Feeling Stressed?

(HealthDay News) -- You just missed a deadline at work, you're supposed to chaperone your son's school field trip, and your mechanic called to tell you your car's transmission is shot.
Stressed to the max?

Everyone experiences stress. And many people are stressed every day. But, stress isn't always as obvious as in the example above. In fact, some people don't even realize how much stress they're under until they suffer serious physical consequences of that stress.

Psychologist Anie Kalayjian, professor of psychology at Fordham University, said she's had patients end up in the emergency room, convinced they were having a heart attack, but instead, it was just the body's extreme response to stress.

"If you're a person running around with high energy or nervous energy, you may not realize that you're stressed until you collapse!" said Kalayjian.

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, some possible signs that you're under too much stress are: Anxiety, back pain, stiff neck, depression, fatigue, trouble sleeping, unexpected weight changes, headaches, relationship troubles and high blood pressure.

"People need to start proactively trying to prevent episodes before they have extreme reactions," recommended Kalayjian.

But that doesn't mean you should make managing stress just another item on your "to-do" list, cautioned Gail Elliott Evo, the integrative medicine coordinator at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.

"We talk so much about stress now. It's to the point that people are now feeling judgmental when they experience stress and can't eliminate it. But, unless you're a guru sitting in a temple in Tibet, I don't think you can avoid stress. There will be periods where you'll have stress," she said.

Still, managing stress or reducing it as much as you can is a smart idea, because constant stress leaves your body flooded with stress hormones, which can increase your risk of heart attack and other serious health problems.

"Stress causes physical and psychological reactions. It can alter your sleep. It leaves you constantly in fighting-mode and leaves your immune system suppressed. You may get sick a lot," Kalayjian said.

There's no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to managing stress.

"Some things will be right for one person but not for another. Be open, and try things. Give something a try, and if it's not right for you, move on to something else. You'll eventually find something that's right for you," said Evo.

Some of the approaches she recommends include: Massage, healing touch, yoga, tai chi, walking, meditation and guided imagery.

Kalayjian said a good place to start de-stressing is with deep breathing.

"One minute per each hour of the day, you need to sit and do nothing but focus on breathing. No phones, no lists, no responsibilities. It's almost like how you recharge your battery for your mobile phone. We need to recharge, too," she said.

She also recommends exercise. "Don't wait to feel stressed. Get at least a half an hour of exercise every day. It gets a lot of the toxins and stress out of our bodies," Kalayjian said.
Kalayjian also advocates something she calls "journaling."

"It helps to put things on paper and outside of yourself. You don't have to store it in your heart, body or mind. When we journal, we let go of things and that acts as a release," she said.

She also suggests getting organized. "Many people waste 20 percent of their time looking for things. Try to be organized. Label things. Have organizers. It seems very mundane, but helps tremendously in saving your energy," Kalayjian said.

Evo said many people use a combination of techniques to relieve their stress.
"Be playful with it. Try different things," she said.

Kalayjian agreed, adding that people need to "learn how to have a sense of humor, to laugh and make others laugh, too."

Finally, Kalayjian advised that if you try several different methods to "de-stress" and just can't seem to relax, you could probably benefit from seeing a psychotherapist.

More information
The National Mental Health Association offers tips on coping with stress.

'Coaching' Care Can Help Cut Medical Costs

(HealthDay News) -- "Health-care transition coaches," who encourage people to take a more active role in maintaining their health can help reduce patients' hospital bills and rates of re-hospitalization, according to a University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center study.
The program is designed for patients who require treatment in multiple sites of care.
The "transition coach" works with patients on four main areas: medication self-management; the creation of a personal health record maintained by the patient; obtaining timely follow-up care; and developing a plan to seek care if certain symptoms appear.
The coach keeps in contact with patients across different health-care settings in the first 30 days after they're discharged from the hospital.
The program was created to solve problems -- such as conflicting medical advice, medication errors and lack of follow-up -- that often affect patients during periods of transition between sites of care.
For every 350 patients who receive the Care Transitions Intervention, hospital costs will be reduced by about $300,000, according to the study authors. They noted this approach may be especially beneficial when dealing with older patients with complex care needs.
The study found the intervention yielded immediate results and also gave patients skills that had long-term positive effects.
"We were excited to see the significant reduction in hospital readmission during the first 30 days while the coach was involved. What was even more exciting, however, was the finding that these patients were significantly more likely to stay out of the hospital up to six months later," researcher Dr. Eric Coleman said in a prepared statement.
The study was published in a recnet issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
More information
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality offers
health-care advice to patients.

