“We can attain a healthy body, orderly life, cheerful personality and a in-cooperating exercise into our daily routines”…ANDREW OKPETU

Exercise is medically acclaimed as a cost effective measure at combating stress and attaining sound health in that it is cost free and requires little time daily for optimum results.Stress,both the type that induces a fight-fright-flight response and the chronic burnout types in the workplace are strongly associated with the entry of non specific immune response into the circulation eg.NK Cells.

Recent research strongly suggest that adhesion molecule expression and leucocyte adhesiveness are significantly induced by chronic psycological stress like workplace burnout and anxiety which are concomitantly associated with immunological decrements and increased cardiovascular disease.

Relatedly hence,stress-mediated effects on adhesion molecules have clinical relevance having seen the scientific effects of adhesion molecules on circulating cells during inflammatory responses including arteriosclerotic processes.

Hypertension, Stress And Exercise :

Less active and less physically fit persons have 35%-40% higher incidence of cadiovascular disease  especially hypertension which in association with stress escalates the production of adrenaline and cortisol.These potent stressors and vasoconstrictors potentiate high blood pressure by increasing vascular resistance.But exercise combats this by facilitating vasodilatation which enhances adequate blood flow to the brain through which necessary oxygen and sugar are delivered to the barin fornormal thought processes like thinking and calculation.

Certain brain chemicals called endophins and serotonin (the feel good hormones) act like opiates by making us feel good,relaxed and positive.In conjunction with vasodilatation enhanced during exercise,there is eventual  lowering of blood pressure.

Aerobic exercise like jogging,swimming and  cycling have greater positive impact in hypertensive patients than in non hypertensives.Additionally,since stress puts a big sysmpathetic strain on the heart by potentiating more release of the stressors; norepiniphrine,dopamin and cortisol,which will aggravate high blood pressure,exercise helps in maintaining a heart with greater elasticity to pump out enough blood,oxygen and glucose to the cells for better cellular metabolism like the prevention of inflammatory arteriosclerotic phenomena prominent in coronary heart disease,stress being a factor.

Andrew Okpetu

www.stressandhealthguide.com

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