Anxiety High Blood Pressure » Stress

Anxiety Attack Symptoms

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:56:26 +0000

There are many people in the world who suffer from some form of anxiety and for these people these anxiety attacks may be mild or they could be very severe. While there are many ways of treating anxiety attacks, it’s first important to identify what your anxiety attack symptoms are.
There are the physical symptoms of anxiety attacks that manifest themselves in the form of headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, tingling, pale complexion, numbness, difficulty in breathing, and sensations of tightness in the chest, neck, shoulders and or hands. These reactions are the body’s fight-or-flight reaction which involves the hormones, muscles and the heart.
The behavioral anxiety attack symptoms include pacing, trembling, general restlessness, hyperventilation, pressured speech, wringing of the hands, and even finger tapping. Then the cognitive anxiety attack symptoms include recurrent or obsessive thoughts, feelings of doom, and morbid thoughts of death, confusion or the inability to concentrate.
The emotional anxiety attack symptoms can include feelings of tension or nervousness, feeling agitated, overwrought, and feelings of unreality, panic, or even terror. Then there are also the anxiety attack symptoms where the person’s brain puts up a defense mechanism against the anxiety attacks.
Feelings of depression can also occur because of this excessive stress that we need to cope with. While there are therapies and medications that can deal with full blown anxiety disorders, you might want to practice a few techniques for coping with anxiety and stress.
These psychological defenses include repressing anxious thoughts or ideas out of the conscious awareness. Another anxiety attack symptom is where the sufferer will transfer the source of their anxiety to an object or an event. Phobias are an example of this anxiety attack transference. Then there are the times that a person who suffers from anxiety attacks will rationalize their anxious feelings by claiming that ordinary people would feel the same way were they placed in the exact situation.
The other method that the brain will use as a defense against anxiety attacks manifests itself in the form of physical complaints and illnesses. In this case the anxiety attack symptoms involve recurrent headaches, an upset stomach, and muscle and joint pains.
Delusions are one other way of the brain trying to defend the sufferer from the anxiety attacks. For these anxiety attack symptoms the person can formulate conspiracy theories or other similar scenarios. This gives the person an emotional outlet for their feelings of anxiety.
It doesn’t really matter what form these symptoms show themselves in. What’s really important is once you identify that these are signs of anxiety attacks that you seek and receive help and treatment for this condition. By catching these anxiety attack symptoms early you have a chance to stop it progressing to a more severe condition like agoraphobia where you may become housebound due to your excessive anxiety attacks. So don’t delay if you feel that you suffer from anxiety attack symptoms, go see a qualified medical practitioner as soon as possible and get the proper help.

How Female Hormonal Changes Can Contribute to Anxiety and Panic Attacks

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:04:40 +0000

Some women are more sensitive to hormonal fluctuations than others. For many women, anxiety issues appear for the first time during periods of hormonal change. For other women, hormonal changes intensify previously existing anxiety symptoms.

Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS), post-childbirth, and perimenopause (the period of time before the onset of menopause). It may take the form of panic attacks, nervousness, sweating, intense fear, anxiety combined with depression, or other overwhelming symptoms.

Here are several periods of hormonal change that can intensify or trigger anxiety in women.

Puberty — Developing girls experience hormonal changes as they prepare to begin their reproductive years.

Monthly menstrual cycle — Often girls and women experience PMS the week before their period.

Following childbirth — The severe drop in certain hormones following childbirth can cause dramatic physical symptoms and a temporary feeling of depression or anxiety; in some women, it is prolonged.

Perimenopause — Perimenopause is the period of time when the body is approaching menopause. It may last from two to ten years. During this time the menstrual cycle becomes irregular as the hormone levels keep fluctuating, causing some women to experience PMS-like symptoms.

Although many of us may use the term “going through menopause” to describe this period of time, it is actually called perimenopause. Many women experience panic attacks for the first time during perimenopause. Other symptoms such as insomnia, hot flashes, rapid heartbeat, and sweating are also common.

