These drugs promote bleeding in the stomach and can wear away its protective lining.

Still, stress can exacerbate the conditions in the digestive tract to make ulcers more likely to occur. Stress results in an increase in hydrochloric acid in the intestines and stomach, and a decreased effectiveness of the immune system that is marshaled to combat the invasion by H. pylori.

Migraines
Migraine headaches are the result of a constriction and dilation of the carotid arteries of one side of the head. The constriction phase, called the pre-attack or prodome, is often associated with light or noise sensitivity, irritability, and a flushing or pallor of the skin. When the dilation of the arteries occurs, certain chemicals stimulate adjacent nerve endings, causing pain.

The migraine is not just a severe headache. It is a unique type of headache with special characteristics, and it usually involves just one side of head. The prodome consists of warning signs, such as flashing lights, differing patterns, or some dark spaces. Migraines are a sign and symptom of a lifestyle gone awry. Signs and symptoms should be treated with either medication or meditation without eliminating the underlying cause. Rather than care for the migraine after it strikes, why not prevent it in the first place by changing your lifestyle?

Cancer
Although many people do not realize it, both the prevention and the treatment of cancer are suspected of being related to stress. Some researchers believe that chronic stress results in a chronic inability of the immune response to prevent the multiplication of mutant cells, which some believe are present but normally controlled in most people. The role of stress in the development of cancer is still being debated. Since cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US, research in this area has been and is presently being conducted.

Further, some support has been provided for the cancer-prone personality type. The cancer-prone person has been described as holding resentment, with the inability to forgive, using self-pity, lacking the ability to develop and maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships, and having poor self-image.

Tension Headaches
Headaches may be caused by muscle tension accompanying stress. This muscle tension may include the forehead, jaw, or neck. Once the headache occurs, it tends to fuel itself. It is difficult to relax when you're in pain. Treatment for tension headaches may include medication, heat on tense muscles, or massage. Others have also reported on the effectiveness of relaxation training for control and prevention of tension headache.

Allergies And Asthma
Some medical scientists, unable to identify any antigen in many asthmatics, have argued that allergies are emotional diseases. This was shown in an experiment in which a woman who was allergic to horses began to wheeze when shown only a picture of a horse, another woman who was allergic to fish had an allergic reaction to a toy fish and empty fishbowl' and others reacted to uncontaminated air when suspecting it contained pollen. Crying-induced asthma, brought on during stressful events is another example.

Some have concluded, therefore, that the effects of stress on the immune system either decrease our ability to withstand an antigen or, even in the absence of an antigen, can lead to allergic-like response. Some allergy sufferers -- in particular, asthmatics -- are being taught relaxation techniques and breathing control exercises to enable them to control their physiology during allergic reactions.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is a condition that develops in people who have experienced an extreme psychological and/or physical event that is interpreted as particularly distressing. PTSD is defined as:

A threat to one's life or serious injury or being subject to horror with intense fear and helplessness

Recurrent flashbacks, repeated memories and emotions, dreams, nightmares, illusions or hallucinations related to traumatic events from which one is often amnesic

Trying to avoid feelings, thoughts, or places that may trigger associations with trauma

Poor sleep, poor appetite

Self-recrimination

Feeling jumpy, irritable, or emotionally explosive or "spaced out"

Having difficulty concentrating, socializing, or working

Among the characteristics of those who have successfully managed PTSD are that they had supportive relationships with family and friends, they did not dwell on the trauma, they had personal faith/religion/hope, and they had a sense of humor.

Other Conditions
Stress has been shown to affect other health conditions, as well. Stress can lead pregnant women to miscarry. In a study, 70 percent of women who had miscarriage had at least one stressful experience four to five months before the miscarriage, as compared with 52 percent who did not have one. Even sports injuries occur more frequently in athletes who have experienced stressors and who do not have the resources and skills to cope well with stress. With high stress and poor coping resources, the result is increased muscle tension and attention redirected toward the stress and away from the event.
Some medical scientists, unable to identify any antigen in many asthmatics, have argued that allergies are emotional diseases. This was shown in an experiment in which a woman who was allergic to horses began to wheeze when shown only a picture of a horse, another woman who was allergic to fish had an allergic reaction to a toy fish and empty fishbowl' and others reacted to uncontaminated air when suspecting it contained pollen. Crying-induced asthma, brought on during stressful events is another example.

