Cardiovascular Diseases - HHD

Hypertensive heart disease is the number one cause of death associated with high blood pressure. It refers to a group of disorders that includes heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and left ventricular hypertrophy (excessive thickening of the heart muscle).

What Is Heart Failure?

Heart failure does not mean the heart has stopped working. Rather, it means that the heart's pumping power is weaker than normal or the heart has become less elastic. With heart failure, blood moves through the heart's pumping chambers less effectively, and pressure in the heart increases, making it harder for your heart to deliver oxygen and nutrients to your body. High blood pressure may also bring on heart failure by causing left ventricular hypertrophy, a thickening of the heart muscle that results in less effective muscle relaxation between heartbeats. This makes it difficult for the heart to fill with enough blood to supply the body’s organs, especially during exercise, leading your body to hold onto fluids and your heart rate to increase.

How Is Hypertensive Heart Disease Diagnosed?

The doctor will look for certain signs of hypertensive heart disease, including:

• High blood pressure
• Enlarged heart and irregular heartbeat
• Fluid in the lungs or lower extremities
• Unusual heart sounds

The doctor may perform tests to determine if you have hypertensive heart disease, including an electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, cardiac stress test, chest X-ray, and coronary angiogram.

How Is Hypertensive Heart Disease Treated?

In order to treat hypertensive heart disease, doctor has to treat the high blood pressure that is causing it. Doctor will treat it with a variety of drugs, including diuretics, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin receptor blockers, and vasodilators.

In addition, the doctor may advise you to make changes to your lifestyle, including:

• Diet: If heart failure is present, you should lower your daily intake of sodium to 1,500 mg or 2 g or less per day, eat foods high in fiber and potassium, limit total daily calories to lose weight if necessary, and limit intake of foods that contain refined sugar, trans fats, and cholesterol.
• Monitoring your weight: This involves the daily recording of weight, increasing your activity level (as recommended by the doctor), resting between activities more often, and planning your activities.
• Avoiding tobacco products and alcohol
• Regular medical checkups: During follow-up visits, the doctor will make sure you are staying healthy and that your heart disease is not getting worse.

Cardiovascular Diseases - RHD

Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is damage to one or more heart valve that remains after an Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) is resolved. RHD is caused by inflamed heart. Rheumatic heart disease describes a group of short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic) heart disorders that can occur as a result of rheumatic fever. One common result of rheumatic fever is heart valve damage. This damage to the heart valves may lead to a valve disorder.

Rheumatic fever

Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that may affect many connective tissues of the body, especially those of the heart, joints, brain or skin. It usually starts out as a strep throat (streptococcal) infection. Anyone can get acute rheumatic fever, but it usually occurs in children between the ages of 5 and 15 years. About 60% of people with rheumatic fever develop some degree of subsequent heart disease. Every part of the heart, including the outer sac (the pericardium), the inner lining (the endocardium) and the valves may be damaged by inflammation caused by acute rheumatic fever. However, the most common form of rheumatic heart disease affects the heart valves, particularly the mitral valve. It may take several years after an episode of rheumatic fever for valve damage to developing or symptoms to appear. Antibiotics can prevent streptococcal infection from developing into rheumatic fever. Any child with a persistent sore throat should have a throat culture to check for strep infection. Penicillin or another antibiotic will usually prevent strep throat from developing into rheumatic fever.

Symptoms

Symptoms of heart valve problems, which are often the result of rheumatic heart disease, can include chest pain, excessive fatigue, heart palpitations (when the heart flutters or misses beats), a thumping sensation in the chest, shortness of breath, and swollen ankles, wrists or stomach.

Untreated, RHD causes heart failure and those affected are at risk of arrhythmias, stroke, endocarditis, and complications of pregnancy. These conditions cause progressive disability, reduce the quality of life and can cause premature death in young adults. Heart surgery can manage some of these problems and prolong life but does not cure RHD.

Treatment

If heart damage from rheumatic fever is identified in childhood or young adulthood, daily antibiotics may be required until the age of 25 or 30, to help prevent recurrence of rheumatic fever and avoid the development of infective bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves or lining of the heart. Additional treatment will depend on the type of heart damage.