With surgical menopause (hysterectomy), you’ll likely experience perimenopausal symptoms after the surgery, even if you did not experience symptoms prior to surgery. Symptoms can be prolonged and are due to the dramatic and sudden decrease of certain hormones as a result of the hysterectomy.

In non-surgical circumstances, menopause occurs after a woman has no periods for twelve consecutive months. It lasts only one day. Many women report feeling better than ever mentally and physically after menopause, due to the fact that hormone levels stabilize.

Hormonal Change Triggers the Fight Or Flight Response

Due to the fact that hormonal change causes physical and psychological stress, it triggers our “fight or flight” response. The fight or flight response is the body’s inborn, self-protective response to perceived danger.

When we perceive that we are under stress, our bodies send out a rush of cortisol, adrenaline, and other brain chemicals to prepare us to “fight” or “flee” the danger.

The fight or flight response triggers the physiological changes that we associate with anxiety, such as rapid heartbeat, increased blood pressure, sweating, muscle tension, narrowed mental focus, heightened emotion, and many other symptoms.

These are the same physical sensations that many women experience when their hormone levels fluctuate. In other words, most of the symptoms women experience during times of hormonal change are really fight or flight reactions. While these physical sensations are not dangerous, they can be very intense and overwhelming.

Our fight or flight response mechanism can become “hypersensitive” with the various hormonal changes in our bodies that take place from puberty to menopause. Many of us are in a constant state of stress due to our lifestyle and thought patterns, which also causes hypersensitivity.

In other words, our bodies may be stuck in the “on” switch of fight or flight. What normally wouldn’t trigger symptoms, now initiates symptoms and perpetuates an ongoing cycle.

Fight or flight reactions in and of themselves are harmless. However, when our thoughts convince our rational minds that these symptoms are scary and dangerous, we create an anxiety cycle.

Anxiety consists of more than fight or flight reactions acting by themselves. Unproductive thoughts play a critical role in creating and perpetuating the anxiety we experience.

Our thoughts convert fight or flight reactions into anxiety, and a self-perpetuating cycle begins. Soon we find ourselves limiting our behaviors because of anxiety as well, which further entrenches the vicious cycle.

When a person is under stress, unresolved emotions and issues commonly come to the forefront. Because hormonal change is a major stressor, it can bring up internal conflicts and self-doubt in many areas of our lives. All of a sudden, we may find that the negative self-talk that we successfully pushed to the background of our lives during less stressful times is now playing center stage.

During periods of hormonal change, we may also feel uncertain about our changing roles (e.g. maturing from girl to woman, becoming a mother, becoming a mature woman past childbearing years), which can add to our internal conflict.

When we fail to successfully resolve internal conflicts and the unhelpful thought patterns that contribute to them, we create a breeding ground for anxiety. Combined with fight or flight symptoms, it’s no wonder that these unproductive thoughts create and perpetuate the anxiety cycle!

What can you do if hormone-related anxiety affects you?

Here’s some great news! The same tools that you can use to overcome anxiety due to other reasons can help you to conquer anxiety related to hormonal changes too.

Research shows that cognitive-behavioral techniques that help you change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, lifestyle changes, relaxation techniques, and nutritional strategies (all found in our Conquer Anxiety Success Program) can help women dealing with hormonal changes.

These types of strategies not only help women regain a sense of control over their lives, but actually achieve improved physical and emotional well being! Here are a few tips to get you started:

– Focus on reducing preventable stress in your life that triggers the fight or flight response — stop the yo-yo dieting; increase sleep to eight or nine hours a night; exercise regularly; don’t skip meals; cut back on your frantic schedule; and decrease stimulants, such as caffeine.

The body isn’t designed for constant stress. When we are bombarded with stress, our ability to cope can become overwhelmed because the elevation in stress hormones makes the fight or flight switch remain “on.”

– Learn how to train your body to respond differently to stress so that you can automatically turn the false alarm “off” when the fight or flight response is triggered. Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation can help you achieve this goal.

– Most importantly, learn how to change how you think. Our thoughts are what convert the harmless fight or flight response into a vicious cycle of anxiety. Remember, just as our thoughts hold the key to creating anxiety, they also hold the key to eliminating it!

