disease





	Stress, Grief and Disease Nancy Burkhart, EdD

	Why worry about your stress level? What connection could your state of health have to do with stress? You have lichen planus and this disorder is from an unknown cause?

BEGIN TO ASSESS YOUR OWN EVERYDAY STRESS:

START A JOURNAL. Writing brings your observations into focus. Additionally, writing is a stress reducer that promotes a sense of well-being. Record your reactions to everyday events.

OBSERVE ANY PATTERNS. Begin to review your journal periodically and observe items that do not promote a sense of well-being. These may be activities, people, places or continued thoughts of past events.

OBSERVE PATTERNS THAT PROMOTE RELAXATION: What events bring you pleasure? When do you feel good?

HOW DO YOU VIEW CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE (BOTH SMALL AND SIGNIFICANT CHANGES)? Results from studies indicate that individuals who view change as a life challenge have what is termed "hardiness" and generally stay healthier.

DO YOU SEE THE GLASS AS HALF-FULL OR HALF-EMPTY? Individuals who are optimistic rather than pessimistic are more resilient and are able to cope with stress more favorably. Optimism, it is believed, can be learned. (see our reading list )

Although, it is true that we do not know the cause of lichen planus, most practitioners and patients with lichen planus will tell you that they can document the development of lesions when their stress levels increase. The information below is published to provide some facts that we know occur in the body.

Mason differentiated between the arousal of the sympathetic adrenal-medullary system by the fight-flight response (based on work by Selye) and the pituitary adrenocortical response. It has been documented that if the sympathetic adrenal-medullary system is activated excessively, persistently and too often, illness and disease may occur. The release of catecholamines, epinephrine and norepinephrine by the adrenal medulla and/or sympathetic nerve endings is believed to induce many of the pathological states associated with psychological stress: increased blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.

Stress and stress-related illnesses have been studied extensively in the last 20 years. The results clearly indicate that stress, especially chronic stress, has profound effects on the body. The well-known Framingham, Mass. Heart study identified the type A personality and associated it with a doubling of the risk of coronary heart disease in men and women. Animals subjected to repeated stress showed significant decreases in the total number of mononuclear cells, especially T cells, in the spleen and blood. Chronic stress can cause a reduction in mitogenesis, alterations in lymphocytes, reductions in the ratio of T-helper cells to T-suppressor cells and an elevation in the number of natural killer cells.

Life events that produce chronic stress have been shown to have a wide range of effects on the body. Recently a major emphasis has been placed on the patient's ability to cope with the chronic stress of daily life. Adverse life events have also been documented as occurring before the onset of functional abdominal pain, alopecia areata, headaches, cancer, heart disease, low back pain, and psoriasis.

The above is in part from: Assessing the Characteristics of Patients with Oral Lichen Planus: Burkhart, et al. JADA 127:5, 1996.

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