Types of Cardiovascular Diseases - CHD

Cardiovascular Diseases are of many types as Coronary Heart Disease, Rheumatic Heart Disease, Hypertensive Heart Disease, Congenital Heart Disease, Inflammatory Heart Disease, and so on., 

Coronary Heart Disease:

Coronary heart disease (CHD) normally happens when cholesterol accumulates on the artery walls, creating plaques. The arteries narrow, reducing blood flow to the heart. Sometimes, a clot can obstruct the flow of blood to the heart muscle. CHD commonly causes angina pectoris (chest pain), shortness of breath, myocardial infarction, or heart attack. It is the most common type of heart disease in the United States, where it accounts for 370,000 deaths every year. Coronary arteries are the heart's network of blood vessels. They exist on the surface of the heart, and they supply the heart muscle with oxygen. If the coronary arteries narrow, the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart may become too low, especially during physical activity. At first, this reduction in blood flow may not produce any symptoms, but as fatty deposits, or plaques, build up in the coronary arteries, signs, and symptoms may emerge.

Causes:

CHD is believed to start with injury or damage to the inner layer of a coronary artery. This damage causes fatty plaque deposits to build up at the site of the injury. These deposits consist of cholesterol and other cellular waste products. The accumulation is called atherosclerosis. If pieces break off or rupture, platelets will clump in the area, attempting to repair the blood vessel. This clump can block the artery, reducing or blocking blood flow, and leading to a heart attack.

Symptoms:

Angina

The following are symptoms of angina:

• Chest pain: People describe it as a squeezing, pressure, heaviness, tightening, burning, or aching across the chest. It usually starts behind the breastbone. The pain often spreads to the neck, jaw, arms, shoulders, throat, back, or even the teeth.
• Related symptoms: Other symptoms include indigestion, heartburn, weakness, sweating, nausea, cramping, and shortness of breath.

     There are several main types of angina:

• Stable angina: The discomfort may last for a short period of time, and it may feel like gas or indigestion. It happens when the heart is working harder than usual, such as during exercise. It has a regular pattern. It can happen over months or years. Rest or medication can relieve symptoms.
• Unstable angina: This is often caused by blood clots in the coronary artery. It occurs at rest, it is surprising, it lasts longer, and it may worsen over time.
• Variant angina: This type occurs at rest, and it is usually severe. It happens when there is a spasm in an artery that causes it to tighten and narrow, disrupting the blood supply to the heart. Triggers include exposure to cold, stress, medicines, smoking, or cocaine use.

Shortness of breath (dyspnea)

CHD can lead to shortness of breath. If the heart and other organs are getting too little oxygen, the patient may start panting. Any exertion may be very tiring.

Treatment:

Medications include

• Statins: These are the only medications demonstrated to have a positive impact on outcomes in CHD, but if a person has another underlying cholesterol disorder, they may not work.
• Low-dose aspirin: This reduces blood clotting, lowering the risk of angina or a heart attack.
• Beta blockers: May be used to reduce blood pressure and heart rate, especially in a person who has already had a heart attack.
• Nitroglycerin patches, sprays, or tablets: These control chest pain by reducing the heart's demand for blood by widening the coronary arteries.
• Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors: These lower blood pressure and help to slow or stop the progression of CHD.
• Calcium channel blockers: This will widen the coronary arteries, allowing greater blood flow to the heart, and reduce hypertension.

Heart and CVD

One of the strongest muscle in the human body is the heart which is just the size of a fist. In general, the heart is a pump that supplies blood to the entire human body. The average heart beat per minute is 70 times and this rate can double during exercise or during extreme emotions. This heart is vulnerable to breakdowns and failures. This heart failure leads to numerous diseases together known as Cardiovascular diseases (CVD). CVD involves heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases such as angina and myocardial infarction. CVD is the leading cause of death globally. Coronary artery disease and stroke account for 80% deaths in male and 75%death in the female. Major risk factor for CVD is genetics, age, sex, tobacco, physical inactivity, diet, celiac disease, air pollution, etc., 

Types of Hypertension

High blood pressure that is not caused by another condition or disease is called primary or essential hypertension. If it occurs as a result of another condition, it is called secondary hypertension.