Anxiety Disorder Cripples Lives

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:04:46 +0000

Anxiety disorder illnesses can fill people’s lives with overwhelming anxiety and fears that are chronic, unrelenting and grow progressively worse. Anxiety disorders cause sufferers to feel a sense of constant worry, tension and impending doom.
Anxiety symptoms can become so severe that anxiety disorder sufferers are almost totally disabled, too terrified to leave their homes, to enter their office building, attend their children’s soccer games or shop for groceries. It is common for anxiety disorder to accompany depression, substance abuse (like alcohol) or another anxiety disorder.
Most anxiety sufferers experience significant physical symptoms including chest pain, shortness of breath, excessive sweating, muscle tightness and a feeling of dizziness.
When anxiety is taking a toll, your body knows it. You have trouble sleeping, eating and concentrating. You get headaches, your stomach is upset and your heart races. It is often the frightening physical anxiety symptoms that prompt sufferers to seek help.
Many don’t realize that their physical symptoms are caused by anxiety until they see a doctor. Anxiety symptoms often produce a severe, unfounded state of worry about matters such as health, money, family or work.
Because they are so intense, anxiety symptoms can cause a person to feel chronically tired and worn out all the time. Restful sleep does not come easily to anxiety sufferers.
Fortunately, through research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, there are some effective treatments that can help. In fact, anxiety disorder is the most treatable form of mental illness. Treatment typically involves a combination of medication and therapy.
Anxiety symptoms will vary from person to person but the common denominator is that they are all disruptive to the person’s life and negatively impact their ability to function.
In addition to the severe mental anguish, anxiety symptoms often include significant physical discomfort like rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, stomach problems, muscle tension and headaches.
Many who suffer from anxiety panic attack symptoms rush to the hospital because they are convinced they are having a heart attack.
People with social anxiety disorder may literally lose their voices and have breathing difficulties if faced with a situation where they have to do something as simple as introduce themselves to their coworkers.
Anxiety information can go a long way toward helping sufferers and their families decide the best approach to treatment.
Many world-class facilities like the Midwest Center For Anxiety have conducted extensive research and can recommend treatment options. Many mental health professionals use the Beck Anxiety Inventory to help diagnose anxiety and find the best course of treatment. The Anxiety Disorder Association of America provides a wealth of information for anxiety suffers and their families.
It is our earnest hope that this information will enhance your life and allow you to join the millions of people who have conquered anxiety disorder and gone on to live fearless, happy and meaningful lives.

Alcohol and Anxiety: Alcohol Aggravates Anxiety Symptoms

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:50:00 +0000

Alcohol and anxiety can be a treacherous combination.
Research suggests that the prevalence of alcohol dependence is twice as high in people with anxiety disorders than in the general population.
According to a recent report by the National Institute of Health (NIH), anxiety is a strong psychological risk factor associated with heavy or problem drinking. Other risk factors include an impulsive personality or a family history of alcohol abuse. When alcohol and anxiety are combined, there are many serious problems that occur.
Social anxiety is the most common type of anxiety disorder and it affects 15% of all Americans. It can trigger a host of physical symptoms, anxious thoughts and avoidance behaviors.
People with anxiety may be tempted to drink before and/or during social engagements as it may initially decrease their anxiety.
The truth is that alcohol can actually trigger panic attacks. It depresses the central nervous system and causes fatigue, agitation and anxiety. It is ironic that individuals engage in an activity that produces effects similar to the ones they are trying to relieve.
When the alcohol begins to wear off, anxious people are likely to experience shakiness, headaches and nausea.
Alcohol does not mix well with anxiety medications. Sedatives of any kind should never be combined with alcohol. The interaction of alcohol with benzodiazepines can depress both breathing and blood pressure, possibly causing coma or death.
The same qualities in alcohol that may initially cause relaxation also affect your ability to remember, understand and make decisions. A person may experience minor relief from panic after drinking alcohol only to discover that as it wears off, his anxiety returns more intensely than before.
In his insightful book titled “Prisoners Of Our Thoughts” Gary Miller counsels readers not to the make the same mistakes he made.
“Adults have self- destructive ways of coping with anxiety. For any of you that are currently using alcohol to help, please realize this not a cure. In the short term, you may think it feels good but in the long term it will only bring on other issues. I’m not saying an occasional drink or two is bad. Everyone has their own opinions on drinking. But when you drink excessively to dull your anxieties, then you are on the wrong path.”
If you or a loved one suffers from alcohol and anxiety, see your health professional. Working together, you can develop a treatment plan that will free you from the vicious cycle of alcohol and anxiety.

