To Good Health
Escape Stress EASE YOUR STRESSFUL MIND WITH HEALTHWISE SERVICES hen the off-duty pilot next to me stopped reading his novel and turned his attention instead to what was going on outside the plane, I stopped reading my novel, too. Not wanting to appear anxious by asking him if I should be, I tried to detect whether he was concerned about the rather strong turbulence the airplane was experiencing. No sweat beads appeared on his forehead, nor did he volunteer to race to the cockpit and assist. So things must be OK, I thought – no need to stress out. Still, I was a bit jealous of the two preschool siblings, a boy and girl, just two rows back. As far as they were concerned, they were on a wild roller-coaster ride. With every dip, bounce and jerk of the plane, they hollered their enjoyment. They were having a blast, while I suspect most of the adults on the plane were like me, a tad nervous and wishing all this turbulence would end. Dang adulthood, with all its realism and, therefore, all its stress. How much easier it would have been to not fully understand that turbulence in an airplane can be the beginning of quite a dangerous event? Sometimes not knowing eliminates fear. But escaping stress is not that easy. As we approach the end of another year, the past 12 months probably rate as one of the more turbulent periods many of us have faced. Retirement funds evaporated, unemployment soared and financial institutions virtually collapsed. Folks have had a lot more things to stress out about than just the everyday stressors that life always involves. Stress, they tell me, is what you feel when
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you have to handle more than you are used to. Your body responds as if you’re in danger, making hormones that speed up your heart, make you breathe faster and give you a burst of energy. Some stress is normal and can even be used positively. But if it happens too often or lasts too long, then the effects can be harmful. I certainly don’t consider myself an expert in this area, which is why I probably got a bit stressed somewhere over Colorado. But I can point you to a simple-to-use reference about handling stress in your own life – just go to our Web site, www.trh.com, and link to our Healthwise Knowledgeable site. You can type “managing stress” in the search box and open up a wealth of information on the topic. And it’s not just information about stress; through Healthwise, you have at your fingertips a phenomenal resource on all health-related topics. Check out symptoms and what they might point to; prescription drugs and their benefits and side effects; and specific medical tests and the reasons behind their use. Healthwise is just one service TRH Health Plans is glad to offer. For more than 60 years now, we’ve been helping Tennesseans eliminate one potential area of stress: what to do financially when a major health issue presents itself. Nearly 185,000 Farm Bureau members have some type of health coverage with our company. Aside from occasional airplane rides, few things have become more turbulent in our day than keeping up with increasing health-care costs. For a lot of folks, TRH Health Plans can make that challenge a bit less stressful. Find us at a local Farm Bureau office near you.
About the Author Anthony Kimbrough is vice president of marketing and government relations for TRH Health Plans. His e-mail is akimbrough@trh.com. For more information about TRH Health Plans, call (877) 874-8323 or visit www.trh.com.
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