Primary hypertension 

It can result from multiple factors, including blood plasma volume and activity of the hormones that regulate blood volume and pressure. It is also influenced by environmental factors, such as stress and lack of exercise.

Secondary hypertension 

It has specific causes and is a complication of another problem.

It can result from:

• diabetes, due to both kidney problems and nerve damage
• kidney disease
• pheochromocytoma, a rare cancer of an adrenal gland
• cushing syndrome, which can be caused by corticosteroid drugs
• congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a disorder of the cortisol-secreting adrenal glands
• hyperthyroidism, or an overactive thyroid gland
• hyperparathyroidism, which affects calcium and phosphorous levels
• pregnancy
• sleep apnea
• obesity
• CKD

Treating the underlying condition should see an improvement in blood pressure.

Do's and don'ts in Diet for Hypertension

Some types of hypertension can be managed through lifestyle and dietary choices, such as engaging in physical activity, reducing alcohol and tobacco use, and avoiding a high-sodium diet.

Reducing the amount of salt

Average salt intake is between 9 grams (g) and 12 g per day in most countries around the world.

The WHO recommends reducing intake to under 5 g a day, to help decrease the risk of hypertension and related health problems.

This can benefit people both with and without hypertension, but those with high blood pressure will benefit the most.

Moderating alcohol consumption

Moderate to excessive alcohol consumption is linked to raised blood pressure and an increased risk of stroke.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommend a maximum of two drinks a day for men, and one for women.

The following would count as one drink:

• 12 ounce (oz.) bottle of beer
• 4 oz. of wine
• 1.5 oz. of 80-proof spirits
• 1 oz. of 100-proof spirits

A healthcare provider can help people who find it difficult to cut back.

Eating more fruit and vegetables and less fat

People who have or who are at risk of high blood pressure are advised to eat as little saturated and total fat as possible.

Recommended instead are:

• whole-grain, high-fiber foods
• a variety of fruit and vegetables
• beans, pulses, and nuts
• omega-3-rich fish twice a week
• non-tropical vegetable oils, for example, olive oil
• skinless poultry and fish
• low-fat dairy products

It is important to avoid trans-fats, hydrogenated vegetable oils, and animal fats, and to eat portions of moderate size.

Managing body weight

Hypertension is closely related to excess body weight, and weight reduction is normally followed by a fall in blood pressure. A healthy, balanced diet with a calorie intake that matches the individual's size, sex, and activity level will help.

The DASH diet

The U.S. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recommends the DASH diet for people with high blood pressure. DASH, or "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension," has been specially designed to help people lower their blood pressure.

It is a flexible and balanced eating plan based on research studies sponsored by the Institute, which says that the diet:

• lowers high blood pressure
• improves levels of fats in the bloodstream
• reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease

Some evidence suggests that using probiotic supplements for 8 weeks or more may benefit people with hypertension.

Signs and Symptoms of Hypertension

Signs

Blood pressure can be measured by a sphygmomanometer or blood pressure monitor.

Having high blood pressure for a short time can be a normal response to many situations. Acute stress and intense exercise, for example, can briefly elevate blood pressure in a healthy person.

For this reason, a diagnosis of hypertension normally requires several readings that show high blood pressure over time.

The systolic reading of 130 mmHg refers to the pressure as the heart pumps blood around the body. The diastolic reading of 80 mmHg refers to the pressure as the heart relaxes and refills with blood.

The AHA (American Heart Association) 2017 guidelines define the following ranges of blood pressure:

	Systolic (mmHg)	Diastolic (mmHg)
Normal blood pressure	Less than 120	Less than 80
Elevated	Between 120 and 129	Less than 80
Stage 1 hypertension	Between 130 and 139	Between 80 and 89
Stage 2 hypertension	At least 140	At least 90
Hypertensive crisis	Over 180	Over 120

If the reading shows a hypertensive crisis when taking blood pressure, wait 2 or 3 minutes and then repeat the test.

If the reading is the same or higher, this is a medical emergency.

The person should seek immediate attention at the nearest hospital.

Symptoms

A person with hypertension may not notice any symptoms, and it is often called the "silent killer". While undetected, it can cause damage to the cardiovascular system and internal organs, such as the kidneys.