How to Overcome Anxiety

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 07:31:32 +0000

Stress is a natural response of our body to conceived threats and pressures in life; while anxiety is simply a feeling of worry; nervousness or an intense apprehension of real or imagined danger. It could also be a strong wish to do something; especially if the wish is unhealthy strong such as being anxious to do the right thing. Hence, anxiety sometimes occurs as a result of lack of confidence in self.

Both stress and anxiety are normal reactions in our body in response to stressful situations in life. They are temporary events that disappear once those perceived threats and pressures are gone. However, should they stay longer than normal, then it regressed to some form of depression.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety to Prevent Depression? Let us first understand why do you have this feeling of stress and anxiety? Anxiety is a symptom of the presence of doubt, and when there is doubt, fear grips in. When fear grips in, anxiety comes in. All these; doubt, fear, and anxiety are manifestations of a negative mental attitude, attracting more negative things to happen. The more intense the anxiety, the more the thing that you feared of, will likely to happen. Why? Because of the Law of Attraction; the more you think and feel about it, the more you will get it; in other words, whatever you resist, persists.

So the best thing to overcome anxiety is to overcome your negative mental attitude. Have you noticed that when there is something that you do not like to happen, will more likely to happen? An example of this is when you were in school; when the teacher calls randomly for somebody to present in front of the class, you do not want to present because you are not prepared, or you are not confident to present; what do you feel? You feel anxious, anxious that you might be called. And the more anxious you become, the more likely that you will be called. And if you were very anxious enough, then definitely, you were called.

In the Law of Attraction, the process starts with having a thought of what you want, then this thought transform into desire to have what you want. Desire is an emotion, powerful enough to lead you to action until you get what you what. Anxiety is already an emotion, a powerful feeling that will lead you to your dominant negative thought-that something you feared of.

How then do you overcome your negative mental attitude? To overcome a negative mental attitude is to have a positive mental attitude. You can not overcome a negative mental attitude with a negative mental attitude. Let me give you an example: As I browsed the Google keyword, I noticed that a lot of people searched the Google about anxiety, about 4 million searches in one month, compared to happiness at about a million in a month. Both of these groups of people who searched for anxiety and happiness, are more likely to be suffering from anxiety or depression. If you are happy, why would you search for happiness on the internet on the first place? The difference between these groups of people is their approach, or how they managed their anxiety. 4 million tried to manage their anxiety by learning more about anxiety. What do they get? They end up feeding their thoughts more about anxiety, stories of people with anxiety, and so on. They end up attracting more negative forces to them and become more anxious. On the other hand, those people who tried to battle their anxiety by cultivating their thoughts with happy thoughts; happy moments; stories about happiness; and surrounding themselves with happy people; are more likely to succeed in overcoming their anxiety.

Stress and anxiety are a mental state of mind where negative thoughts are dominant, creating doubts and fears. To overcome stress and anxiety is to gain mastery over your thoughts; to change your mental attitude to a positive mentality. And one of the best ways to have a positive mental attitude is to nourish your mind with happy thoughts, lively music, happy moments, and associate yourself with happy people.