Some have concluded, therefore, that the effects of stress on the immune system either decrease our ability to withstand an antigen or, even in the absence of an antigen, can lead to allergic-like response. Some allergy sufferers -- in particular, asthmatics -- are being taught relaxation techniques and breathing control exercises to enable them to control their physiology during allergic reactions.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is a condition that develops in people who have experienced an extreme psychological and/or physical event that is interpreted as particularly distressing. PTSD is defined as:

A threat to one's life or serious injury or being subject to horror with intense fear and helplessness

Recurrent flashbacks, repeated memories and emotions, dreams, nightmares, illusions or hallucinations related to traumatic events from which one is often amnesic

Trying to avoid feelings, thoughts, or places that may trigger associations with trauma

Poor sleep, poor appetite

Self-recrimination

Feeling jumpy, irritable, or emotionally explosive or "spaced out"

Having difficulty concentrating, socializing, or working

Among the characteristics of those who have successfully managed PTSD are that they had supportive relationships with family and friends, they did not dwell on the trauma, they had personal faith/religion/hope, and they had a sense of humor.

Other Conditions
Stress has been shown to affect other health conditions, as well. Stress can lead pregnant women to miscarry. In a study, 70 percent of women who had miscarriage had at least one stressful experience four to five months before the miscarriage, as compared with 52 percent who did not have one. Even sports injuries occur more frequently in athletes who have experienced stressors and who do not have the resources and skills to cope well with stress. With high stress and poor coping resources, the result is increased muscle tension and attention redirected toward the stress and away from the event.

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You and Your IQ

“The difference between intelligence and an education is this-that intelligence will make you a good living.” - Charles Franklin Kettering

Before you can understand how your I.Q. affects your brain and your life, you must understand what it is, how it works, and how to interpret the scores. Let me emphasize right off the bat that your I.Q. score has nothing to do with your value as a person. The tests should not necessarily be considered an absolute measure of intelligence. It should only give you an idea of your range of intelligence. It often happens that a person of above average intelligence scores low. It could be as simple as having an off day. The test scores should not be looked at as the be-all and end-all of measuring an individual’s intelligence.

The I.Q. tests are made up of a set of standardized tests developed to measure your cognitive abilities, in relation to your age group. The WISC-III test contains ten types of problems, rated by difficulty and skill type and is the most common I.Q. test administered. The online I.Q. test is very popular right now, easy to take and costs nothing. The disadvantages, however, are that the online versions have no experts to certify them; they have fewer questions and no time limit. But, they can measure a general capacity for solving verbal and mathematical problems.

The average I.Q. score is 100 and the standard deviation of the scores is 15. What this means is that:

50% of the people have scores somewhere between 90 and 110.

2.5% of the people are considered superior in intelligence and have scores over 130.

2.5% of the people are considered mentally deficient or impaired and have scores under 70.

0.5% of the people have near genius scores of over 140.

What does this all mean to you? If you score 100 on the I.Q. test, it means that half the population scored higher than you and half scored lower than you.

The tests themselves are made to evaluate your skill in several areas.

Verbal - This measures your mastery of vocabulary and your ability to use language to express yourself, as well as to comprehend stories and understand other people.

Mathematical - This measures your mastery of numerical skills, the ability to use numbers and calculate computations. This also shows your mastery of shapes and equations.

Spatial - This measures your ability to deal with visualization and manipulating 3D objects by flipping and rotating them.

Logic - This measures your ability to make deductions that will lead to rational conclusions, as well as your understanding of cause and effect.

Pattern Recognition - This measures your ability to see order in a chaotic environment. Patterns are found throughout nature and in everyday symbols, words, and images.

Visualization - This measures how well you perceive visual patterns and extract the information you need for problem solving.

Classification - This measures your ability to find similarities and differences between selected items.

