Stress during Pregnancy: How Bad is it? - @healthbiztips

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Stress during Pregnancy: How Bad is it? - @healthbiztips

1:47 AM

Ill effects of stress during pregnancy

Pregnancy can be both a momentous and challenging period in a woman's life so it should be take with utmost care, right? But, certain highly stressful life events like sudden death of a loved one, loss of job, or divorce can compromise the development and well-being of both the mother and the unborn child.

Stress during Pregnancy: How Bad is it? - @healthbiztips
photo credit: @homarosa Kewei Hu @unsplash

@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan

Prolong high levels of stress can have negative impact to the unborn child like still birth or miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.

The health and well-being of the pregnant mother is also endangered when she suffers from high levels stress. It can predispose the mother to develop preeclampsia--a pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure and organ damage.

The negative effects of a stressful pregnancy has on the child carries over even after birth. High levels of maternal stress during pregnancy can Increase the child's risk of developing diseases and health problems later in life like asthma, attention deficit disorder, and obesity.

Stress during pregnancy and child's brain development

Maternal stress can tamper with the child's brain development. High levels of stress during pregnancy can cause the child to have short attention span and lower IQ.

Stress can be inherited?

Stress and it's bad effect to the mental, metabolic, and cardiovascular health can be passed on to offspring for up to four generations.

If a mother has an extreme fear or anxiety over something, then her child has a high probability of developing fear of it as well, which holds true even though the child has not experienced the event that could have lead to the development of that particular fear.

Related articles: 3 Unwanted Inheritance from your Parents 

Impact of daily stress during pregnancy

Stress is something we can't totally avoid. But don't worry, stressors that people usually encounter in their day-to-day life, like traffic and working, usually do not cause adverse effect mother and fetus.

Psychological impact of unwanted pregnancy

Unwanted pregnancy can have devastating effect to the mother's mental health. A study has shows that it actually increases the risk of depression by 20% to 22%.

In conclusion, we see that high levels of stress during pregnancy can have undesirable effects to both the mother and child, so it is crucial that the pregnant woman encountering extreme levels of stress to reach out and seek help.

Resources:

Bahk, Jinwook et al. “Impact of unintended pregnancy on maternal mental health: a causal analysis using follow up data of the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC)” BMC pregnancy and childbirth vol. 15 85. 3 Apr. 2015, doi:10.1186/s12884-015-0505-4

Tate, E B et al. “Do stressed mothers have heavier children? A meta-analysis on the relationship between maternal stress and child body mass index” Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity vol. 16,5 (2015): 351-61.

González-Ochoa, Raquel et al. “Evaluating Stress during Pregnancy: Do We Have the Right Conceptions and the Correct Tools to Assess It?” Journal of pregnancy vol. 2018 4857065. 1 Feb. 2018, doi:10.1155/2018/4857065

Take Slow Deep Breaths to Calm your Nerves

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Take Slow Deep Breaths to Calm your Nerves

4:48 AM

Take Slow Deep Breaths to Calm your Nerves

Take Slow Deep Breaths to Calm your Nerves
photo credit Carol Oliver @caroliveer @unsplash

When you feel shaky and your mind starts to go blank, wouldn't you hope that their's something you can do to prevent yourself from going downhill.

How about this tip to calm your nerves: Take slow deep breaths.

A lot of stuffs in life can cause a person to feel nervous and anxious, like speaking in public, taking an examination, and talking to an interviewer. If you're wondering that in spite of all these serious stuffs, you're only getting a simple advice that tells you to breath slowly, then don't take this lightly...

There's an actual science behind this. You see, when you take slow deep breaths, you activate your brain's parasympathetic system which creates a sense of calmness and relaxation. Your heart rate and blood pressure decreases. Meanwhile, your blood oxygenation is enhanced. You regain control.

You may notice that when you're anxious, your blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing increases. This is because stress activates your brain's sympathetic center. The opposite happens when your parasympathetic nervous system is activated.


How to take slow deep breaths?

• 1. Breath in slowly through your nose for about 4 seconds.
• 2. Hold your breath for about 2 to 3 seconds.
• 3. Exhale slowly through your mouth for about 4 seconds.
• 4. Hold your breath for about 2 to 3 seconds before inhaling.
• 5. Repeat step 1.

