Search Weight Loss Topics:




Jul 12

Doctor: What Covid stress is doing to your body – CNN

Diets that Work Comments Off on Doctor: What Covid stress is doing to your body – CNN

The novel coronavirus pandemic can make it seem impossible to look away from the storm on the horizon. And what a monster it is: Covid-19's first wave is building into a tsunami threatening a growing number of states.

The onrush of critical Covid-19 cases into our hospitals is of course the biggest single problem the nation faces. But for many individuals with no trace of the virus in their bodies, pandemic stress reactions are also tipping the scales toward medical catastrophe.

I'm a doctor who deals exclusively in the world of life-changing injuries, working at a large Atlanta hospital treating patients from throughout the southeastern US and beyond.

I can't imagine a set of prior life experiences that could fully inoculate one from worry. In any given week I see families through a loved one's twilight states of unconsciousness and semiconsciousness, facilitating deliberations over when to push forward and when it may be time to let go.

After being saturated with such problems daily for a decade now, you might assume a global pandemic couldn't rock my psyche much in the way of life or death fear. You'd be wrong. None of us were ready for this.

Even with mask-wearing and avoiding crowds it's not fully in our control when we will contract Covid-19. It's certainly not up to us how we will fare when it takes hold.

Now don't get me wrong, just because you worry about Covid-19 does not mean you have a stroke coming around the corner. Underlying risk factors are typically required to see stress translate into a major cardiovascular event. At the same time, many adults do have some risk factors, often unbeknownst to them.

Situational factors -- say the events of a pandemic or world war -- are often going to be at play in whether any particular person's stroke or heart attack happens on one given day versus another. And we're seeing a whole lot more of these health incidents now because of the pandemic.

The deaths aren't from Covid-19 directly, but many were likely due to delayed care, and perhaps in some cases, they were the result of pandemic stress, similar to my own clinical observations.

For every pandemic-stress related death, there are many more survivors with near-death experiences, like the patients I treat.

No doctor can prescribe that your business will breeze through what's happening, or that you don't lose your insurance or fall victim to the many other of the factors making lives go haywire right now. I can't tell you to make sure no one in your family ends up in the hospital for weeks, separated and suffering.

Still, there are some things we can do to try to maintain our physical and mental well-being while accepting that no, everything isn't alright. Doing what we can to manage our personal pandemic stress reactions, while accepting more of what we can't change, will be one key to our survival.

The treatment I'd prescribe calls for conscious disconnection, then elective reconnection to what's really important in your life. Manage untoward events where you realistically can do so. Let the rest wash overboard. Go data dry for a day. Build from there.

As everything moves online -- our work lives, social lives, and more of our basic services, including our health care -- this may seem like an impossible goal. Use some of the growing assortment of tools to help you lessen your screen time and protect all the screen-free time you can wring out of your days and weeks.

I'm trying to stick to the prescription myself, increasingly disconnecting for much of the day during weekends and hoping to continue.

Manage your consumption of 2020's malignant political scene in the same way that you attempt to limit your dessert intake. We can't turn away from our democracy at these critical moments. But engage judiciously. I teach families that they have to take time for and care for themselves in order to care for their loved one. The same can be said when caring for our troubled democracy.

It's appropriate to grieve the world and the innocence we've lost. And we should not underestimate the lasting effects of this stress on our health. The ripple effects here aren't a mere "butterfly effect." The pandemic is more of a charging hippopotamus effect. Intentionally coping with and managing the unfortunate reality, while dodging the hippo as best we can, just became part of the job description for every adult.

Survival is in question now, but in reality, that has always been the case. The ways we interact and how we do business are changing, much of it for the long term. But life has always been subject to change. Some degree of acceptance of these facts, if you can muster it, will help lower your anxiety.

Puzzles, painting, hikes, kayaking, adopting a dog, games with friends online -- find whatever works to move your gaze off the storm on the horizon. For those who can afford camping trips and are boosting the RV sales around the country, that's a great response. Same with the home exercise equipment, so long as you use it! You've got to be deliberate in adding new social and physical routines to your weekly mix.

What kept you healthy in 2019 won't be good enough for the rest of 2020. So maybe add in some meditation or try mindfulness exercises. I'm not a practitioner, but agree it sounds like a good idea (I'd rather weed the garden). Whatever new activities you pick, be prepared and willing to change it up. Change is about the only thing we can count on.

Originally posted here:
Doctor: What Covid stress is doing to your body - CNN

Related Posts

    Your Full Name

    Your Email

    Your Phone Number

    Select your age (30+ only)

    Select Your US State

    Program Choice

    Confirm over 30 years old

    Yes

    Confirm that you resident in USA

    Yes

    This is a Serious Inquiry

    Yes

    Message:



    matomo tracker