Studies have shown that those people who are careful about their health and safety have a higher I.Q. They also discovered that conditions such as post-traumatic disorder, severe depression, and schizophrenia show up less often in those with a higher I.Q. On the reverse side, there was a much higher incident of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) in those with a higher I.Q. score.

There is a controversy surrounding the administering of the I.Q. tests. Some insist that the Symbolic Logic, which is used as a means of scoring on these tests, does not necessarily denote intelligence. There are some too, who wonder exactly what is being measured with these tests. It’s felt that some could show an amazing amount of emotional intelligence and yet not be able to comprehend the information necessary to do well on the tests. Many feel that other tests should be added to the existing I.Q. standardized tests. There are still those who debate whether income level, nutrition, race and gender have a definite impact on these tests, and thereby question their validity.

There is also the question of whether nature or nurture actually influences the development of the human brain, and can be argued on both sides.

Scientists are also reeling over the data gathered that shows a large jump in the average I.Q. score, presenting the question of whether this new generation is really smarter than all the previous ones. In a study done in 1998, it showed that it was indeed an increase of three I.Q. points per decade in the United States.

Part of the answer was in the early neurological development of the children; they are being stimulated at an earlier age than ever before. They also credit better education, better nutrition, more money, the fact that families are smaller these days than before, as well as television and video games. As a side note, it was determined that because they taught the children to manipulate objects through a 3-dimensional space, certain video games actually increased their I.Q.

Many of the scientists agreed that we must become smarter if we hope to survive. The world has become more complex and our intelligence must keep pace.

Despite whether or not the I.Q. tests are valuable, or a waste of time, they will continue to be administered, in the hopes of determining where a person’s skills are strongest and weakest. Yet another reason to continue to learn and grow, and keep our brains honed and sharp.

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” - Henry Ford

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The Law of Allowing

You just thought about something you wanted. You have used the Law of Attraction, the Law of Vibration, and all the other universal laws to request what you want. Now you need to complete the cycle and use the Law of Allowing to permeate your very being, which will in turn accomplish the feat you set out and will achieve what you wished on from the beginning.

Think about this fact. Everything in the universe is composed of energy, as you probably are already aware. This energy works in cycles. If you studied electronics, you will understand this more fully. Basically, AC or alternating current is composed of a cycle of electrons that start from zero or neutral, goes into the positive cycle, then dips down into the negative part of the cycle, then it comes back to neutral again. This is the way energy works as well. It is in a constant cycle or vibration.

If you wish to complete the process of the Laws of the Universe, you must use the Law of Allowing to complete the cycle of Attraction. This is where the cycle of energy comes in. When you use your thoughts to manifest something in your life, you are in fact telling the universe what you want. You put feelings and emotions into it. You vibrate to it. It becomes a part of you. Every ounce of your very being is tuned into it. Now, to complete the cycle of energy flow, you must complete the circuit by allowing the results to occur for you. You must intend it to come to you unrestricted.

This is why some people seem to get what they want while others do not.

The people, who do get what they want, use all the Laws of the Universe in precisely the right way. They are not only tuned into their own thoughts and feelings, but they feel it in their soul. They vibrate to it and they acknowledge it as already being a part of them. They send out the signal to the universe that they are one with what they want and are claiming that they are allowing themselves to receive it without doubt, fear, or worry. This, my friends, is what you need to do if you want to get what you want.

The Law of Allowing will work for you if you let it. What you must agree on is that you are worthy to receive your gift. That you are worthy to receive the prize you are after.

The problem with this world is there are just too many instances of anti this or anti that. People are constantly pushing things away. They are saying no to drugs, no to smoking, no to this or no to that. They are saying no to war, no to violence, and no to everything else. What people don’t seem to realize is that the Law of Attraction states that what you think about or wish for you will receive. If you think about war, you’ll see more war. If you think about drugs, you’ll see more drugs. The fact is, you are allowing these things into your life, and this is why you are seeing it.

No wonder people are constantly complaining that they don’t have anything. They can’t make ends meet. They can’t get ahead in life. They can’t do this. They can’t do that. For every can’t there is another creation that is born. If you say you can’t afford this because you don’t have enough money, you are telling the universe in fact that you don’t have any money. Well guess what? The universe hears you and obeys. Your wish is my command and you get what you wish for. You are allowing poverty in your life and this is why you don’t have abundance.

