health news: stress levels rising?

World Wide Web | health news: stress levels rising? | Stress is probably something that many of us have encountered at some point during our lives. The symptoms of stress can be fairly unpleasant – disturbed sleep, upset stomach, anxiety and so on. And so, too can the health risks – while stress isn’t – according to the British Heart Foundation – a ‘direct risk factor’ for cardiovascular disease, some of the ways we deal with it may be risky. Examples of this are things like smoking to deal with stress, and also eating too much or drinking too much alcohol.

Managing stress is a definite health plus – and if you’re looking at ways to manage stress you might find that it also helps you approach stressful situations in a different way. Recognising stress triggers and understanding what causes you to become stressed means that you’ll be able to look at situations with objectivity and manage stress accordingly.

Some of the recommended ways of managing stress will also have benefits in other areas of your life – for instance getting exercise and staying active are well known ways to fight stress. And they will, of course, also help to keep your weight in check, and your fitness levels up.  

This week in the health pages there was an interesting statistic making the headlines – a 7 percent rise in English hospital admissions due to stress. The reason for the rise could be down to a combination of factors but leading mental health organisation The Mental health Foundation believe it could be a result of the recession . It could also be that people in work feel they have to stay later and get more done during the working day in a recession.