OVERCOME STRESS

Research shows that losing your cool may prove deadly for you.

The best way to safeguard your health is to control your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Which parameter should worry you most? It is not any one factor, but their combined effect that does the most harm. Moreover, stress may be a trigger that precipitates this Deadly Metabolic Syndrome.

Stress brings about a change in the body's endocrine system. The process starts in the hypothalamus of the brain, which sends a message to the body's master gland, the pituitary. It then signals the adrenal glands to release high quantities of stress hormone cortisol. That can result in abdominal fat storage and elevated insulin levels which have been linked to heart attacks, diabetes and stroke.

Prolonged stress and how we react to it - by smoking, overeating, drinking too much and exercising too little, precipitates high blood sugar, high blood pressure, a poor cholesterol profile and other problems. Genes play a role, of course, but you can beat stress by adopting a healthier, more balanced lifestyle. Here are some ways to do it :

FIVE STEPS TO LIVING LONGER

• 1. WATCH YOUR TEMPER

Those people driven by ambition, hard work and tight deadlines - are most prone to heart attacks. But it is not striving for goals that leads to disease. Rather it is being hostile, angry and cynical that brings about the diseases. The risk of having a heart attack is more than twice as great if in the two hours of having a heart attack, they have been very angry.

If stress mounts so high that you begin snapping at people, ask yourself, "Is it worth having a heart attack over this ?"

• 2. STOP DEPRESSION

Depression is linked to an increased risk of heart attack. People who have experienced major depression are four times as likely to have a heart attack as those who have not been depressed. Exercise is a good anti - depressant. In one study, 60 percent of depressed people who took a brisk 30 - minute walk or jog at least three times a week were no longer depressed after 4 months.

• 3. FLATTEN THAT BELLY

It has been noticed in a study that people with a lot of upper - body fat often developed heart disease, diabetes and other ailments. By doing CT and MRI scans doctors found out that a special kind of fat, visceral fat, located within the abdomen, is strongly related to these diseases.

There is a threat of diseases when your waist measures 35 inches or more if you are a woman, and 40 inches or more if you are a man. And that is regardless of height.

Fortunately, abdominal fat is the most metobolically active type of fat, it burns off the fastest. This explains why losing only five to ten percent of your body weight can often stabilize or reverse the Deadly Metabolic Syndrome. Recommended diet should be rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fat, cholesterol, salt and sugar.

• 4. REDUCE YOUR BAD HABITS

Heavy drinking. Moderate drinking may be least likely to develop Metabolic Syndrome, while alcoholics are most likely. Research proved that male alcoholics carried 48 percent of their body fat within their abdomen, compared to 38 percent for teetotalers.

Cigarette smoking. Smoking is dangerous for reasons besides lung cancer. Study revealed that smokers showed elevated levels of cortisol, which promotes abdominal fat storage.

• 5. SPEED UP YOUR METABOLISM

A new understanding of how disease sets in your body focuses on metabolism - the physical and chemical reactions necessary to maintain life. In a Japanese study, a group of men were put on a low - intensity exercise program for one year. Although their cardiovascular fitness did not improve, nor did they lose weight, their metabolic health as measured by how well their bodies used insulin, improved. So, if you have been exercising but cannot seem to lose weight, keep moving. You do need to exercise regularly. "Metabolic fitness is one of the best safeguards against heart disease, stroke and diabetes".