Men's Health US "Head Check" Clumnist Daniel Amen, MD: "Stress kills brain cells responsible for learning and memory, wrecks the immune system, causes weight gain, elevates blood pressure, and can ruin sleep and s3x." And there's more: A recent Swedish stude found that chronic stress increases a man's risk of developing cardiovascular disease and having a fatal stroke. Stop there classic male stressors.
Work
An Australian study found that men who had stressful jobs were more likely than others to suffer from anxiety and poor health.
The antidote: A goodbye hug. Research shows that 10 minutes of hand-holding and 20-second hug from your spouse can lessen the damaging effects of stress.
Relationships
A weak marriage can harm your heart and increase your blood pressure.
The antidote: Take a walk with your partner. Twenty minutes of exxercise increases serotonin levels and the odds you'll make peace.
Children
Coming home stressed from work makes you more likely to blow up at your kids.
The antidote: Decompress on the ride home, or let your kids know what your first 15 minutes at home is.
1 Comments
If you are interested in the brain and how it works, I highly recommend reading ""My Stroke of Insight"" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. It's on the NY Times Bestseller list and it's a wonderful book. Dr. Taylor's talk at TED dot com is also AMAZING! Oprah interviewed Dr. Taylor and you can check that out on Oprah.com. And Time Magazine named Dr. T one of the 100 Most Influential people in the world. Having read her book, I can see why all the attention.
Dr. Amen's book is brain science and it's great at that. Dr. Taylor is a Harvard Brain Scientist, but what she writes about is the science and much more. She really cracks the code to understand how our brains (right and left hemispheres) work and she explains how we can get into our right brain and be happier and more joyful. Aside from any of the science, My Stroke of Insight is also just a great story.