So how can you change this? How can you reverse this and become more abundant in your life? Simple. Just intent it. You have to think about what you want, not what you don’t want. If you wish for more money, intent it. Don’t go around saying you can’t afford something. You are telling the universe that you can’t afford it. Therefore, you won’t get the money you want. But if you switch that around and tell the universe that you do want it, that you do have the money, the universe will respond and give it to you. It is that simple.

The bottom line here is that you must remember to use all the Laws of the Universe if you expect to get what you want. You must complete the cycle of energy in order to complete the circuit between you and the universe. You are the power source and the universe is the component part of the circuit. The path will flow but it will stop with the universe if you do not have a complete path for the energy to return. This means you must use the Law of Allowing to accept what you wish for. This will complete the path back to you and you will receive what you wished for. You in fact, sent your energy to the component, and the component responded by turning on. It then sent the energy back to you to complete the circuit and to tell you everything is working on all cylinders.

This is the way the Law of Allowing works. If you work in harmony with it, focus your energy the right way, and tell the universe you want it and are ready to receive it, you will get it.

The best way to practice the Law of Allowing is by simply saying “yes” to things you receive in your life. If someone says something nice to you, say “thanks.” You are telling the person you are allowing his comments to be received. If someone gives you a gift, say “thanks.” You are telling the universe and the person that you are allowing yourself to receive the gift. You need to do this with everything in life that you want to receive. Of course, if you don’t want something, you politely say “no” to it. But be careful here. What you say “no” to may benefit you in the long run later. So be sure that you think about it before you say “no.” In one form or fashion, you just may need that situation or product or whatever it is you are saying “no” to.

To fully understand the Law of Allowing, you have to look at it from the standpoint of resistance. If you resist something, you will not get it. That is as simple an explanation as you can have. When you use the Law of Allowing, you are saying that you have no resistance to what you want and the flow of energy will be easy and direct. There will be no stumbling blocks.

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Train Your Child’s Brain

“I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.” - Dr. Seuss

Helping your child develop his/her brain starts in the womb. The baby’s body is not the only thing growing and developing in the womb, the brain is working away as well. That’s why special care must be taken from day one, to ensure that the child is born healthy, both physically and mentally. The mother needs to choose carefully her diet and her lifestyle, in order to give her baby the best chance in life.

The mother will tell you how tired she sometimes feels while she’s pregnant. This is because the baby’s brain is making a quarter of a million new neurons every minute, as well as new connections between those neurons. Now you know what hard work goes into making sure that the baby is healthy, mentally and physically.

Doctors have determined that newborn babies can recognize their mother’s voice, which shows that their memory was developing before their birth. Their little brain is only about one-fourth developed when they’re born. Their skulls and their brains will continue to grow until they reach adulthood. By the time the child is ten years old, his brains will have formed billions of new connections.

Is there a difference between boys’ brains, and girls’ brains? A male brain develops from the back to the front, which is developing the “doing” part before the “thinking” part. A female brain develops the other way around. The “thinking and language” part develops first, then the “doing” part.

Any parent will tell you how quickly a child grows in the first year of life. Every aspect of the child is involved - their behavior, understanding, and the way they interact with others in their family. At this point, the brain of that child may look like any adult’s brain, but the changes have only just begun. By the time that child is three years old, that little brain has made a thousand trillion connections—twice as many as an adult. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in their development. Their social, emotional, and intellectual development will undergo a mind-boggling surge of activity from this age to the age of ten. Believe it or not, their brain activity during this time is twice that of a grown adult.

The reason for so much activity? A child experiences more in a short time than an adult. They learn to crawl, walk, run and explore. Reasoning and behavior come next, as well as memory; and of course, the biggest experience of all that separates us from the animals - language!

The difference in the brains of children and adults has to do with the acquisition of language. An adult brain processes language in the left hemisphere of the brain. However, scientists have discovered that, until a year old, babies can respond to language with their entire brain. Then, as they grow older, it shifts to the left hemisphere.