How to Reduce Blood Pressure Naturally

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:21:12 +0000

Many of my clients with high blood pressure take premium Omega-3 oils, and have reported benefits such as decrease in “spikes”, normalized pressure readings and other cardiovascular beneficial effects.
Hypertension is High Blood Pressure, and blood pressure is defined as: (from Wikipedia)
“… the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. The pressure of the circulating blood decreases as blood moves through arteries, arterioles, capillaries, and veins; the term blood pressure generally refers to arterial pressure, i.e., the pressure in the larger arteries, arteries being the blood vessels which take blood away from the heart.”
I just googled “stress and hypertension” and got back 2.6 million results. So there might be something to that as well.
From The Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA states, “Stress can cause hypertension through repeated blood pressure elevations as well as by stimulation of the nervous system to produce large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that increase blood pressure.”
So there is this mind body connection as well. We humans have to adapt to a fast paced, stimulating mental environment while we generally are becoming more and more sedentary in life style. If I were to recommend one thing to help the mind body connection part of the formula, it would be to begin a regular yoga practice.
It seems somehow inane to me that I need to go to the gym several times a week to push on machines and “simulate” working my muscles when in times past, I got plenty of work in my daily job of splitting firewood, but indeed, my brain is doing most of my daily work now except for my fingers that do a lot of keyboarding (boy, do my wrists hurt) and the occasions that I am lifting boxes of product.
Premium Omega-3 fish oil extracts are very good for both the heart muscle, and the cardiovascular system. When the cardiovascular system is working better, the whole body is working better. Premium Omega-3 fish oil extracts support healthy heart function, encourages blood flow to the heart, and helps keep healthy arteries healthy and elastic.
Since we are talking about natural products, we are limited with product claims such as high blood pressure which requires medical treatment by a doctor. Therefore, we do encourage that everyone read and educate themselves on the subject matter by reviewing the clinical studies on natural ingredients that have been published in medical journals.
Below are some links to scientific abstracts that have been published in the medical journal Hypertension, which support the evidence behind premium Omega-3 fish oil extracts, a highly effective, supplement derived from fish oil, and the ability of the active ingredients found in omega-3s to promote heart function. You may want to share these study summaries with your doctor.
Blood pressure response to fish oil supplementation: metaregression analysis of randomized trials.
Original papers:
Journal of Hypertension. 20(8):1493-1499, August 2002.
Geleijnse, Johanna M. a,b; Giltay, Erik J. a; Grobbee, Diederick E. b; Donders, Adrianus R. T. b,c; Kok,Frans J.
Objective: The antihypertensive effect of fish oil was estimated from randomized trials using metaregression analysis. Modification of the blood pressure (BP) effect by age, gender, blood pressure, and body mass index was examined.
Methods : A total of 90 randomized trials of fish oil and BP were identified through MEDLINE (1966-March 2001). Trials with co-interventions, patient populations, non-placebo controls, or duration of less than 2 weeks were excluded.
A total of 36 trials (50 strata) were included, 22 of which had a double-blind design. Original reports were retrieved for data collection on sample size, study design, duration, fish oil dose, BP changes and baseline characteristics of trial populations.
Pooled BP estimates were obtained by metaregression analysis, weighted for trial sample sizes. Stratified analyses according to population characteristics were performed.
Results : Intake of fish oil was high in most trials (median dose: 3.7 g/day). Fish oil reduced systolic BP by 2.1 mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.0, 3.2;P less than 0.01] and diastolic BP by 1.6 mmHg (95% CI: 1.0. 2.2;P less than 0.01). Restricting the analysis to double-blind trials yielded BP reductions of 1.7 mmHg (95% CI: 0.3, 3.1) and 1.5 mmHg (95% CI: 0.6, 2.3), respectively.
BP effects tended to be larger in populations that were older (over 45 years) and in hypertensive populations (BP greater than= 140/90 mmHg).
Conclusions : High intake of fish oil may lower BP, especially in older and hypertensive subjects. The antihypertensive effect of lower doses of fish oil (less than 0.5 g/day) however, remains to be established.
(C) 2002 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
A low-sodium diet supplemented with fish oil lowers blood pressure in the elderly Hypertension Research Program, Commonwealth Scientific and International Research Organization (CSIRO) Division of Human Nutrition, Adelaide, South Australia.
OBJECTIVE: To examine effects of dietary fish oil supplementation with sodium restriction on blood pressure in the elderly. DESIGN: In a double-blind dietary intervention lasting 4 weeks, parallel comparisons of blood pressure were made in volunteers assigned to one of four treatment groups: fish oil and low sodium; fish oil and normal sodium; sunflower oil and low sodium; or sunflower oil and normal sodium.
SETTING: Subjects lived at home and attended our nutrition research clinic at fortnightly intervals for dietary counselling and blood pressure measurement.
PARTICIPANTS: Health volunteers aged 60-80 years were sought by advertisement. A total of 114 men and women were enrolled in two cohorts; 106, with an initial mean blood pressure of 132/77 mmHg, satisfactorily completed the study. INTERVENTION: All subjects adopted a low-sodium diet and dietary changes were effected by double-blind administration of slow-release sodium chloride or placebo tablets, along with capsules containing either fish or sunflower oil. MAIN
OUTCOME MEASURE: The primary measure was the within-subject change in blood pressure after 4 weeks of intervention in each dietary treatment group. RESULTS: Urinary sodium excretion in subjects on low-sodium diets decreased whilst potassium excretion was unaffected. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) fell in the group taking sunflower oil with low sodium, but there was only a transient fall in diastolic blood pressure (DBP).
In those taking fish oil with normal sodium, the change in blood pressure was not significant, except after adjustment for initial blood pressure and weight changes. When fish oil was combined with low sodium, however, both SBP and DBP were substantially reduced; the reduction in DBP was significantly greater than in the other treatment groups.
CONCLUSION: Dietary fish oil and sodium restriction can interact to lower DBP in the elderly.
Taking Premium Omega-3 fish oil extracts would be very good to your overall cardiovascular health.
More and more people are now taking fish oils. Not just any fish oil will work. Why do I say that? The oil needs to contain sufficient amounts of EPA and DHA, the beneficial metabolite that the body needs from the fish oils.
The oil should also be purified with a molecular distillation process to ensure harmful products from fish have been removed, while maintaining the active omega-3 fatty acid content.
The fish oil product must be pleasant to take otherwise our human condition will not allow us to do things that are unpleasant. Most people who try store bought low density fish oils are not happy with the after-taste and repeating.
Make sure the omega-3 you buy meets strict standards for safety set forth by the industry, and is an effective product.
As always, I recommend that all supplement use be discussed with your physician and that you continue to work with your doctor on a treatment plan for high blood pressure.

