COLUMBIA, S.C. — Whether it's work, school, money, we all have something that stresses us out. April is Stress Awareness Month and doctors say stress can have an impact on your health.
“A lot of things from life cause stress,” Kate Gordon, MD, said.
Dr. Gordon is a physician with Lexington Family Practice in Forest Acres. She says daily stressors can impact your physical and mental health.
“Stress leads to inflammation and we know inflammation leads to everything. heart disease, migraines, stroke, anxiety, leading to worse mental health issues,” she said.
Gordon says there are many ways she recommends dealing with stress.
“Walking, mediation, reading books, anything that you enjoy, anything that’s your hobby. a lot of people do a lot of gardening, it’s so good. anything that raises your dopamine level is good for relieving stress,” she said.
According to doctors, even what we eat can cause increase stress or anxiety.
“I can’t stress nutrition enough, there’s a lot of foods that really induce that dopaminergic response, eating a good healthy diet, not sugar, avoiding sugar, avoiding too many carbohydrates because you want your blood glucose to be pretty steady. those fluctuations in blood glucose can really make people anxious,” Gordon said.
Community members say there's lots of things that stress them out.
“What stresses me out is when I see people walk around and don’t be kind to each other and when I also see people that don’t speak to each other because sometimes a person might just need even a stranger to be kind,” Angela Warren said.
Joshua Bowers, another member of the community said, “I'm in the customer service industry so I deal with people on a day to day basis. people that have bad energy, low vibrations.”
While the list of stressors can be long, neighbors say there’s lots of things that help them relieve stress.
“I rely on my faith, it’s never let me down,” Warren said.
“I like to meditate, visualize my goals and things that bring me peace,” Bowers said.
Gordon says for stress awareness month and beyond the best thing to do is take time for yourself.
“We’re always in a hurry and that kind of feeds on itself. Take time to do the things that you enjoy doing. If you have a hobby, it’s the time to do it,” she said.