years, and perhaps even decades.
Whereas infectious
diseases are treatable by medication, lifestyle diseases
are, for the most part, preventable or correctable by
altering the habits and behaviors that contribute to their
etiology. Previously, it was suggested that an association
existed between stress and disease. Current research,
however, suggests that there may, indeed, be a causal
factor involved with several types of diseases, particu-
larly heart disease, obesity, and auto-immune diseases.
Regardless, it is well understood that the influence of
stress weakens the body’s physiological systems, thereby
rapidly advancing the disease process. The most noto-
rious lifestyle disease, coronary heart disease (CHD),
continues to be one of the leading causes of death in
the United States, far exceeding all other causes. The
American Heart Association states that one person
dies from heart disease every 34 seconds. Although the
incidence of CHD has decreased over the past decade,
cancer—in all its many types—continues to climb the
statistical charts as the second leading cause of death.
According to 2012 statistics from the American Cancer
Society (www.cancer.org), cancer claims the lives of one
out of every four people in the United States. Alarming
increases in suicides, child and spouse abuse, self-
mutilation, homicides, alcoholism, and drug addiction
are only additional symptoms of a nation under stress.
Today, research shows that people still maintain poor
coping skills in the face of the personal, social, and even
global changes occurring over the course of their lives.
Originally, the word stress was a term used in physics,
primarily to describe enough tension or force placed
on an object to bend or break it. Relaxation, on the
other hand, was defined as any nonwork activity done
during the evenings or on Sunday afternoons when
all the stores were closed. On rare occasions, if one
could afford it, relaxation meant a vacation or holiday
at some faraway place. Conceptually, relaxation was
a value, influenced by several religions and repre-
sented as a day of rest. The word stress as applied to
the human condition was first made popular by noted
physiologist Hans Selye in his book The Stress of Life,
where he described his research: to understand the
physiological responses to chronic stress and its rela-
tionship to disease (dis-ease). Today, the word stress is
frequently used to describe the level of tension people
feel is placed on their minds and souls by the demands
of their jobs, relationships, and responsibilities in their
personal lives. Oddly, for some, stress seems to be a
status symbol tied to self-esteem.
The stress phenomenon, as it is referred to today,
is quite new with regard to the history of humanity.
Barely a household expression when your parents were
your age, use of the word stress is now as common as
the terms global warming, iPads, and smartphones. In
fact, however, stress in terms of physical arousal can
be traced back to the Stone Age as a “survival mecha-
nism.” But what was once designed as a means of sur-
vival is now associated with the development of disease
and illness that claims the lives of millions of people
worldwide. The American Institute of Stress (www.
stress.org) cites the following statistics:
■
43 percent of all adults suffer adverse health
effects due to stress.
■
75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physi-
cians are for stress-related complaints or disorders.
Stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death,
including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, acci-
dents, cirrhosis, and suicide. Some health experts now
speculate that perhaps as much as 70 to 85 percent of all
diseases and illnesses are stress-related.
Comprehensive studies conducted by both the Amer-
ican Psychological Association (APA) and the Harvard
School of Public Health in Association with NPR 2014
provided a host of indicators suggesting that human
stress is indeed a health factor to be reckoned with.
Prior to 1955, the leading causes of death were the
sudden onset of illness by infectious diseases (e.g., polio,
rubella, tuberculosis, typhoid, and encephalitis) that in
most cases have since been eradicated or brought under
control by vaccines and medications. The post–World
War II era ushered in the age of high technology, which
considerably altered the lifestyles of nearly all peoples
of every industrialized nation. The start of the 21st
century has seen the influence of high technology dra-
matically alter our lifestyles. The introduction of con-
sumer products, such as the washer, dryer, microwave
oven, television, DVD player, laptop computer, and
smartphone, were cited as luxuries to add more leisure
time to the workweek. But as mass production of high-
technology items increased, so too did the competitive
drive to increase human effort and productivity, which
in turn actually decreased leisure time, and thus created
a plethora of unhealthy lifestyles, most notably obesity.
Currently, the leading causes of death are dominated
by what are referred to as lifestyle diseases—those dis-
eases whose pathology develops over a period of several
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