Language is the area that parents, teachers, and child-care providers have always understood to be of primary importance in the first years of life. It encompasses more than just reading. It also involves story telling and singing, and even just the common everyday exchange between the adult and the child. Children love to converse with the adults in their lives, and the give and take conversations can have an enormous impact on the child’s language skills.

Working on the child’s language skills helps with more than just improving their intellect. It also helps the child with social and emotional skills. As the child begins to develop his/her brain as an infant, reading becomes the biggest and most important way to help wire your child’s brain for continued learning.

We've already determined that a child’s brain is a place of rapid activity to the age of ten, forming connections or synapses constantly. What causes their little brains to form these connections? Is it in their genes, or is it mostly environmental? Scientists have determined that genes have some control over this process, but what is crucial in the development of the brain’s ability to form connections has to do with the experiences they encounter in life. It’s true that having an adult read to the child, and other positive stimulations of this sort, have a profound impact on the child’s brain development. This helps to create new neural pathways, as well as fortifying existing pathways.

As the child moves on towards adulthood, the pathways that are used repeatedly become stronger, but those that are not used often enough are discarded. This happens at a rapid rate once the child enters adolescence. Don’t let this worry you as a parent; it’s all completely natural. It’s more of a pruning process, and is in fact advantageous to the human brain. By discarding unnecessary connections, the ones that remain can grow stronger and healthier. It actually creates space for the more useful and favorable synapses and makes the brain function more efficiently.

So, there’s a new way of thinking and training the brain of children. We know now that it’s not only the genes you’re born with that have to do with the brain’s development, but also the experiences you gather along the way. Scientists also know now that early childhood experiences have a huge impact on the brain’s development and your capacities as an adult.

The relationship between the child and the early childhood caregiver, that is besides the parents, the teachers, the babysitters, etc., have an enormous impact on the way that child’s brain becomes wired for learning. Scientists have also learned that it’s not just a steady flow of development from infancy to adulthood, but that there are prime times in the life of the child that’s best for them to acquire different kinds of knowledge and skills.

So, the good news is that while it’s no easy task to help your children develop their brains, there are many, many ways you can help them. Keep them stimulated, keep those synapses firing back and forth; and to do that, you must read to them, talk to them, and tell them stories and jokes. Positive interaction is essential to their intellectual growth.

That brings us to the bad news about training the brains of children. Studies show that at least one in four children under the age of six are growing up in impoverished situations. The nutrition or lack thereof for the expectant mothers, as well as that of the children, medical care, even the safety of the environments they have to live in, affect those tiny brains. Poverty can affect the stress levels of their parents, and constant working prevents those parents from the necessary interaction with the children. If all they do is work, they have no time to read and interact with the children.

Children raised in poverty situations have an increased chance of exposure to drugs, alcohol, violence and abuse. These conditions are not limited to only economically disadvantaged children, but are simply more likely to occur in those situations.

Researchers have noted more developmental delays and learning difficulties in such kids than in the more advantaged children, and that’s because these early negative experiences have a huge impact on brain development. They are proving conclusively that poverty definitely influences these early childhood experiences.

Given the right circumstances, how smart can we make our children? Scientists have determined that a mere ten minutes a day of brain stimulation can create a brain with a standard I.Q or Intelligence Quotient. What if we added more stimulation to a child’s day? Would an extra hour or two make a big difference? Could we, in effect, create children with super mental powers?

A prime example of the possibilities of this scenario would be the amazing life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His father, Leopold, was one of Europe’s leading musical teachers and was Wolfgang’s only teacher in the early years of his life. The result was that the young Mozart began learning to play the organ, violin, and the clavier when he was only three years old and was composing when he was five!

Prodigies, like Mozart, are not necessarily born smart or talented, but can be created by the parents and other caregivers. Stimulation every day causes the child to think more, thus producing more brain growth. Left on their own, children will find lots to do to entertain themselves, but more structured stimulation will produce more desired results. Young brains have been compared to small sponges, soaking up information all the time from all around them. Give them the desired information to produce the desired result.

How early is too early to learn to read? If the child is able to handle the spoken language, it’s a good time to start teaching him/her to read. A child’s brain is so ready and willing to tackle new skills, so able to handle all the new connections, that reading is actually amazingly easy for the young brain.

