ELT 2001 Collaborative Writing Report English for University Studies (2007 – 2008) Stress is the major source of human health hazard Co-written by Kasie, Keith, Tiffany and William Abstract On 28 /5 /2007, former Japanese Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who was deemed to be corrupt and pelted with caustic criticisms, committed suicide by hanging himself. Owing to this scandal, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet is under much more pressure. Surely, the multitude will barely have the experience to be put under stress of this extent. Yet, obliged to assume certain responsibilities, stress is an inevitable part of every single human being on earth, regardless of age, status, gender and race. Concerning this phenomenon, we have written this report, discussing stress's impacts on human mental health and physical health, in addition to judging whether stress is the major source of human health hazard. This report will also include some ways of using stress correctly suggested by us. Introduction During the Medieval period, religious judges used thumbscrews to torture sinners, coercing them to confess to the God. The word “stress” was equal to the physical suffering involved in the punishment at that time. Although this is a completely different century now, many people still deem stress as a form of torture. [David Lewis, 1995] It is irrefutable that the more productive an adult is, the more stress he is placed under. Having to satisfy more and higher expectations of others, there will be eventually more stress on one's shoulders. Despite the fact that human beings are all under stress, some seem to deal with it in sophisticated ways and continue to live joyfully. In contrast, some are significantly tormented by it and are trapped in a deadlock. This phenomenon implies that stress has different influence on different people. There has been growing concern that stress is related to part of mental illnesses and physical ailments, suggesting that stress may be a major source of human health hazard. Of course, if stress is used correctly, it can be beneficial for people, otherwise it is harmful [David Lewis, 1995]. However, in this project, our group will only focus on the impacts of harmful and incorrectly-used stress on human health. The influence of positive stress is beyond the scope of this project. As we discuss the topic, we concur that stress can contribute to both physical illnesses and mental disorders. Thus, our group thinks that stress is the major source of both mental and physical health problems. This project has three main objectives. First, to prove stress can lead to physical health problems of human. Second, to prove stress can cause mental health problems. Using the results of the first two parts, we can hence prove that stress is a major source of human health hazard. Finally, acknowledging the adverse effects of stress, our group will recommend some ways of relieving stress. This report is divided into mainly three sections. The first section explains the relationships between stress and physical ailments. This part will demonstrate how stress provoke certain bodily problems. The second section explains the correlation between stress and mental diseases. Several stress-caused psychological disorders will be reviewed in this part. The last main part will include some recommendations of dealing with stress properly. In the conclusion part, we shall give a brief summary of the whole report and evaluate to what extent stress is the major source of human health hazard. Definition of Stress To make ourselves clear and limit our scope of research, we need to define stress. Actually, stress is equal to “worry” to most people. Anything which can stimulate worry is deemed as “stress”. It can range from some minor matters like paying bills, to very important matters such as suspecting oneself to have cancer. Nevertheless, to people's bodies, the definition of stress is much broader. To the body, stress is a synonym of “change”, no matter if it is a "positive" change or a "negative" change. Moving to a new flat would generate stress, as well as being paralyzed because of an accident. Another aspect of stress is imagined change. Once again, imagining changes alone is already stressful, regardless of whether the imagined event is good or bad. Indeed, imagining changes is "worrying" and that will generate stress. [http://www.teachhealth.com/# recogstress] Methodology In this research, due to the time limited, we are not able to conduct a survey to analyze the real situation of our city and hence we mainly rely on secondary sources. The data for the research mainly based on the materials that come from the Internet to provide a factual situation of how stress is related to physical health problem. Moreover, we also search for printed materials from the library to sort out the mental health problems that might be caused by stress. Though it seems to be not concrete enough for us have not done a survey, all the information we obtained are from reliable websites and books and thus we assure you that you will be convinced by our work. Structure The first part of our report will briefly introduce the topic of our research and examine the symptoms for one who has been under stress. The second part of our report is a discussion of the relationship between stress and health problem. In this part, we will go into detail to see to what extent stress is related to physical health and mental health hazards respectively. We will also discuss the impact of the illness in this section. For the final part of our research, general recommendations to address stress will be provided in light to boost the quality of our society’s public health condition. Limitation The purpose of this report is to prove that stress is the major source of human health hazard. We strive to do this by looking into the issue through two major points of view: from the view of physical health and the view of mental health. Moreover, the report also mentions a bit about how to alleviate stress in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. Stress and Physical Health