Understanding Stress, the Healthcare Practitioner This essay will address the relevance of a psychological understanding of stress and

its related conditions, as well as managing and coping with it, to the medical practitioner. By realizing that many of the major health issues faced today are intricately related to psychopathologies such as stress, and recognizing the far reaching side effects of such mental states, it is clear that these urgent issues can, and must be tackled effectively by the physicians of modern society. With a wealth of relevant treatments available, this knowledge is necessary, now more than ever, for any health promoting individual. Stress is the psychological and physiological state experienced by an individual when they are subject to situations that they perceive as potentially threatening to their well-being or safety with specific reference to the cases of individuals who experience this on a chronic basis. Anxiety has been interpreted as the feeling experienced by an individual whilst subject to 'stressful' circumstances and thus is synonymous with the term stress in this paper. Due to its fight-or-flight characteristics, stress has major physiological effects. The far reaching sequelae resulting from stress include but are not limited to immune system suppression, cancers, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, depression and other psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout (Burnstein et al., 2008, 543-545; Reiche et al., 2004). A strong link has even been found between stress and the progression of HIV to AIDS (Burnstein et al., 2008, 545). It is now recognized that, the infectious diseases have been replaced as major causes of death by the so-called degenerative diseases, cancer and cardiovascular disease. (Fitzpatrick, R. M., 1986) but one might argue the cause to be non-degenerative, and possibly psychopathological. Considering that the recognized major killers of modern society are cancerous and cardiovascular in nature, and furthermore that chronic stress, both directly and indirectly, contributes significantly to both of these issues, one immediately has to acknowledge the importance of the inclusion of all relevant education in the school of Medicine. Not only is it necessary to study psychological stress in order to understand the mechanisms of these major complications, but all treatment of its associated physiological pathologies will in essence be highly ineffective if these psychosocial stress related roots are not dealt with. Included in this is the interpretive ability of foresight in being able to educate patients in preventing such debilitating, often terminal problems. Another major consideration is that a physician will deal with patients who on countless occasions will be facing very traumatic situations in which the physician will be intimately involved and so the knowledge of dealing with such stressed individuals, as well as the ability to help them deal with their stress is of major importance and much relevance. The good news lies in the fact that so many very effective tools are available in the treatment of stress and its relatives and the physician should emphasize a multi-disciplinary approach. Exercise and nutrition have been found to have antidepressant, stress resistant and immune boosting effects (Salmon, P., 2001; Norris et al., 1991), Salmon concludes a paper on exercise in relation to stress, Effects related specifically to [physical] exertion include anxiolytic and antidepressant action, but also resistance to physiological and emotional consequences of psychological stressors. (Salmon, 2001). Mindfulness based therapies, meditation, reading, yoga, pranayama, Tai Chi and Qigong are among some more therapies

that have all been proven time and time again to directly combat stress as well as its extensive list of side effects extremely effectively (Rizzolo, 2009; Chiesa et al., 2009; Sandlund et al., 2000; Brown et al., 2005; Bhimani et al., 2011). With such a prevalence of stress and its related issues today, and an abundance of techniques and therapies to deal with these problems, it is of utmost importance to inform those who have the greatest opportunity to affect a change with the necessary information in order to expertly apply all of the knowledge that is already available. Thus the understanding of stress and how to cope with it is most applicable in the school of medical practice.

References Bernstein, D.A., Penner, L.A., Clarke-Stewart, A., Roy, E.J. PSYCHOLOGY. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2008 Bhimani, N.T., Kulkarni, N.B., Kowale, A., Salvi, S. (2011) Effect of Pranayama On Stress and Cardiovascular Autonomic Tone & Reactivity. National Journal of Integrated Research in Medicine 2(1), pages 48-54. Brown, R.P., Gerbarg, P.L. (2005) Sudarshan Kriya Yogic Breathing in the Treatment of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: Part I Neurophysiological Model. The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine 11(1), pages 189-201. Chiesa, A., Serretti, A. (2009) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine 15(5), pages 593-600 Fitzpatrick, R.M. Social and Changing Patterns of Disease. In: Sociology as Applied to Medicine, ed. by D. Patrick, G. Scambler. London: Bailliere Tindall Norris, R., Carroll, D., Cochrane, R. (1991) The Effects of Physical Activity and Exercise Training on Psychological Stress and Well-Being in an Adolescent Population. Journal of Psychsomatic Research 36(1), pages 55-65. Reiche, E.M.V., Nunes, S.O.V., Morimoto, H.K. (2004) Stress, depression, the immune system, and cancer. Oncology 5, pages 617-625. Rizzolo, D., Zipp, G.P., Stiskal, D., Simpkins, S. (2009) Stress Management Strategies For Students: The Immediate Effects Of Yoga, Humor, And Reading On Stress. Journal of College Teaching & Learning 6(8), pages 79-88. Salmon, P. (2001) Effects of Physical Exercise on Anxiety, Depression, and Sensitivity to Stress: A Unifying Theory. Clinical Psychology Review 21(1), pages 33-61. Sandlund, E.S., Norlander, T. (2000) The Effects of Tai Chi Chuan Relaxation and Exercise on Stress Responses and Well-Being: An Overview of Research. International Journal of Stress Management 7(2), pages 139-149.