Regularly checking your blood pressure is vital, as there will usually be no symptoms to make you aware of the condition.

It is maintained that high blood pressure causes sweating, anxiety, sleeping problems, and blushing. However, in most cases, there will be no symptoms at all.

If blood pressure reaches the level of a hypertensive crisis, a person may experience headaches and nosebleeds.

Complications

Long-term hypertension can cause complications through atherosclerosis, where the formation of plaque results in the narrowing of blood vessels. This makes hypertension worse, as the heart must pump harder to deliver blood to the body.

Hypertension-related atherosclerosis can lead to:

• heart failure and heart attacks
• an aneurysm, or an abnormal bulge in the wall of an artery that can burst, causing severe bleeding and, in some cases, death
• kidney failure
• stroke
• amputation
• hypertensive retinopathies in the eye, which can lead to blindness

Regular blood pressure testing can help people avoid the more severe complications.

Causes of Hypertension

The cause of hypertension is often not known.

Around 1 in every 20 cases of hypertension is the effect of an underlying condition or medication.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common cause of high blood pressure because the kidneys do not filter out fluid. This fluid excess leads to hypertension.

Risk factors

A number of risk factors increase the chances of having hypertension.

Age:

Hypertension is more common in people aged over 60 years. With age, blood pressure can increase steadily as the arteries become stiffer and narrower due to plaque build-up.

Ethnicity: 

Some ethnic groups are more prone to hypertension.

Size and weight: 

Being overweight or obese is a key risk factor.

Alcohol and tobacco use: 

Consuming large amounts of alcohol regularly can increase a person's blood pressure, as can smoking tobacco.

Sex: 

The lifetime risk is the same for males and females, but men are more prone to hypertension at a younger age. The prevalence tends to be higher in older women.

Existing health conditions: 

Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and high cholesterol levels can lead to hypertension, especially as people get older.

Other contributing factors include:

• physical inactivity
• a salt-rich diet associated with processed and fatty foods
• low potassium in the diet
• alcohol and tobacco use
• certain diseases and medications

A family history of high blood pressure and poorly managed stress can also contribute.

Below is a 3-D model of hypertension, which is fully interactive.

Explore the model using your mouse pad or touchscreen to understand more about hypertension.

Treatment methods of Hypertension

While blood pressure is best regulated through the diet before it reaches the stage of hypertension, there is a range of treatment options.

Lifestyle adjustments are the standard first-line treatment for hypertension.

Regular physical exercise

Doctors recommend that patients with hypertension engage in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity, dynamic, aerobic exercise. This can include walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming on 5 to 7 days of the week.

Stress reduction

Avoiding stress, or developing strategies for managing unavoidable stress, can help with blood pressure control.

Using alcohol, drugs, smoking, and unhealthy eating to cope with stress will add to hypertensive problems. These should be avoided.

Smoking can raise blood pressure. Giving up smoking reduces the risk of hypertension, heart conditions, and other health issues.

Medications

People with blood pressure higher than 130 over 80 may use medication to treat hypertension.

Drugs are usually started one at a time at a low dose. Side effects associated with antihypertensive drugs are usually minor.

Eventually, a combination of at least two antihypertensive drugs is usually required.

A range of drug types are available to help lower blood pressure, including:

• diuretics, including thiazides, chlorthalidone, and indapamide
• beta-blockers and alpha-blockers
• calcium-channel blockers
• central agonists
• peripheral adrenergic inhibitor
• vasodilators
• angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
• angiotensin receptor blockers

The choice of drug depends on the individual and any other conditions they may have.

Anyone taking antihypertensive medications should be sure to carefully read labels, especially before taking any over-the-counter (OTC) medications, such as decongestants.

These may interact with medications used to lower blood pressure.

Fast Facts on Hypertension

Here are some key points about hypertension. 

• Normal blood pressure is 120 over 80 mm of mercury (mmHg), but hypertension is higher than 130 over 80 mmHg.
• Acute causes of high blood pressure include stress, but it can happen on its own, or it can result from an underlying condition, such as kidney disease.
• Unmanaged hypertension can lead to a heart attack, stroke, and other problems.
• Lifestyle factors are the best way to address high blood pressure.

