WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28,1989, PAGE 15 SPECIAL FEATURE 0F THE -WHITBY FREE PRESS Managing your stress. "-- Dr. W. John B. Cocker,« MB, BS. Medical T)freetor Whether it is mental or physical, work has always had stress connected with it. There are two aspects of work and stress. First ýhere is the actual degree of stress that goes with the job and second, there is the capacity of the individual worker to manage that stress. Every worker should have a reasonable idea of how much stress is routinely expected on the job. Increases in the general level of job related stress can then be recognized. Though limits vary widely from person to person, everyone can reach a point where he or she cari no longer manage job related stress. If the level of stress does exceed the expected load for an extended period, signa of overload will begin to show. This is sometimes called 'burn out." The worker may lose interest in the job, and then in bis or her family. Sleep becomes broken, with a characteristic pattern of waking in the early morning to review work problemns over and over. Eating patterns may change and a general sense of discouragement filis the worker's mi. Physical symptoms may include headaches, backaches and stomach troubles, such as ulcers, or there may be the mental symptoms of irritability. One of the most harmnful responses to stress occurs when the sufferer tries to bide the signs of stress behind chemnicals, such as over-the-counter analgesies, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, amphetamnines, marijuana or harder drugs. This will only cause more problemrs and confusion about the stress. There are a number of steps that may be taken for stress management. Physical exercise in the outdoors, with that aecompanying feeling of healthy fatigue at the end of the day, is one examrple. For continuing stress, it is wise to start by deciding if the normal stress of work has changed. Is it a new supervisor, or a new agreement? Once an idea of what is causing the symptomn has been established, the worker should try to flnd someone to discuss the problem with - a trusted fellow worker, a relative, or if it is more serious, a trained counsellor or doctor. Stress is normal with work, but excessive stress is not. It la unwise to ignore work-related stress in the hope that it wiIl go away by itself. The healthy response is to stay in touch with stress through daily evaluation of how much you cari productively handile. Manage your stress - don't let your stress manage you. ,-For-- more confidential information about 'Work and Stress,' use a touch-tone phone to reach Healthcall at 1-976-3333, pause for instructions, and then enter the 4-digit code: 1341. CONDUCTING a seminar about stress recently was Dr. John Hun- chak, staff member of the depart- ment of psychiatry at Oshawa General Hospital. The seminar was held by the Whitby Chamber of Commerce. Free Praýs9 photo QUESTIONS ANI) ANSWERS ON SMOKING AND HEALTH FROM nRE LUNG ASSOCIATION (DURHAM REGION) Hanlit relly bea= provad that igaret umdclng caue dises? Yes, no major madical or health agency quetions the tacta. Cigaret smoking in a major cause of empbysema, chronic bronchitis, Iung cancer, and heart diseuse. Doeasn' t htaesyer a( smokingta cuiseany damage? No. Juat one cigaret speads up your heatbeat, increasesl your blood pressura and upuets the flow ot blood and air in y;o;ur lungu. Studios of teenagers who smoke show they have more breathing problems and more coughing than non-smoking teenagers. Can amake froca athar pecaida' cigarvtu bari thSe nearbyT Yes. Inhaling someone else's cigarot sinoke affects the non-smoker i much the same way as thea sioker. New studios suggest that smoke drifting off the end ot a cigaret contains even more tar and nicotine than thero is i the drag the smoker inhales. Aren't semw ai nem s au althy as non-omaiSwc? Soe seem; te ha. But thora are not always early symptoms for ail smoking.related diseases. Statistics show that smokoru use health cure facilities, particularly hospitals. 