High Blood Pressure – are You at Risk For?

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:48:59 +0000

To make sure you can keep your blood pressure at a lower and healthier level, it is important to first, know the risks. If you know exactly what you are up against, you can better treat yourself, or change your lifestyle accordingly.

Everybody will be at risk of high blood pressure, sometime during their life. It makes absolutely no difference how or why, just as long as you are aware of the risks and potential causes, otherwise you could accidentally set yourself up to have high blood pressure, later in life.

The main risks for developing high blood pressure are genetic, racial and age. People with a darker skin tone, like African Americans are far more likely to develop high blood pressure, and they usually develop the problem at an earlier age.

The older people get, the more likely you are to develop high blood pressure or hypertension. Age definitely is one of the main causes of high blood pressure. Interestingly, women are not usually prone to developing high blood pressure and hypertension until a while after their menopause, although after the menopause women do move into a high risk group. Men are always at a higher risk of developing hypertension and high blood pressure, usually between the ages of 35-50 years, and obviously the older they get the higher the risk.

Whilst you cannot control the risk factors that are genetic, there are some other measures that you can take to decrease the risk of high blood pressure and hypertension. One of the best ways to control the risk of high blood pressure is to control your weight. Obesity is one of the main causes of high blood pressure, especially if you are over the suggested optimum weight for your age and gender. Diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes affect your weight positively.

It is not just how much you eat that will contribute to obesity, but what you eat is also a big contributor. Drinking too much alcohol, consuming too much salt as well as eating too many fatty foods will make you overweight. It is best to stick to somewhere around four to six grams or less of salt per day, two units of alcohol per day for men, and one unit per day for women.

Stress is a big contributor to high blood pressure and hypertension. No matter how you feel, if you have been in particularly stressful situations i.e. a stressful job, for a long period of time, the chances are it will affect your blood pressure levels. Stress is one of the main causes of high blood pressure, so breath deeply, rest well and take a walk if you feel that you may be under too much stress.

