Live long and prosper
Adapted from a traditional Jewish blessing, ‘live long and prosper’ is most famous as the greeting of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. But it also embodies our deepest desire for ourselves and our loved ones. In a world in which the pace of life and work take their tolls on our physical and mental wellness, taking the time to achieve the health that is required for long life and prosperity can be challenging.
“We now know that stress causes a release of hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline; these hormones can precipitate heart attack,” says Kenford Nedd, a medical doctor and author of Power over Stress and The Time to Be Happy is Now. “Stress affects obesity, because when you’re under stress, cortisol causes an accumulation of visceral fat around the upper part of the abdomen. Many patients find that their diabetes is worsened or precipitated for the first time during periods of high stress, and the incidence of diabetes is increasing.”
Stress is a contributor to the rising incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer, says Dr. Nedd. “Ongoing stress weakens the immune system. And we know that, while North American women take more calcium, prevalence of osteoporosis is lower among French women than among Canadian and American women. We believe that it is the result of stress, because when cortisol is released, it leaches minerals from the bones.”
The economic impact of unmanaged stress is also profound. “A healthy work-life balance is critical not only to the individual worker’s ability to be productive and their sense of well-being, but also to the bottom line of employers,” says Taylor Alexander, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association, National Office. “It is estimated that mental illness costs $51 billion a year to the Canadian economy; disability claims for mental health are the fastest growing area of claims in the workforce today.”
According to a Desjardins Health Survey, 58 per cent of Canadians are experiencing ‘role overload.’ “They simply have too many things to do in their lives; as parents, spouses and caregivers for their own parents. Many people are feeling overwhelmed,” says Dr. Alexander.
To maintain the health of our economy, the sustainability of our health care system and our quality of life as individuals, balance is essential. “Taking time to care for yourself is critical,” says Dr. Alexander. “There is a variety of things that people can do to maintain balance such as ‘unplugging’ from the workplace after hours, exercising, eating well, taking up a hobby, spending time with family and friends, and having quiet time just for yourself – those activities replenish us and help us recover from pressures of everyday life.”
For many people, says Steven Stein, psychologist and author of Make Your Workplace Great: The 7 Keys to an Emotionally Intelligent Organization, it’s an issue of time and workload. “It really boils down to setting priorities, not in terms of time but in terms of your values. We don’t have control over the things that happen to us – but we do have control over our reaction to those things. Look at your whole life and say, ‘Hey, what’s really important for me?’ Once you have that perspective, it becomes easier to make decisions and feel good about those decisions – to say, for example, ‘My work is important and these are the hours I’m willing to put in. But these other hours? They’re for me, or for my family.’ And you’ve got to really stick with that.”
An optimistic perspective can be lifesaving. “We can’t afford not to be happy, because if we allow these (stress) reactions to take place in our bodies, it undermines our health,” says Dr. Nedd. “If you are happy, you release hormones that fight disease. How can you be happy? It’s an inside job, a decision. In my practice, I’ve seen patients who have been handed a terrible diagnosis, but they decided to be happy and they live on and on, far beyond my expectations.”
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