What is hypertension?

High blood pressure is a common condition in which the long-term force of the blood against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause health problems, such as heart disease.

Blood pressure is determined both by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.

You can have high blood pressure (hypertension) for years without any symptoms. Even without symptoms, damage to blood vessels and your heart continues and can be detected. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases your risk of serious health problems, including heart attack and stroke.

High blood pressure generally develops over many years, and it affects nearly everyone eventually. Fortunately, high blood pressure can be easily detected. And once you know you have high blood pressure, you can work with your doctor to control it.

Structural Cardiac Intervention

Structural intervention is a general term that is used to describe minimally invasive techniques for treating various heart conditions. Structural intervention procedures are able to treat patients with:

• Conditions of the aortic, mitral or tricuspid valve which are deemed to be too high-risk for conventional major surgery (percutaneous valve interventions).
• Holes in their hearts (atrial and ventricular septal defects) that need to be closed (percutaneous ASD/VSD closure).
• Leaking around prosthetic valves (paravalvular leak closure)
• Atrial fibrillation and an inability to take blood-thinning agents (left atrial appendage occlusion).
•  Heart failure (parachute device implantation).

Imaging techniques, such as echocardiography, CT, and MRI have enabled development of newer transcatheter approaches for cardiovascular diseases.

World Hypertension Day

"Know your number" has been the theme of this day so that awareness about high blood pressure will be spread all around the globe.
Know your number and care for your heart 

Masked Hypertension

Masked Hypertension is the case where the blood pressure level is normal in a clinical setting or office but high in home. 10% of the general population is affected by masked hypertension. Masked hypertension is important because it cannot be diagnosed by routine medical examination but can be identified only when the case is adverse which causes increased target organ damage and cardiovascular events. The characteristics observed on an individual affected by masked hypertension are young age, male sex, stress, smoking, and drinking, increased physical activity during the day, etc., Even treated hypertensive people have the risk of masked hypertension and in children, masked hypertension may be the initial stage of sustained hypertension.

White Coat Hypertension

White coat Hypertension is commonly referred to as white coat syndrome. This is an effect where the person's blood pressure is high in a clinical setting whereas in home the blood pressure is normal. This is because of anxiety or stress in a medical environment which leads to this cause. This situation leads to a tough point to identify whether the person is affected by high blood pressure or not. White coat hypertension is not that common but it is also significant to occur. The important cause of white coat hypertension is anxiety, thus, reducing anxiety reduces most of the problems that are harmful to health.

Target Organ Damage

Target organ damage usually refers to the damage caused to the organs wherever the circulatory system feeds. The main target organs are kidney, heart, brain, and eyes. Hypertension causes early changes in organ systems as left ventricular hypertrophy, proteinuria, renal failure, retinopathy and vascular dementia. There are many steps involved in the act of target organ damage as platelet activation, endothelial activation, increased thermogenesis, changes in the renin-aldosterone-angiotensin system (RAAS) and collagen turnover.

• Track 1-1 Left Ventricular Hypertrophy
• Track 2-2 Proteinuria and Renal Failure
• Track 3-3 Retinopathy
• Track 4-4 Vascular Dementia

Cerebrovascular Diseases

Cerebro refers to the brain and vascular refers to arteries and veins. Cerebrovascular means blood flow to the brain. Cerebrovascular disease is a combination of defects in two places as brain and blood. Cerebrovascular diseases include all disorders that affect the brain temporarily or permanently. Cerebrovascular diseases include stroke, stenosis, deep vein thrombosis, atherosclerosis, transient ischemic attack (TIA) and aneurysm. Stroke occurs commonly with little or no warning. The most common form of stroke is ischemic stroke and the dreadful stroke is known as hemorrhagic stroke. TIA is a temporary event and it doesn’t cause any permanent damage to the body. When there is a build-up of fat and cholesterol in the arteries it leads to plaque formation. This plague is known as atherosclerosis and when this blockage is severe it is known as stenosis. An aneurysm is an effect which develops because of HTN or atherosclerosis in which the blood vessel to the brain weakens which causes bulging up of the blood vessel in that area.

