mind body
If nothing soothes your stress better than a pint of ice cream, you’re not alone. Emotional eating is one habit than can calm your nerves, but harm your health. Others include smoking, excessive use of alcohol, overspending and compulsive gambling. Even excess caffeine contributes to health problems.
When Soothing Your STRESS Harms Your Health By NorthBay
“All addictions work on the pleasure center of the brain,” explains Lara Charneco, MD, an internal medicine physician at the NorthBay Center for Primary Care in Green Valley. “Your body releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that provides temporary feelings of enjoyment.” While you may understand the longterm harm excess eating does to your health, when you’re stressed, you just don’t care. “It’s hard to see the possible harm that’s a long way off when you’re seeking an immediate, short-term benefit,” Dr. Charneco says. “And when you’re going through a stressful period in your life, it can be very hard to break a bad habit.” Here are some of the unhealthy ways people deal with stress, and suggestions on how to lessen their impact: Emotional eating: Using food as a crutch is very common and creates a vicious cycle of gaining weight and struggling with a negative self-image. Obesity is linked to diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, back and knee pain, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. To battle emotional eating, change your food choices. If you tend to grab a box of cookies at the end of a stressful work day, try eating an apple instead. Go to a “green” diet of fruits and vegetables, which will give you an immediate lift while reducing your calorie intake. Avoid drastic crash diets and diet pills. You didn’t gain weight overnight and you don’t need to lose it overnight. Smoking: Reaching for a cigarette and the immediate hit of relaxation that follows is another all-too-common stress reliever. Over the long term, smoking is linked to multiple cancers, cardiovascular disease, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “Smoking is a strong, physical addiction that is incredibly difficult to stop,” Dr. Charneco says. “Even though the longterm health damage is clear, I often advise my patients not to try to quit smoking during a time of high emotional stress. Try to work through the problem at hand, and then redirect your energies toward Lara Charneco, MD
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quitting when things have improved.” Instead, try to cut back on the number of cigarettes you smoke or limit the times that you smoke. Drinking alcohol: Having one glass of red wine may be just what the doctor ordered, but when one becomes several, you are heading for trouble. Alcohol has an immediate relaxing effect on the body, but it’s actually a depressant. It increases your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol, memory loss and impaired decision-making.
Drinking caffeine: Spending time at the coffee house is a popular, relaxing pastime. A few cups are even beneficial to your health. However, caffeine is a drug, and it’s possible to become addicted to it. Many people use caffeine to energize the start of a new day, and then return to it throughout the day to avoid a “caffeine crash.” Too much can impair your sleep cycle and actually increase your stress. It can increase your heart rate and blood pressure. The best advice: Drink in moderation. Compulsive spending: We’re all familiar with “retail therapy” – the joy of the purchase that replaces stressful feelings. But shopping can be another shortterm stress buster. When the bill comes, the financial stress of paying the bill far outweighs the thrill of the hunt.
“Just wanting to stop a behavior is not enough...”
Compulsive gambling: For some, gambling is an addiction that ruins personal relationships and leads to financial catastrophe. Like compulsive spending, stress tends to increase compulsive gambling, as the gambler gets into the “zone” and becomes numb to outside influences. Gambling is an impulse-control disorder, and the gambler can’t stop without professional help. How can you get help for harmful habits? You may know you have a bad habit. The scale doesn’t lie, nor does your monthly bank statement. But “knowing” is not enough. “Just wanting to stop a behavior is not enough,” Dr. Charneco says. “You have to be motivated to take that first step.” Many people are not sure what that first step is, or, they may be afraid of failure. And sometimes they have to admit that they can’t handle their problem alone. That’s when their physician can help them make a plan or lead them to a useful community resource. Some addictions are so strong that professional help is necessary to quit. Organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous are very successful in guiding their participants out of addiction. Joining a diet group like Weight Watchers can offer inspiration for someone struggling with excess weight. “The goal is to make permanent, healthy changes in your life, one small step at a time.”
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