Stress also means that you may swap some good habits to try to better deal with the situations. This may include eating fatty and sodium filled take out food, smoking or staying indoors instead of walking. It is important to keep to your good habits, as you may think that smoking or eating a take out will deal with your stress levels, but they will make it worse, and contribute to the risk of obesity.

If any one couples any of the genetic risk factors with inactivity or obesity they are in the highest risk group. We cannot stress enough how important it is for these people to keep a healthy diet, exercise and keep your alcohol and salt intake low. If you fall into the category of those who cannot control their high blood pressure risks, make sure you keep control of the other aspects of your life that may increase the risk of high blood pressure and hypertension. It is most important, above all if you are over 50 years old and male, to keep your stress levels down. High blood pressure and hypertension in the over 50s is the biggest cause of heart attacks.

Bare all of this information in mind and you are definitely on your way to becoming healthier, whilst lowering your blood pressure and decreasing the risk of hypertension.

Physical and Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety

admin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:31:14 +0000

Social, Physical and Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety

Hasan A. Yahya, Ph.D

Physical symptoms can be caused by other illnesses, so it is important to have a medical doctor treat conditions such as ulcers, compressed disks, or other physical disorders. Remember, however, that the body and mind are not separate entities. The physical problems outlined below may result from or be exacerbated by stress: Sleep disturbances, back shoulder or neck pain, tension or migraine headaches, upset or acid stomach., cramps, heartburn, gas. irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea. Over weight, hair loss, muscle tension, fatigue. high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, chest pain, and more colds, flu, infections.

Emotional symptoms, like physical signs, emotional symptoms such as anxiety or depression can mask conditions other than stress. It is important to find out whether they are stress-related or not. In either case, the following emotional symptoms are uncomfortable and can affect your performance at work or play, your physical health, or your relationships with others: nervousness, anxiety ; depression, moodiness “butterflies” ; irritability, frustration ;memory problems ; nervousness, anxiety ;depression, moodiness ; “butterflies”

Relational symptoms

One important symptom is antisocial behavior displayed in stressful situations. It can cause the rapid deterioration of relationships with family, friends, co-workers, or even strangers. A person under stress may manifest signs such as: increased arguments, isolation from social activities, conflict situations with co-workers or employers ; traffic jam and road rage ; domestic or workplace violence ; and frequent job changes.

Marital Status and church

The factor of marital statue, for those who are young, we know for sure what make them under stress, if they are in the school or the college or the university. This will be determined also by the factors of age and sex and birth order. This factor also will show your intimate relationships or hostile ones, like playing the role of the leader in what you do or the follower to others. Or like deciding for yourself or someone else decide for you and influence your behavior. From peers, boy or girl-friend, teachers, work manger, or whatever else.

If you are married after a short period of love, you will be in trouble in the future, because you did not study well the habits and qualities of your partner. (This is for both, Male or Female). If you plan to marry after graduation from your college, then we can expect from you to spend a good time in your life. And stress is still far from you. You enjoy what are you doing, with others in your age.

The culture and beliefs factor have something to deal with your role as a person cherish values and morality like other people in the surrounding community. In this case you are human, with a mind. The stress to conform to others is making you rebel sometimes against something, but you cannot tell what was is. Is it what you want and you can’t do, or what others wanted you to do or not to do, and you did not conform with what they ask you to do, or not to do. The culture has its influence in the public and religious holidays, (Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine Day, and the like). www.hasanyahya.com