The parents are actually the ideal people to teach their children to read. It requires love, patience and determination, things parents already possess in abundance. They needn't have a college degree to be qualified to teach their children this skill.

“If I appear to see further than others it is because I sit on the shoulders of giants,” said Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz

We can help our children stand on our shoulders and attain everything they want in life. Then we need to teach them to boost up their own children, and be the shoulders they stand upon.

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Health and Your Brain

“Our mental and emotional diets determine our overall energy levels, health and well-being more than we realize. Every thought and feeling, no matter how big or small, impacts our inner energy reserves.” - Doc Childre

So, you've learned how to exercise your brain, stimulate your brain to be more retentive, and how to avoid stress that can affect your brain’s health. But there’s one more thing you can do to assure a healthy brain that will stay sharp for a long time. Believe it or not, you must take special care of your physical health in order to insure a healthy brain.

Learning to keep your brain healthy begins with your diet. That’s right, you need brain food. A starved brain will not get you far. Giving your brains the right foods provides the nutrients and chemicals you need to help develop your brain. Those brain cells need protection to resist damage.

The first nutrient you should consider adding to your diet, is Choline, a B-vitamin that will nourish the cells. It promotes brain health and can boost your memory. The best foods in which to find this nutrient are eggs, nuts and meat. Omega-3 fatty acids, which are components of brain cell membranes, need to be replenished regularly with foods such as sardines, salmon, mackerel, and trout. You can also supplement your diet with fish oil tablets. This nutrient is especially important, since when you’re learning anything new, it creates new connections between cells in your brain, and that requires new membranes to cover them. So, enjoy that fresh fish as often as possible.

Making the news today is the information about antioxidants, especially those found in vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene. These are necessary to protect healthy cells from the damage caused by free radicals, which attack cells at a molecular level. The best source for vitamin C is in any of the citrus fruits, as well as strawberries, cantaloupe, spinach, green peppers, and broccoli. For a good supply of vitamin E, eat whole grains, nuts, apricots, fish, and vegetable oils. As for beta-carotene, try milk, peaches, and egg yolks. Stock up on the strawberries, blueberries, and spinach, which contain phytochemicals and will help boost your memory.

Basically, by eating a lot of dark-skinned fruits and vegetables, you’re giving yourself the highest levels of naturally occurring antioxidants.

Watching your diet and getting out to exercise several times a week will help keep your cholesterol down. This is important since studies have shown that high cholesterol can lead to unhealthy levels of beta-amyloid, a toxic substance that doctors have discovered which builds up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, and which kills healthy brain cells. The good news is that HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol can help protect your brain cells. Using olive oil to cook your food, instead of mono and polyunsaturated fats will help your body and your brain. Baking or grilling your food rather than frying is another way to build up your HDL levels and lower your LDL levels.

Equally important to your brain is carefully watching your blood pressure. Doctors found that those who had high blood pressure in their middle years were six times more likely to develop some form of dementia later in life than their healthier counter-parts. Seeing your doctor and treating that high blood pressure is essential for good memory, and to help prevent dementia later on in life.

Eating properly and reducing your consumption of high fat and cholesterol foods, plus adding some form of exercise to your life, even if it’s just walking each day, will help you manage your body weight. Obesity is not just bad for your overall physical health, but it is also damaging to your brain. Once again, the doctors have discovered that adults who are overweight in their middle years were twice as likely to develop dementia later in life.

In order to have a healthy brain, it’s important to have a healthy body. Illness not only slows the body, but can bring about depression, which affects the brain. Physical fatigue can cause mental fatigue as well. You’ve heard people say, “I’m so tired, I just can’t think straight.” And it’s true, you need to be well rested and rejuvenated in order to be at the top of your game, physically and mentally. And remember, exercise also stimulates your brain. When you exercise, endorphins pump through your system, affecting your brain and making you feel good.

It’s simple, without a healthy body, you can’t hope to save your brain, your memory and your cognitive functions.

“Brains well prepared are the monuments where knowledge is most surely engraved.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau

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