From The Straits Times    |

Research shows that women suffer more from the symptoms of physical stress than men.

As women typically juggle more roles than men wife, mother, cook, cleaner, etc. trimming back the roles (self-imposed or not) isn’t always so easy, says Susanne Fogger, professor of nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and long-time psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Tips to curb stress
Women often have “difficulty letting go without feeling guilty about not being able to maintain that role.”

But being continually exposed to the stress load can put you at risk for a host of illnesses, from depression to obesity.

“Stress is erosive,” says Fogger, “in the sense that the longer a person remains under what they perceive as stress, the less their body is able to fight off infection because their natural immune system decreases.”

To get stress under control, Fogger offers five essential tips:

1. Get active
Daily exercise is essential to burning off stress, even if just 30 minutes as long as you don’t exercise within a half hour before bedtime, unless you’re having sex. “Sex doesn’t count as ‘exercise’ in this case because it relaxes you it is a great stress-reducer,” Fogger says.

2. Don’t work before bedtime
“Your brain needs time to unwind,” Fogger says, who suggests working no less than two hours before bed. “Don’t contaminate sleep time with work time.”

3. Eat well
Think of your body as a car engine, she adds. “Good, clean fuel helps it run best.” Eat a balanced diet of nutrient-rich foods and limit your consumption of high-glucose, high-carbohydrate foods you eat.

4. Cut back on booze
“People have this erroneous thought that alcohol helps you relax, but it is actually a depressant,” she says. “When people use it as a way to de-stress, they end up consuming more than they anticipate.” Fogger adds: “This can get them into a vicious cycle of overdrinking and then when they withdraw off alcohol, this increases stress on the body because the liver has to work overtime to neutralize toxins.” Rule of thumb: don’t drink more than one glass of wine per day.

5. Simplify your life
Keep it simple by cutting out the things in your life that don’t match up to your life goals. “Mental health-wise, what helps people manage stress is having supportive people they can talk to,” Fogger says. “Every day should not be treated as life or death, and keeping it basic with good people around will keep your life purpose in focus and your stress levels down.” — AFP RELAXNEWS