Your boss is yelling at you. Your credit card was juststolen. Youre running late, and you cant find your car keys.

Stress happens.

And when it does, it triggers the bodys fight or flight response. Powerful hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol course through your bloodstream. They make your heart pound and your breathing go into overdrive.

This response evolved millenniums ago whenthe stresses people faced often involved threats to their physical well-being and required literal fight-or-flight decisions: Do battle with a saber-tooth cator run like mad?

These days, many stresses are chronic, involving long-term problems such as unfulfilling work, a shrinking bank account or an aging loved one. As you stew, your body releases those same powerful hormones. This, experts say, makes chronic stress more than mentally unpleasant it makes it a health concern.

Chronic stress correlates with many physical ailments, from colds to cancer, said Dr. Emanuel Maidenberg , a clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA. Its thought to reduce the effectiveness of your immune system, so youre more likely to become ill in whatever area youre vulnerable, he said.

It also increases inflammation in the body, said Dr. Helen Lavretsky , a geriatric psychiatristat UCLA, and can lead to cognitive and memory problems, as well as insomnia, anxiety and depression.

So, what to do?

Brain science offers some clues. Dr.Bruce Rabin , medical director of the Healthy Lifestyle Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, noted that increased oxygen flow to the brain calms down regions that tend to get activated by stress and cause those stress-hormone levels to rise. This suggests that you can reduce the effects of stress by increasing your intake of oxygen, he said.

One good way to do that, of course, is by exercising. Less obvious, perhaps, but also proved: You take in more oxygen when you laugh.

Meditation and yoga are also useful for some people, Lavretsky said, while music and dance can help others.

Dont expect instant results.

You can learn to manage stress, Maidenberg said. You can develop a set of tools for bringing the level down. That cant happen overnight though. You have to practice.

See more here:
Feeling stressed? Try these proven methods for chilling out - Los Angeles Times

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