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If you are one of the millions of stressed-out Americans,
there's good news. People can learn to manage stress. Start with these tips:
Keep a positive attitude.
Accept that there are events that you cannot control.
Be assertive instead of aggressive. "Assert" your
feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or
passive.
Learn and practice relaxation techniques..
Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better
when it is fit.
Eat healthy, well-balanced meals.
Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to
recover from stressful events.
Don't rely on alcohol or drugs to reduce stress.
Seek out social support.
Learn to manage your time more effectively.
Information provided by Jerome F. Kiffer, MA, Department of Health Psychology
and Applied Psychophysiology,
The
Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Psychosom Med 2002 Sep-Oct;64(5):803-9
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Moderating effects of coping on the relationship between
stress and the development of new brain lesions in multiple sclerosis.
Mohr DC, Goodkin DE, Nelson S, Cox D, Weiner M.
University of California, San Francisco, CA.
OBJECTIVE: Many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) report that stress can
trigger disease exacerbations. Considerable research has supported a
relationship between stress and both clinical exacerbation and the development
of new brain lesions. However, these relationships are not always consistent
either within patients or across patients, suggesting the presence of
moderators. This study examined the hypothesis that coping moderates the
subsequent relationship between stress and the development of new brain lesions
in MS. METHODS: Thirty-six patients (mean age = 44.4; 22 women, 14 men) with
relapsing forms of MS were assessed once every 4 weeks for 28-100 weeks. New
brain lesions were identified using monthly Gd+ MRI. Stress was measured within
24 hours before MRI using a modified version of the Social Readjustment Rating
Scale that assessed Conflict and Disruption in Routine. Coping was measured at
baseline using the Coping with Health Injuries and Problems questionnaire, which
produces four scales: distraction, instrumental, palliative, and emotional
preoccupation. Data were analyzed using mixed effects logistic regression to
account for within-subject correlations. Analyses were lagged such that stress
assessments predicted new Gd+ MRI brain lesions 8 weeks later. RESULTS: As
reported previously, stress was significantly related to the development of new
Gd+ brain lesions 8 weeks later (OR = 1.62, p =.009). Greater use of distraction
was found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between stress and
new Gd+ lesions (OR = 0.69, p =.037) such that greater use of distraction was
associated with a decreased relationship between stress and new Gd+ lesions.
Increased instrumental coping was marginally associated with a decreased
relationship between stress and new Gd+ lesions (OR = 0.77, p =.081), while
increased emotional preoccupation was marginally associated with an increased
relationship between stress and new Gd+ lesions (OR = 1.46, p =.088). There was
no significant moderating effect for palliative coping (p =.27) and no
significant main effects for any coping variables and the subsequent development
of new Gd+ brain lesions (p values >.21). CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide
modest support for the hypothesis that coping can moderate the relationship
between stress and the MS disease activity. Several limitations in this study
are discussed. While these findings suggest areas of potentially fruitful
research, readers are cautioned that these are preliminary results; inferences
regarding the clinical importance of these findings are premature.
PMID: 12271111 [PubMed - in process]
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