Infant Snoring Tied to Parental Snoring

(HealthDay News) -- Infant children of parents who are habitual snorers are themselves at increased risk for frequent snoring, a new study reveals.

The study also found that young children diagnosed with atopy -- a tendency to develop allergies and asthma -- are also prone to frequent snoring.

And African-American children are at elevated risk for chronic snoring, the researchers said.
The findings are important, the researchers said, because so-called "sleep-disordered breathing" among children has been previously associated with the development of learning disabilities, heart disease, and metabolic disorders.

"Early intervention can reduce morbidity due to sleep-disordered breathing," said study lead author Dr. Maninder Kalra, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Kalra and his colleagues noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics already recommends that all children be screened for obstructive sleep-disordered breathing.

Whether it occurs in children or adults, snoring is tied to the dynamics at the back of the mouth and nose, where airflow can become disrupted, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAOHNS). The snoring noise is produced when the throat and tongue vibrate against portions of the roof of the mouth, such as the palate and uvula.

Nasal allergies, infections, structural irregularities and problems related to the tonsils and adenoids -- the infection-fighting spongy tissue above the mouth roof -- are also linked to the onset of snoring.

Surgical, laser and radio-wave treatments for patients of all ages can offer some relief to chronic snorers, by clearing obstructions and tightening loose throat tissue. Nasal masks designed to increase air pressure can also help.

For less-serious adult cases, physicians suggest a range of lifestyle changes, such as adhering to routine sleep patterns, weight loss, sleeping on one's side, and avoiding alcohol and sleeping medications before turning in.

The new infant-risk findings were based on tallies of the incidence of snoring among 681 children living in the Cincinnati area. All the infants were born to parents who were themselves diagnosed as atopic. The average age of the children -- 80 percent of whom were white, and 55 percent of whom were boys -- was just over 1 year.

Habitual snoring was defined as snoring three or more times a week. The parents completed questionnaires to identify any relationship between infant snoring and parental snoring, infant atopic status, and infant exposure to parental smoking.

Blood tests were also done to assess infant allergies, including those related to grass pollens, ragweed, various trees, dust mites, penicillin, cockroaches, cats, and dogs.

Reporting in the April issue of the journal Chest, the study authors noted that among the parents, 20 percent of the mothers and 46 percent of the fathers were found to be habitual snorers. According to the AAOHNS, an estimated 25 percent of adults snore regularly, while 45 percent snore on occasion. The phenomenon commonly affects men more often than women.

Among the children, those infants with at least one parent who was a habitual snorer were almost three times as likely to snore frequently than those with no parental history of snoring.
Children who tested positive for atopy were found to be nearly twice as likely to be habitual snorers as non-atopic children.

African-American children also appeared to have a higher risk for snoring -- they were almost three times as likely to be habitual snorers.

No association was found, however, between infant snoring and exposure to parental smoking.
"We found that frequent snoring at age 1 is as prevalent as that reported in school-age children," Kalra said. "Parents who snore should be aware that their children are at increased risk for frequent snoring."

So are children with a history of allergies, Kalra said, adding that an estimated 40 million children in the western world suffer from allergies.

One expert said the findings should further the study of sleep apnea, where individuals suffer multiple interruptions in breathing during sleep.

"First, it adds to the growing body of literature for the potential genetic factures that may underline sleep apnea," said Mark S. Aloia, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I. "I can't think of any other studies that have identified a familial pattern as this one does. And it also serves an important role for identifying potential risk factors for a disorder that's often under-diagnosed and under-treated," he added.

A second study in the April issue of Chest found that women with a higher body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) appear more likely to be habitual snorers.

The Swedish study, which surveyed more than 6,800 women, also found that snoring was most common among women between the ages of 50 and 59.

More information
For more on snoring, visit the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.