How Stress Affects Seniors, and How to Manage It
We all experience a little stress from time to time. It’s not so hard to handle when we’re young. But as we age, coping with stress isn’t as easy anymore.
Changes in Response
What’s different about coping with stress when we’re older? “Our cells are aging. Heart fitness and lug capacity decline, especially if you’re sedentary:, says Dr Dossett. That keeps us from adequately accommodating the body’s natural stress response.
If you have a chronic disease, which is already a burden on the body, it’s even harder to bounce back physically from the toll the stress response takes.
You may also feel a difference mentally. “Normally when we’re stressed, our brains get flooded with stress hormones, the midbrain takes over, and the front of the brain – which controls concentration, attention and decision-making – works less well. Stress hormones in the brain can also contribute to short-term memory problems that are unrelated to dementia or age-related memory loss. Restorative sleep helps flush stress hormones from the brain. However, many older adults have sleep problems. Stress may make it more difficult to fall back asleep, and the inability to clear these stress hormones from the brain during sleep means that the cognitive effects of stress can worsen over time, ” says Dr. Dossett.
Changes in Triggers
When you were younger, your stressors may have been a busy day at the office or a crying child. “Stressors that tend to affect seniors are the loss of a loved one; too much unstructured time in your hands; a change in relationship with children; or a loss of physical abilities, such as vision, hearing, balance, or mobility”, says DR. Dossett.
Symptoms of stress may include tension headaches, indigestion, heart palpitations, poor concentration, sleep difficulties, anxiety, irritability, crying, or overheating. If any of these symptoms are interfering with your quality of life seek help.
What Should You Do
If you’re feeling stressed, talking about your concerns with loved ones, and getting a physical check-up may help. Stress may be having a physical impact on you that you are unaware of. Treatment may include addressing an underlying condition, such as high blood pressure. Eating a healthy diet and getting plenty of exercise are also important, as is nurturing yourself by pursuing activities tat bring you joy, and making time to socialize.
A big part of stress management focuses on triggering the opposite of the stress response: the relaxation response, which helps lower blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen consumption, and stress hormones. Techniques to elicit the response include yoga, tai chi meditation, guided imagery, deep breathing exercises. One breathing exercise is to inhale slowly, mentally counting 1-2-3-4, then exhale slowly, silently counting 4-3-2-1. Another treatment for stress is cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps you identify negative thinking and replace it with healthy or positive thoughts. These are great skills, but they often don’t work right away.
What Does Stress Do To Your Body?
When the brain senses danger or a need to fight, it sounds the alarm for action: it tells the muscles to tighten and signals the adrenal glands to release stress hormones – such as adrenaline and cortisol. Those hormones make you breathe faster, getting more oxygen to your muscles, and they trigger the release of sugar and fat into the blood, giving your cells more energy. To accommodate these needs, your heart beats faster and your blood pressure goes up. These physicals changes are all part of the stress response, which is helpful if you need to jump out of the way of danger. Once the brain senses safety, body function returns to normal.
This routine isn’t harmful if it occurs once in a while. But if you put your body through those paces frequently, or even constantly, you may suffer a cascade of dangerous and sometimes lasting effects such as high blood pressure, weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, insomnia, heartburn, indigestion, and increased risk for heart disease.
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