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WITI HEALTH
Women Really Are More Vulnerable To Stress
Have you ever heard of someone dying of a broken heart? It's more real than we ever imagined, and the effect on women is far greater. Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in a study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, studied 19 people who had what looked like heart attacks. Rather than having the clogged arteries typically found with heart attacks though, all 19 had high levels of stress hormones: 2-3 times that of heart attack victims and 7-34 times normal levels. In each case, something emotional or traumatic triggered a deluge of stress hormones that swamped the body. Unlike heart attack victims, they had little or no heart muscle damage. The most interesting aspect of the study was that 18 of the 19 victims were women and that these attacks were triggered by everyday stressful events. While one woman had just broken up with a boyfriend and one had just received a surprise party, still another had just finished describing her son's mental-health challenges and her body had experienced those stressful events as though they were still happening. So that explains why telling about my brush with death is so exhausting and uses so much adrenaline! We've come a long way in understanding stress. Just two years ago, when I experienced my heart incident, stress wasn't even considered a risk factor, but over the past year we've come to learn better, with proof that "stress kills." In fact, we now know that 52% of executives will die from stress-related illnesses, and many of those will be women. Women simply have more stress than men, and it takes a more dramatic toll on us. Why is it that we women appear to be more vulnerable to stress? We do in fact tend to carry heavier stress loads than men. Our work stress loads are at least equal to those of men, but for many of us, the workplace simply isn't female-friendly; militaristic or controlling cultures cause us more stress. We also tend to wear many hats - spouse, parent, caregiver, friend, churchgoer, volunteer, community leader, etc. - and frequently carry a disproportionate share of the family load, especially those in the "sandwich generation" who care for both kids and aging parents. But it's not just our environment causing stress; researchers question whether there is a physiological component as well. Recent research found the physiological component that causes women to experience dramatically more pain than men (more about that in Part II), and researchers hope to explain why women are more vulnerable to stress and to start working on solutions to it. In the meantime, there is hope. Take control of your stress. See some of our past articles for tips on getting a handle on stress, getting enough rest, walking, getting vacation, downshifting to deal with stress, and dealing with e-mail. In addition, you can make a Stress Plan to help you manage your stress and help avoid the health problems that can result. A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life provides a step-by-step process for overcoming your stress. You especially need to control your stress if you have additional risk factors - smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, family history, inactivity, or overweight - and it's not hard. Get started now to be healthier! It's never too soon to start, nor is it ever too late! Just do it!
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Medical research continues to point to countless differences between how women and men respond to our environments, medications, and diseases. Over several issues, we'll explore different aspects; Part 1 is about how women are more vulnerable to stress.