• Track 1-1 Stroke and its Types
• Track 2-2 Stenosis
• Track 3-3 Deep Vein Thrombosis
• Track 4-4 Atherosclerosis
• Track 5-5 Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)
• Track 6-6 Aneurysm

Cardiovascular Diseases and Types

One of the strongest muscle in the human body is the heart which is just the size of a fist. In general, the heart is a pump that supplies blood to the entire human body. The average heart beat per minute is 70 times and this rate can double during exercise or during extreme emotions. This heart is vulnerable to breakdowns and failures. This heart failure leads to numerous diseases together known as Cardiovascular diseases. Some of the CVD are coronary heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, congenital heart disease and inflammatory heart disease.

• Track 1-1 Coronary Heart Disease
• Track 2-2 Hypertensive Heart Disease
• Track 3-3 Inflammatory Heart Disease
• Track 4-4 Rheumatic Heart Disease
• Track 5-5 Congenital Heart Disease
• Track 6-6 Global Cardiovascular Risk Assessment

Hypertension and related ailments

Hypertensive patients tend to develop many other diseases in their body. Comorbidities included a combination of two or more diseases other than hypertension. These diseases include heart diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes mellitus and blood vessel diseases. Inclusive of all the major effects of hypertension is cardiovascular diseases and cerebrovascular diseases. The patients with diabetes and hypertension are insulin resistant. The complication of hypertension is mainly categorized under two as macrovascular and microvascular. There are various organizations working on the medications to be followed for hypertensive patients to reduce the effects of other diseases. These organizations work on statistics in order to identify the patient's adherence to the medications. There are certain guidelines provided by National Institute for Healthcare and Excellence to be followed for the comorbidities patients. 

Hypertension

Hypertension is the cause where the force of the blood against the artery wall is too high. Hypertension (HTN) is otherwise known as High Blood Pressure (HBP). This is a common problem found in most of the adults. Nowadays, hypertension is seen in youngsters. There are various reasons for hypertension. There is no particular symptom we can identify for hypertension but when the blood pressure range is too high it affects the body severely. There are two types of high blood pressure as Primary (essential) High Blood Pressure and Secondary High Blood Pressure. High Blood Pressure causes many problems in the human body as heart diseases, kidney diseases, obesity and other factors. The main causes for hypertension can be listed as excess salt in the diet, alcohol use, smoking and unbalanced diet. 

     1-1: Primary Hypertension

     1-2: Secondary Hypertension

     1-3: Hypertension and Obesity

     1-4: Causes of Hypertension

     1-5: Hypertension in Children

City attractions

Toronto is the capital of the Canadian city of Ontario. It is located within the Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario on the Northern shore of Lake Ontario. Toronto is a center of business, finance, arts, and culture and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Toronto is situated on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines and urban forest for more than 10,000 years. There are over 160 different languages spoken in the city. Its economy is highly diversified with strengths in technology, design, financial services, life sciences, education, arts, fashion, business services, environmental innovations, food services and tourism. Bay and gable houses mainly found in Old Toronto are a distinct Architectural feature of the city. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of world culture and natural history. The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic art is the only museum in Canada entirely devoted to ceramics and the museum contains more than 2,900 ceramic works from Asia, the America's and Europe. Toronto is represented in six major league sports as Hockey (men and women), Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Soccer. City's major sports venues include Air Canada Center, Rogers Center, Ricoh Coliseum and BMO Field. The University of Toronto is the famous institute in the city for all studies and the educational facilities is found to be very good. Thus, many people all over the world try for their higher education in this University.  

Stress Management

In order to improve the everyday functioning of a person wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies are used for managing the stress, a person is undergoing. Usually, the term ‘stress’ has a negative impact thus stress management is referred to as ‘eustress’ which means helpful. Smoking and consumption of alcohol increase stress which in turn increases the blood pressure level. Stress in simple terms can be referred to as a persons physical and emotional effect towards change. There are both positive and negative sources of stress. Mostly stress refers to tending ourselves through a threatening situation. Stress is developed when we think demands are more than our coping abilities. Stress wouldn’t allow us to take any decision properly. Stress can be managed by changing the situation, the way we think (cognitive restructuring) and by the way we respond. Meditation and mindfulness are the best practices for stress management. 

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