50 par cent more than non-smokers Wyareasmdkearsid more t'i n nen-mmokes? Oneofe the reasons is that smnoking paralyzas the cila, tiy hairlika structures that swaop eut germas from yeur lungs. This makes amokers more open ta ail k-A. et infection. Inusmoing more harni'ul to mon than to wommn? As more womon have started te amoko, thair death rates from samoking-related di sease are fast spproaching those of mon. Can pregnant womn ewho asco buron tbafr unboen u idue? Yes. Prognant women who smoke hava more spontaneous shertionu, promature bithu, and low-weight babies than woman who dont smoko. Prognant woman uhsorb gases liko carbon monoxide ite their bloodtreaam and block off the bah>?. oxygen supply. lun Itruaw that appraaimstely 50,000 Canadian taeeoeu are sagulur dgurset You. But the good news is that the percontage et teenaga smokers age 15 ta 19 has declined freo 30.6 in 1980 te 20.3 In 19n& Do teenagers tart smoidng beeSu. tbafr friandssmouke? Studios show that among teenagers who smoko, the highest number are tram tiomilies where oe or bath parents smoke. Ara many people smoking now thun ever bea? No. hi Canada more than 3 million hava quit. What happans.ta yoelr Lody vwn you quit? The cilia insida your lungs start te swaep aur germa agein. Your body immediately hegina to repair semaetfthe damago smokring causes. What'a the Lest way tu quit smoking? 'Me only wsy la te want tu quit. Thon you will find your own way te taesc'-4'-J oer yeur hody - your own lite. . i oewre When you reasly tee! that quitting cigarets is oe of the hast things you cao do reason wby smokers use health care facilities, particularly hospitais, 50 per cent more than nonsmokers. But after sustained periods of non-smoking, the cilia begin working again and help sweep our trouble. HOT SMOIKE AND IIARMFUL COMPOUNDS monodde stays in the bloodstream robbing the body of oxygen as long as six hours after the person stops smoking. MEN, WOMEN, AND TEENAGERS Too ,many teenagers take uj. smokinig every year. Friends have a strong influence on teenage smoking. So do When you inhale on a cigaret, parents. Arýecent Canadian stuc the hot smoke assaults delicate showed that children. wit! tissues in your mouth, throat, non-smoking parents were les breathing tubes, and lungs. likely to become regular smoker Afrer the smoke passes your than those with one or tw mouth, your lungs retain from 85 parents who smnoke. Also childrei te 99 per cent of almost ail of the who don't smoke are likely t, compounds you inhale, have very few frienda who c There are hundreds of chemnical smoke. For children who d substances in tigaret smoke. smoke it is likely that ti Three of the most damaging are majority (66 - 73 per cent) o nicotine, tars and carbon their friends are regular smokers, monoide. School aged boys tend tA Nicotine makes your blood experiment with cigarets earliel vessels constrict. It cuts down the than girls, but girls begin regul& flow of blood and oxygen tbrough smoking earlier than boys. Thi your body. Your heart has te percentage of teenage girls wh( pump harder. smoke is now the same as boyi Tars damage delicate lung who smoke. tissues. There are billions of tiny Smoking rates for both mer particles in cigaret smoke. When and women began te drop in tbE they cool inside your lungs, some late 1960s and early 1970s. Bui form a brown sticky mass, almost every study shows thai containing chemnicals that women smokers find it harder tc produce cancer in tests with quit than men do. One of tii animaIs. fears of women is that they wi] Carbon monoxide literally gain weight is not inevitable witt drives the oxygen out of your red quitting smoking. There is nc blood oeils. Levels off the gas in overail correlation between the the blood of smokers is four times two. In fact, in a national survey, higiier - for heavy smokers, one out. of four ex-smoker sometimes 15 times higher - than for m.pjn..sgokeuwô ,Co »1, -.v. fi'EJ>.;E.qi, ý -o, 'dy )rs 'vo en to 'c 'c he Of Sr e ?n le Lt at to ie ie rs No controversy over the facts on smokig From the Durham Region Lung Association THE FAUI'S Each year 35,000 Canadians die prematurely from, the effects of smoking. Many more live on with crippled lungs and overstrained hearts. Cigaret smoking is a major cause of: emphysema, cbronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease. There is no controversy about the facts. Thousands of careful studies have documented them. No major medical or health agency questions them ON"E CIGABET The longer you smoke, the> deadiier it is. But it doesn't take years for smoking te affect you. Just a few puifs can hurt. Just one cigaret - * speeds Up your heartbeat. e increases your blood pressure. * upsets the flow of blood ana air in your lungs. e causes a drop in the skin teniperature of your fingers and toes. A few puifs also slow down the action of the cilla inside your bronchial tubes. These tiny hairlike bodies normally work like brooms to, sweep out genms, mucus, dirt from your lungs. One cigaret makes them sluggish. Inha]ing over long periods paralyzes the cilia completely. Then your lunge are exposed te, ,aUnlkndqfççtp43.Tgi f