It has long been a misconception that stress does not related to physical health problem. According to a research conducted in America, 75-90% of all visits to physician are related to stress. This provides concrete evidence to the bond between them. Cardiovascular related disease Stress can affect our cardiovascular system in vary aspects. When a person is under stress, there will be an average increased of lipid level (for example triglyceride and cholesterol) in his/her body. This unfavorable, involuntary increased of bad lipids will accumulate to form astherosclerotic plaque on the blood vessel’s wall of the heart and hence block the pathway of blood circulation. The consequence can be fatal that it may cause myocardial infarction due to the insufficient supply of nutrients and oxygen to major organ such as heart. [Life, Stress and Health] Recently, stress is also found to have an indispensable relationship with high blood pressure. It has been medically proven be National Heart Foundation of Australia that when one exposes to stress and is constantly emotional unstable, one will be more likely to have a faster rate of heart beat and fell victim to high blood pressure eventually. Digestive Disorder and Ulcers Sever stress will limit the blood flow to the main digestive organs, providing less blood for them to function normally. Moreover, it is know that the function of the system is partially controlled by the nervous system. Hence, we may deduce that, stress plays a pivotal role there. [ Life, Stress and Health] Stress can cause loss of appetite. It will therefore inhibit one to take in a reasonable amount of food to provide energy for daily activities. Besides, due to the reduce amount of food intake, the gastric juice will be secreted in excess and in turn attack the stomach wall causing peptic ulcer in human. Cancers and Immune system A research conducted in the early 1990s revealed that cancer, on several levels, was a result of excessive stress exposure. [Life, Stress and Health] Stress may induce the T-Lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cells, to reduce in amount. Once one suffers from cancer, with the insufficient amount of TLymphoocytes the cancer can quickly spread through major organ, causing the patient to acute death. Moreover, the reduced amount in white blood cells also make one to be more susceptible to the invasion of pathogen, making one more easy to get contagious Disease like flu, measles etc. Stress and Mental Health According to some researches done, it is undeniable that stress does play an important role in causing mental health problems. In the United Kingdom, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Active Health Partners have conducted a research on the effect of stress on mental health and work performance. The result suggests that stress, depression and anxiety contribute to over 50% of mental health problems and they are increasingly found on the Kingdom’s workers. On average, an employee takes accumulatively 21 days of sick leave as affected by stress. Furthermore, failing to cope with stress, depression among employees may arise and the average sick leave will step up to 30 days. [yourpeoplemanager.com] Another survey launched by the Mental Health Foundation in the United Kingdom suggests similar result on the labor force. Involving employees in over 800 companies, the result shows that “work-related stress is the biggest occupational health problems in the United Kingdom”. The major cause of the absenteeism through mental ill-health is worker’s anxiety and stress condition. Stress is once again proven to be a main cause of mental illnesses in daily working environment. [Gray 2000: Mental Health in the Workplace – Tackling the Effects of Stress] In Psychology, there is a theory called “vulnerability-stress model” which explains why mental disorders are generated. This theory suggests that there are two major origins of psychological disorders ---vulnerability and stress, and the two must interact with each other to create disorders. The “vulnerability” part includes one's biological abnormalities. “Stress” here means severely stressful events, such as sexual abuse, bereavement or perennial poverty. [Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, 2006, p. 382] In the following we will list three mental illnesses which can demonstrate the interaction of vulnerability and stress. Anxiety Stress impedes some messaging of the brain which makes human nervous and less happy. In the United States, anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental illness, affecting both children and adults. Spending related to anxiety disorders exceeds 42 billion per year, which is one third of the total mental health bill. [Statistics from Anxiety Disorders Association of America] Though the disorders can attribute to biological reasons such as genes, stressors in life causing anxiety are a major component leading to the disorders as well. Post-traumatic Stress disorder It should be no denial that enormous crisis or trauma leads to stress symptoms, such as insomnia, agitation and jumpiness. These phenomena are normal if they do not persist for one month or longer and do not affect a person's body functioning. However, if they do, one would be diagnosed to have posttrauumati stress disorder (or PTSD). [Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, 2006, p. 376 – 377] This disease stems from an extremely stressful event and genetic predisposition. Without either one of them, one would continue to live with pleasure. Genetic problems will first be discussed. Researchers found that PTSD suffers' hippocampus, an organ which processes autobiographical memory, is prone to be smaller than average. An smaller hippocampus may result in failure in recovering from traumatic events. [Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, 2006, p. 377] Scientists originally believed that serious traumas “caused neuron damage or loss of cells in the hippocampus”, leading to PTSD symptoms. Yet, the hypothesis was doubted. Some researchers supposed that the veterans with military service in the Vietnam War would be