The Science Of Stress

Why it has become an epidemic in India. Latest research on how it affects the body. New ways to manage stress

- Sonali Acharjee

Kusum Negi, 41, a marketing executive based in West Delhi, was at an office meeting when she felt a sharp, stabbing pain at the back of her neck and had to be rushed to the emergency room. A neck brace and painkillers relieved her immediate misery, but the doctors didn’t find anything in her bones or muscles that could explain the trigger. Then Negi mentioned stress, and things began falling into place. “An orthopaedist told me that stress can cause inflammation, which, in turn, can lead to muscle seizures,” says Negi, recalling her plight four months ago. “I hadn’t exactly been feeling peaceful, but I never realised it could lead to muscle spasms.”

Like Negi, countless others are discovering what stress is doing to their bodies. As Dr B.N. Gangadhar, former head of NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences), Bengaluru, points out, “Stress is no longer just a mental condition. It is also linked to a vast number of physical problems.” Scientific research in the past two years has alerted us to the fact that stress is contributing directly or indirectly to heart disease, brain stroke, diabetes, cancer, lung ailments, liver cirrhosis, infertility, besides addiction, obesity and depression leading to suicide, and is one of the leading causes of death. Yet people do not recognise stress as a problem until it manifests in more deadly disease. As Dr Sunil Kumar Mishra, director of the endocrinology and diabetology practice at the Medanta hospital in Gurugram, says, “People usually don’t take something seriously till it is presented to them in black and white. Since you can’t really measure stress in your body, it is only when a major episode takes place that you realise the impact of your overstressed lifestyle.”