Continue doing slow breathing for about 10 to 15 minutes to ease your mind.

Did you know that controlled breathing techniques to calm the nerve and reduce stress is actually an ancient practice that often goes along side with meditative practices in the eastern world.

Resources:

Zaccaro, Andrea et al. “How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing” Frontiers in human neuroscience vol. 12 353. 7 Sep. 2018, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353

Russo, Marc A et al. “The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human” Breathe (Sheffield, England) vol. 13,4 (2017): 298-309.

The Lifesaving Purpose of Pets

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The Lifesaving Purpose of Pets

7:12 AM

Why do we have pets? We humans are wired to be social beings. But, let's face it, there are times when being with fellow humans can be really painful and stressful. Ever wonder why cats and dogs have an enormous fanbase online?

The Lifesaving Purpose of Pets

@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan

Does the comradery of a pet serves a purpose? Research reveals that pets provide such a strong support, at times, even more effective than the support we get from our family, spouse, or close friend.

Don't underestimate the huge emotional impact that pets have on us. There are documentaries of people who survived tough times thanks to their pet, which will make you see pets in a new light.

Studies reveal that the presence of a dog improves performance and lessens error. Furthermore, pets are beneficial to the cardiovascular system as their mere presence lowers blood pressure and heart rate.

It may have been our natural instinct to find a way to fill our longing and cut down on stress by befriending those who can actually help us.

Having a pet lowers the risk of depression and boosts the immune system.

Dogs at workplaces and hospital (eg. therapy dogs) are beneficial to employees as they reduce stress and anxiety, improve work performance, and increase social interactions.

Did you notice that the presence of dogs in a social setting remarkably improves social interaction among humans. Individuals are more likely to engage in a conversation with a stranger if they are accompanied by a dog.

We battle with stress everyday. Even simple things can make or  ruin our mood. Isn't it refreshing to realize that the mere presence of a pet cuts down on stress.

Pets build a part of our mental and physical health so make sure to take care care of your buddies.

Does Vacation at Home Eliminate Work-related Stress?

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Does Vacation at Home Eliminate Work-related Stress?

1:51 AM

Did you know that taking a vacation is one of the most effective strategy to shake off work-related stress.

Like it or not, most workplaces bombard their employees with stress every single workingday. Stress impacts performance, decision making, health, and well-being.

When stress is piled high, burnout is inevitable. What better way to shake it off than good'ol vacation.

Does Vacation at Home Eliminate Work-related Stress?

@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan

During vacation, do you choose to stay at home or go somewhere you've never been before?

Want to know which one is better? Here's a research by C. Blank et al. in which they've recruited 40 employees who hold middle manager position. They were split into two groups. Half stayed at home while the others stayed in a hotel for a short vacation lasting 4 consecutive days.

It turns out that even those manager who stayed at home during vacation had great reduction in stress and significant improvement in well-being. Both group gain benefit from taking a time away from work. Although their were certain areas which shows that taking a vacation away from home is better than stay at home vacation, like immediate strain reduction, the results were inconclusive.

It is good to know that even a short vacation does a lot for the health and well-being of an employee.

The positive effect of this short vacation remained even after 45 days, which may seem a short time compared to the months employees have to endure, but that's not to say that it's not doing it's part in making an employee's life less stressful.

After all, vacation is something we look forward to with delight and excitement, even for those who choose to stay at home during this special time in the period of our mortal existence.

Those few precious days of your vacation is worth it to shake off the stress.

...makes you think where you'd be spending your next vacation, doen't it? Expenses may be tight so spending a vacation out of town may not always be feasible to some people. If that is the case, then, vacation at home will work out just fine, because as they say, if you can't reach Paris or Japan, a roof under your head will do.

Unwind, relax, enjoy!

Resource:

Blank, Cornelia et al. “Short Vacation Improves Stress-Level and Well-Being in German-Speaking Middle-Managers-A Randomized Controlled Trial” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 15,1 130. 13 Jan. 2018, doi:10.3390/ijerph15010130