traumatized and hence develop PTSD. But this was not the case. They found that the experience in the chaotic country alone would not induce PTSD. Serving in the military and having a smaller-than-normal hippocampus would indeed generate PTSD. Twins who had smaller hippocampus but no experience in war did not develop the disease, and vice-versa. Only the interaction of extreme stress and inherent genetic problems could be attributed to inducing PTSD. As we can see, stress plays an important role in causing this mental disorder. Major Depression Major depression is a serious mood disorder which adversely influences a person's emotion, behavior, cognition and physical condition. The changes in these aspects would disrupt one's ordinary functioning. Main symptoms include loss of interests, suicidal thoughts and exaggeration of minor failures. [Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, 2006, p. 380 -381] . Psychologists have identified a short form of one gene called “5-HTT” makes people more susceptible to depression. But they have found that the possession of 5-HTT alone would not induce the mental illness [Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, 2006, p. 380 -381]. In a study, 847 New Zealanders were followed from birth to age twenty six. 43% of the sample population possessed the short form of the potentially-harmful gene. These people were found to become seriously depressed after major stress caused by loss of jobs, bereavement, suffering of abuse and so on. Yet, only 17% of those without the short form of 5-HTT suffered from depression, “even when they suffered the same stress” [Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, 2006, p. 382]. The difference implies that without stress, major depression would not take place on a person's life. Stress can cause all kinds of psychological disorder, such as anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. In fact, these illnesses are commonly stress-related. Stress is not merely a cause, but an indispensable cause of mental illness. Stress Management Given the aforementioned stress-related physical as well as mental illnesses, it is patently obvious that we should be seriously coping with stress and find proper and effective ways to relief ourselves from the tension brought by stress. Below are the summarized suggestions that would be helpful in lowering your stress level: 1. Think Positively It is not unusual to see people putting too much emphasis only on one side of an event hindering themselves from any other point of views. Try to adopt a more positive perception and tackle adversities and stressful events optimistically. Set-backs and mistakes can be great opportunity to learn. Never forget to unveil positive aspects in whatever happens to you, regardless of how bad it seems to be at first sight. Research has shown that self-deprecating comments and gloomy inner dialogues undermine confidence and create needless stress. If you start to think that you are a useless person, ask yourself whether these ideas are based on accurate facts or unsure assumptions. Things won’t solve itself so whenever you get stuck at one point, try out other viable solutions to the problem and experiment with different approaches to break down the source of stress. [David 1995] 2. Stop worrying, start working Worry is a misuse of imagination, since studies show most of the things which worry us either never happen or are beyond our powers to control. Worrying would only prevent us from thinking or acting effectively. The best thing to do whenever you start worrying is to stop moaning and if possible start working to change the situation you find intolerable. [David 1995] 3. Slow your life down Living in such a competitive city like Hong Kong, many people would like to keep their lives in the fast lane. However, they failed to realize that their minds and bodies need changes in pace. Allocate some time every week, e.g. during weekends, to slow yourself down and take up a hobby that cannot be rushed such as cooking, painting, model making, pottery, to name but a few. Not only does relaxing yourself calm your mind and body, it also makes it easier to solve problems and reach decisions. Regularly slowing down your pace of life would assist you in surviving life in the fast lane. [David 1995] Conclusion With researches showing that 75-90% of all visits to physician in the United States related to stress and over 50% of mental health problems is caused by stress, depression and anxiety, there is little doubt that stress causes both physical and mental illnesses. According to several studies, stress has proven to be one of the major causes of physical health problems. Various biological mechanisms as a result of excessive stress would lead to serious, if not fatal, physical diseases. The involuntary increase in lipid level in a person under stress would accumulate to form astherosclerotic plaque on the blood vessel’s wall of the heart causing cardiovascular related disease. Also, excessive gastric juice attacks the stomach wall causing peptic ulcer. The drop in amount of T-Lymphocytes would also speed up the spreading of vicious cancer cells. Supported by various research reports, stress has also made it one of the most common sources of mental diseases. Stress causes humans to feel nervous and anxious. Extremely stressful events could even lead to post-traumatic stress disorder which has symptoms such as insomnia, agitation and jumpiness. Stress could also cause serious mood disorder showing symptoms like loss of interests, suicidal thoughts and exaggeration of minor failures. No one could possibly escape completely from stress. Therefore, the key to a healthier lifestyle lies in the methods we adopt to cope with stress. Optimistic attitudes to adversities and set-back, solid acts to tackle problems and effective measures to slow down the pace of life has been proved to be useful in reducing stress level. Glossary Add in vocabularies that needs to be defined References Add in sources of data/information you have mentioned in the report David, Lewis, “10-Minuite Time and Stress Management” (1995), pp. 191-201.