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 Health & Beauty | February 2006 
Americans Engage in Unhealthy Behaviors to Manage Stress
 Luana Bossolo - USNewswire
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Americans deal with stress in ways that can damage their mind/body health, according to a new national survey on stress conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) in partnership with the National Women's Health Resource Center and iVillage.com.
The survey shows a high number of health complications related to stress, implicating stress as a major U.S. health problem. According to the survey, those experiencing stress are more likely to report hypertension, anxiety or depression and obesity. In particular, women report higher levels of stress than men, and are more likely to feel the effects of stress on their physical health, putting them at greater health risk.
Adults who experience chronic stress rate their mental and physical health lower than adults who are not experiencing stress. People experiencing stress are more likely to report fatigue, inability to sleep, headaches and muscular tension, among other symptoms.
According to the survey, one in four Americans turns to food to help alleviate stress or deal with problems. Comfort eaters report higher levels of stress than average and are more likely to experience health problems like hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity. Additionally, people who are "very concerned" about their stress are more likely to be smokers and exercise less.
"The key is how effectively people deal with and manage stress. People who turn to comfort food or smoking are starting a vicious cycle. Their attempts to reduce stress can actually lead to health problems that result in increased stress," says Russ Newman, PhD, JD, executive director for professional practice, APA.
Most often, stress is caused by concerns about work and money, followed by personal and family health and children. Overall, health care decision makers for the family experience the most stress and women identify with this role more often than men.
"As the health managers of their families, women disproportionately feel the effects of stress. From taking care of children to serving as the caregivers for elderly parents, the survey found that women report more stressors and greater concern for the effects that stress has on their daily lives," said Elizabeth Battaglino Cahill, executive director of the National Women's Health Resource Center.
Kellie Gould, editor-in-chief of iVillage.com, said, "Consistent with the survey findings, we hear from the women who visit our site that they are under a great deal of stress and shoulder the majority of responsibility for caretaking."
To learn more about the new stress survey findings visit http://APAHelpCenter.mediaroom.com. Visit http://www.ivillage.com/StressQuiz to take the Stress Smarts Quiz, and look for strategies for effective stress management at http://www.APAHelpCenter.org and http://www.healthywomen.org.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.
The National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC) is the leading independent health information source for women. The non-profit organization develops and distributes up-to-date and objective women's health information based on the latest advances in medical research and practice. NWHRC believes all women should have access to the most trusted and reliable health information. Informed women are healthier women.
iVillage is "the Internet for women" and consists of several online and offline media-based properties that seek to enrich the lives of women, teenage girls and parents through the offering of unique content, community applications, tools and interactive features. The iVillage Network was the number one "women's community site" on the Web and reaches more than 11 percent of women age 18 and older online in the U.S. (comScore MediaMetrix, January 2006). iVillage Inc. (NASDAQ: IVIL) was established in 1995 and is headquartered in New York City. |
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