Stress and Health

Stress is a well-studied cause of poor health, and long-term exposure to high-stress environments can cause heart disease and other health conditions. Obviously not all stress is dangerous, and some people have better developed coping mechanisms than others, but there is clearly a connection between mental stress and physical health. Whenever I’m learning about the effects of stress on physical health, I’m always reminded of a story my Dad tells about dealing with a particular kind of stress at work.

My Dad is a retired prospecting mineral geologist, and his job frequently involved exploring the outdoors, taking samples, and looking for evidence that would provide insight into the composition of the geology of an area. On one occasion he was sent to Northern Ontario to do some prospecting in a large wooded area which was also a popular destination for moose hunters. These hunters apparently spent most of the day drinking, and would stalk through the forest firing their guns in between drinks. For weeks, my Dad could hear these hunters and their rifles, and was convinced and frightened that one of these drunk hunters was definitely going shoot him. He also soon began developing a noticeable lump in his throat which, in his already paranoid mind, could only be cancer. To say he was was feeling stressed would be an understatement. He survived the hunters without incident, but the lump in throat persisted for weeks after he got home. In the days before Google and WebMD, my family’s medical encyclopedia was always the last stop before going to see the doctor, and searching for “lump in the throat” eventually led my Dad to an entry on Globus hystericus – a stress-induced lump. It turns out that his symptoms had been completely caused by his own mind, and from the anxiety of having to work with the fear of those hunters. Relief alone was all that was needed for the lump to go away.