MikeLigalig.com

By Honor Blanco Cabie

Eduardo, a broadcast journalist came home one Friday, a few ticks away to the midnight hour, looking badly beaten like some pulp and literally spent.

For the past 12 years, it has been like that – going home late because the one-hour news program he produces ends at 10 – and he has, of late, become irritable, developed ulcers, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Soon as he has entered the receiving room, his three sons already asleep, and has hugged his wife of 14 years, he slouched on the sofa – very silent, his eyes closed, while the wife watched his carelessly hung frame near the center table.

Eduardo already had a quick bite at the office – a club house sandwich and a popular drink in can rich in sugar level, the latter to prop him up after nine hours of tension and stress in the newsroom he once described as “a laboratory of human character.”

Eduardo’s wife was ready with an analgesic antipyretic, impressed her husband must have gone down depths of headaches yet again.

But before he could wash the tablet down with a glass of warm water, he was already snoring, unaware of the wife’s thoughtful gesture.

She knew he was under stress at the office again – the big S in his health kit, what it has done to his mind and body, not to mention the things it had accelerated in his health card.

During Eduardo’s day off one weekend, the couple went to their family doctor for a second opinion – he is a health care card holder – but the incessant high blood, even for what seemed no reason at all, had raised the anxiety of the husband and the wife, who had taken leave from her counseling job to look after the three sons.

Eduardo was told by the family doctor to manage stress because it was bad for his immunity and makes him prone to infections.

When he is stressed out, his immune system becomes weak.

He was told common colds, flu and even the progression from HIV positive to full-blown AIDS – he was glad he did not have the last – could be attributed to stress.

The couple were silent as the doctor continued that stress could make him tired, that he might complain of various muscle pains, which should be a wake-up call “to take stock and notice your health vane.”

At the same time, he was told that ulcers in the esophagus, which he had, might have been caused by stress “because stress causes release of hydrochloric acid from the stomach, which contributes to acidity and in the long run may cause peptic ulcers to form.”

Lately, Eduardo was observed to be suffering as well from asthma, a condition that sent butterflies up the spine of his wife.

At the clinic, Eduardo was told, chronic illnesses, like asthma which causes narrowing of the air passages in the lungs and some skin conditions like eczema (extremely dry skin associated with itching), have been linked to stress.

“Stress affects the hormones in the body and a common effect is hyperthyroidism. In this condition the thyroid gland produces excess thyroid hormones, which lead to symptoms like palpitations, tremors and insomnia,” the doctor said.

A bonus information to the couple was that lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus and hypertension are all related to stress.

“To deal with stress you may reach out for unhealthy and high-calorie foods, which leads to obesity; stress affects insulin production by the pancreas which in turn controls blood sugar and stress causes the blood pressure to go higher thus causing uncontrolled hypertension,” the doctor said.

What sent the wife nodding in silence was the doctor’s matter-of-fact statement: “A stressful lifestyle is definitely to blame for lack of desire for sex, erection problems and low sperm count, which may lead to infertility in the long run.”

As the wife looked at her husband drooping at the sofa that night he came home, she remembered what the family doctor said that stress may directly or indirectly contribute to heart ailments.

The doctor had said: “Direct stress may be a cause for heart attacks while indirectly stress may cause heart failure and arrhythmias or irregular heart beats.

“Stress also plays a role in arthritis. Most people having arthritis will remember a stressful event that brought in the ailment on or at the time they were diagnosed.

“Stress is blamed for poor oral hygiene which in turn may cause dental plaque formation and gum disease. Mouth sores may also result from undue stress.”

When he looked at her husband with his conspicuously receding hairline, she remembered what the doctor told them, that hair loss increases in stressful times.

“Male pattern balding or alopecia areata, as well as telogen effluvium — where multiple hair cells enter the resting phase and cause significant hair loss are both associated with stress.”

As the wife looked at her husband that night, in that unexpected sloven posture, she began to feel palpitations herself in her chest.

Tomorrow, she promised herself, “I will have an appointment with the doctor.”

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