Dr. Michael Roizen: De-Stress Yourself
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Two of the biggest stressors in people’s lives are money and work. With the current volatile economic crisis, many of us are experiencing financial and job-related stress. Money issues constitute over 40 percent of the major stresses each person experiences. A third of all new illnesses are due to work-related stresses and each case of work-related stress leads to an average of 30 working days lost a year (that’s six weeks of work!). Stress can also cause headaches, sleep problems, appetite problems (too much and too little) and depression and anxiety. Work stress has also been linked to gastrointestinal problems, hormonal problems, immune problems, etc. as well as a six-fold higher risk of having a heart attack.
Some stress is good, and helps us make tough decisions or meet deadlines, but too much stress ages us prematurely. Stress eminates from the pituitary gland and triggers the adrenal gland to release adrenaline. Adrenaline increases blood pressure and heart rate and triggers the release of cortisol. Cortisol prevents the release of chemicals that strengthen your immune system.
“That’s why you tend to get sick when you’re stressed out,” Dr. Roizen said.
Stress is okay in short spurts, but not when you overfill your hormonal systems. When stress hormones damage tissues, cells and organs, our bodies replace damaged cells with stem cells to make the repairs. Stem cells have difficulty keeping up production.
Dr. Roizen said we are hard-wired to react about money. In today’s world, the means of survival (food, clothing, shelter) don’t stem from the size of our muscles, but rather the size of our bank account. We want money for security, power, love, comfort and freedom.
“In fact, we think it makes us more beautiful,” Dr. Roizen said. “And that’s how we act.”
While we like to think of ourselves as rational decision makers, it is human tendency to grab small short-term gains instead of waiting for the long term.
“Not having enough money tomorrow is the source of stress that wears on us like a three-ton boulder,” Dr. Roizen said.
To decrease work stress and feel more beautiful, Dr. Roizen said we have the power to love our jobs, to handle tough tasks and have the ability to make more money. Since stress has a heavy emotional component, it stands to reason that your ability to think with your emotions can help you manage them. Rather than hiding tears until you get to the restroom, Dr. Roizen said its better to determine whether that emotion is appropriate or not, so you can solve problems.
“Once you establish this foundation of control over your stressors, you’re better equipped to tackle the problems more specifically,” Dr. Roizen said.
ABOUT DR. ROIZEN
Dr. Roizen has given over 1,200 lectures to professional medical groups and is a past chairman of the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee. He has published more than 155 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 100 textbook chapters, 30 editorials and four medical books, including a medical best-seller. He has also received 12 U.S. patents and several foreign patents. Dr. Roizen served for nine years on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco. He also served as medical director of the Chicago Program for Executive Health and chaired the top-10 rated department of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago. He became dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for biomedical sciences at SUNY Upstate. After serving as CEO of the Biotechnology Research Corporation of Central New York, he accepted positions as chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic and as chair of the Division of Anethesiology, Critical Care Medicine and Comprehensive Pain Management at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Roizen still practices anesthesiology and internal medicine using the RealAge metric to motivate his patients. He has been listed in the Best Doctors of America since 1989. His wife is a developmental pediactrician and is also listed in the Best Doctors of America. They have 2 children, Jenny and Jeffrey.
Dr. Roizen will be demonstrating using a specimen from Bodies: The Exhibition. He will visually identify and explain the body’s organs, arteries and vagus nerve which affect the aging process. The bodies in this exhibition are those of people from China who died of natural causes with no next of kin. Chinese law, like American law, allows that, after a period of time during which no relative or next of kin can be located, unclaimed bodies can be legally given to a medical school who then has permission under the law to use them for an educational or research purpose while seeing to it that issues related to dignity and respect are carefully adhered to. Detailed information about the identities and personal histories of the bodies is strictly confidential.
The specimens in the exhibit are preserved using polymer preservation, a revolutionary technique in which human tissue is permanently preserved using liquid silicone rubber. This prevents the natural process of decay, making the specimens available for study for an indefinite period of time. Anatomists fix a specimen with chemicals to temporarily halt the decaying process. Then they dissect it to expose important structures. All of the water is removed from the specimen by replacing it with acetone. The specimen is placed into a liquid silicone mixture within a vacuum chamber. Under vacuum, the acetone becomes a gas that is completely replaced by the polymer mixture. Lastly, the silicone polymer is hardened. The end result is a dry, odorless, permanently preserved specimen containing no toxic chemicals. It retains the look of the original but functions as if it were rubber. For more information on THE BODIES Exhibition, please visit www.bodiestickets.com.
