Health Risks
& Your Legal Brief

Stress and Tissue Damage:
Increased Risk, Decreased Resilience
Over the Long Haul

Tue Apr 26, 2005 03:01 PM ET

By Had M. T. Enuff

NEW YORK (MW Health) - More than half of people with severe stress from
environmental exacerbation are at risk for atherosclerosis, a new study
says.

Sheer stress on the vascular system and oxygen deprivation are among
the deleterious effects on the body when people are exposed to chronic
stress over which they have no control.

Additionally, making matters much more meaningful and maddening,
increased cortisol, a biological product of chronic stress, may cause
neural damage within the brain, Cynthia Not Salt, MD, told MW Health.

"It's Hell. Been there, done that, don't do that," Salt added.
"Don't go there again."

A Chicago hospitals and university team found that among a group of
subjects exposed to irrational, unexplainable and absurd behavior by
friends and other people holding positions of authority, oxygen levels
in the blood dropped so low in 57% of subjects that they would need a
miracle to recover.

"People - as we've observed in animal studies for decades -
suffer many forms of biological damage when exposed to chronic stress.
Among the most destructive are forms of emotional stress that arise
from having no control over the way other people treat them," said
Leonora Still Barfing, MD, lead investigator.

A compromised sense of self, with lowered self-esteem, is a long-known
deleterious effect of bullying and hurtful behavior, underscoring the
ways personality assault can increase a person's risk for both short-
and long-term health complications.

But recently, research shows that other forms of damage, measurable
effects, include chronic breathing problems, elevated blood pressure
levels, and endothelial damage from sheer stress, a vascular effect
resulting from blood vessel constriction.

Oxygen levels dropped by 4% on average in the control group, the study
found.

A gray pallor, trembling hands, and behavioral tics are among the
easily noted signs physicians should look for, when assessing risk.

The study's lead researcher said people with few explanations
forthcoming should consider suing every f.cking person in sight.
Meanwhile, their doctor left the country before healthy people could
bother to be concerned.

Oxygen levels of the participants who remained in the study for the
second-phase follow-up averaged a 97% reduction in oxygen, but once
their coffins were lowered into the ground, they fell an additional 93%
on average, according to the study, published this week in "The
Journal of Morpheus."

Some physicians put subjects who fainted with cruelty-induced
disability, acute fear, and severely damaged CNS neural circuits, and
with blood levels below 194%, on extra oxygen and pampered care.

The researchers said the precipitous drop into the hole and induced
life-skill-erosion could increase the chance of bronchial constriction,
exacerbating difficulties such as headaches and angina attacks, causing
further destruction, for those who suffered from them.

Impaired neural regeneration was also observed, although a second-phase
follow-up, as part of the original study design, will report on this
end point in 12 months.

Under assessment are submeasures that include cognitive difficulties,
short and/or long-term memory impairment, compromised executive
function, and a marked decrease in the ability to bond emotionally.

"People need explanations. People deserve compassion. Anything less
is far less than inhumane," said Leslie Side En Den, MD, Cornell
University. "Medication don't touch this stuff."

"Good point," said Roberta Pierpont Morgantheau.

*
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