Stress And Anxiety The Killer Among Us

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:39:10 +0000

Lets face it since September 11th, our lives have changed forever. We’ve seen war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with no end in sight. We’ve seen Wall Street collapse, and people’s life savings go down the drain. The economy hit the tank and people are in fear of losing their jobs, their homes, and everything precious to them. So it’s no wonder people are stressed, and have anxiety.Stress and anxiety is a very real problem if it’s not treated properly. Lot’s of people don’t even realize they have stress until it starts to effect their lives or their health. Stress and anxiety can cause all kinds of health problems such as high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, ect. But it can also cause lot’s of problems in your relationships, your family and so on. Money problems is the worst kind of stress there is, it can literally drive you crazy, but there is help out there you just have to let yourself get the help that is right for you.I myself, have experienced stress and anxiety. About ten years ago I had really bad neck pain that would not go away. I went to the doctor’s several times, I even had a MRI done and it kept showing nothing wrong. I also at the same time could not be in a small room or enclosed area, because I would start to sweat, and feel like I was going to faint. My doctor then suggested It may be stress, so he showed me some techniques that I could do at home, and after about two weeks of trying his techniques, my neck pain went away and it never bothered me again, or the anxiety of being in enclosed areas, it was great. So in this article I will show you a little of what he taught me.The first thing my doctor showed me was to look at things as positive as you can, in other words if something bad happens think of something about it that’s positive. I know that might sound corny, but it works. If you have a bad day at work, leave it at work! Tell yourself that tomorrow will be better day, and so on, do this for every negative thing, make it positive even if it’s just a good fantasy thought. The second thing he showed me was, music therapy that I could use at home. It’s music with what’s called Binaural Beats to help your mind relax. I downloaded it to my Mp3 player, and it really makes you relax, it has soft music with sounds of birds chirping and waterfalls, very calming. He told me for the best results find a quiet place with no distractions, use headphones and listen to it for about 30 minutes. It took a few times but it really help me out.In conclusion, if you think that stress is starting to take over your life try some of the techniques in the article and if it does not help and you need more information please see link bellow.

Anxiety Attack Symptoms

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:55:13 +0000

There are many people in the world who suffer from some form of anxiety and for these people these anxiety attacks may be mild or they could be very severe. While there are many ways of treating anxiety attacks, it’s first important to identify what your anxiety attack symptoms are.
There are the physical symptoms of anxiety attacks that manifest themselves in the form of headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, tingling, pale complexion, numbness, difficulty in breathing, and sensations of tightness in the chest, neck, shoulders and or hands. These reactions are the body’s fight-or-flight reaction which involves the hormones, muscles and the heart. This cycle of endless worry and anxiety is known as a mental disorder as opposed to a physical disorder. Anxiety symptoms can manifest themselves both physically and psychologically. Anxiety disorders happen when our brain warns us about a perceived danger that is about to occur.
The behavioral anxiety attack symptoms include pacing, trembling, general restlessness, hyperventilation, pressured speech, wringing of the hands, and even finger tapping. Then the cognitive anxiety attack symptoms include recurrent or obsessive thoughts, feelings of doom, and morbid thoughts of death, confusion or the inability to concentrate.
The emotional anxiety attack symptoms can include feelings of tension or nervousness, feeling agitated, overwrought, and feelings of unreality, panic, or even terror. Then there are also the anxiety attack symptoms where the person’s brain puts up a defense mechanism against the anxiety attacks.
These psychological defenses include repressing anxious thoughts or ideas out of the conscious awareness. Another anxiety attack symptom is where the sufferer will transfer the source of their anxiety to an object or an event. Phobias are an example of this anxiety attack transference. Then there are the times that a person who suffers from anxiety attacks will rationalize their anxious feelings by claiming that ordinary people would feel the same way were they placed in the exact situation.
The other method that the brain will use as a defense against anxiety attacks manifests itself in the form of physical complaints and illnesses. In this case the anxiety attack symptoms involve recurrent headaches, an upset stomach, and muscle and joint pains.
Delusions are one other way of the brain trying to defend the sufferer from the anxiety attacks. For these anxiety attack symptoms the person can formulate conspiracy theories or other similar scenarios. This gives the person an emotional outlet for their feelings of anxiety.
It doesn’t really matter what form these symptoms show themselves in. What’s really important is once you identify that these are signs of anxiety attacks that you seek and receive help and treatment for this condition. By catching these anxiety attack symptoms early you have a chance to stop it progressing to a more severe condition like agoraphobia where you may become housebound due to your excessive anxiety attacks. So don’t delay if you feel that you suffer from anxiety attack symptoms, go see a qualified medical practitioner as soon as possible and get the proper help.