Fighting the Battle with Fatigue
November 6, 2017Prone to Muscle Strains? Reduce Your Risk!
November 20, 2017Did you know that many chronic illnesses and ailments are stress-related? Studies show that stress greatly increases your chances of problems such as heart attack, stroke, depression, anxiety, heart disease and many other illnesses. For example, your risk for a stroke increases by 50% if you are often stressed. There are many ways to relieve stress, and one of the most effective methods is through exercise. The American Heart Association recommends you exercise at least 5 days a week to stay healthy and prolong your life. Exercise helps reduce your risk for many ailments and diseases, which can be associated with the amount of stress it reduces as you get your body healthier. Learn all the benefits of exercise and how it can help reduce the stress you feel!
What Is Stress?
Most of us have heard the term “stress”, but what is it really? How do we know if we are stressed? What toll does it take on our health? Stress is defined as a “pressure or tension exerted on an object”. That object, in many cases, is actually you. Stress is a feeling of tension or anxiety that many people feel that results from a very demanding lifestyle or from adverse events that happen in life. Studies show that most people actually feel stress (even chronic stress) on a daily basis.
Stress can have a physical and psychological effect on you. Stress is actually your body’s way of coping or responding to the demands of everyday life, whether those demands are imagined, intellectual, or physical. Internal stress is what you worry about throughout your day. Maybe you have many obligations that you don’t have the time to meet the demands for. Or, you worry about your children or the work you have to complete at your job. For many, another form of stress comes through fatigue and overworking. Studies show that many Americans are overworking themselves, leading to major stress. Fatigue and overworking can build up over time, which increases your stress over time unless you find a way to relieve stress in a healthy way.
Stress Statistics
The American Institute of Stress has conducted many studies about stress over the years. They have found that, for many people, stress could actually be killing them slowly over time. At least 1 in 5 Americans feels extreme stress, sometimes on a daily basis. That stress can cause physical symptoms to manifest such as heart palpitations, hyperventilating, shaking, depression, nausea, bowel problems and more. If that isn’t shocking enough, see what else they and others have found:
- Workplace stress is one of the primary sources of stress people feel, with primary stressors being workload, lack of job security, juggling a personal life, and issues with co-workers or clients.
- Workplace stress leads to about 10% of stroke cases.
- Up to 40% of people report that their jobs are extremely stressful, while 29% felt “quite a bit” stressed and 26% felt often stressed.
- Workplace stress can cause physical violence, health problems, and emotional problems.
- 62% of workers end the day with neck pain, 44% with eye irritation, 38% with hurt hands, and 34% that have trouble sleeping later on.
- The AIS reports that stress is “the basic cause of 60% of all human illness and disease.”
- 3 out of 4 visits to the doctor are for ailments that stem from stress.
- You’re twice as likely to have a stroke if you are stressed often.
- Stress increases your risk for heart disease by 40% and heart attack by 25%.
- About 40% of people relieve stress through overeating. This leads to obesity, which leads to many chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart disease.
Exercise Helps Relieve Stress
From the statistics, we can see that stress takes quite a toll on your body! The fact is that with each decade that passes, Americans are working harder and longer. They are also losing much more sleep than in generations past. Stress affects not only your body, but your mind as well, so you have to find ways to relieve stress to be healthy. One of the best ways we know of to relieve stress is through healthy exercise. In fact, exercise in almost any form can help manage and diminish your stress. Why? When you exercise, your brain produces neurotransmitters called endorphins. These endorphins make you feel good, which is why exercise can cause a mood change after just a few minutes.
The more you exercise, the better shape you can be in, which also boosts self-esteem and self-confidence. If you can’t exercise the conventional way (running, biking, swimming, weights, etc.) due to injuries, ailments, disease or more, then we can help you get active through physical rehabilitation services. We can provide you stretching, static exercises (which lets you exercise without even moving), and services to alleviate your ailments. There really is an option for everyone to be active and healthier!
Help to Get Healthy
Don’t let stress keep you tired, unmotivated, or sick each day. When you relieve stress through activities such as exercise, massage therapy or other rehabilitative services, you are improving your health. You can even think clearer with less stress in your life. If you want help to relieve stress on a daily basis, or you need rehabilitative services to help you exercise, we can help! Call Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center today at (512) 806-0015 and receive your free consultation!