Nurses and Stress: Does It Affect Your Skin, Hair, Nails and More? from Nurse Together

A nurse recently asked me, “I’m under so much stress and I noticed changes in my hair, skin and nails. Is there any connection?” The answer is a big, fat yes.

One reason for poor hair, skin and nail health is due to the over secretion of the stress hormone cortisol. When it’s over secreted, it will look to replenish itself by borrowing components from our estrogen stores. Estrogen is a hormone which keeps us youthful so when stores become depleted, we age faster. (You know how someone “looks like they’ve had a hard life?” That’s the physical effects of over secreted stress hormones).

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The Goldilocks Principle of Stress: Too Little Is Almost As Bad as Too Much

A life free of stress and adversity sounds blissful. But, in fact, the happiest and healthiest people are those who have had at least some early exposure to negative experiences, according to a new research review.

Despite the popular notion, stress isn’t all bad. In fact, low to moderate amounts of stress are necessary for healthy growth. What’s harmful is large doses of uncontrollable stress — experiencing a natural disaster, for instance, or living in extreme poverty — particularly in early life. Also harmful, it turns out, is having experienced no stress at all.

The new review adds weight to a growing body of evidence that most brain systems function like muscles: they are strengthened through exposure to gradually increasing loads at the appropriate stages of development, but they will wither without exercise and get injured if they are suddenly overloaded without prior training. The stress system is a prime example.

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What was I just saying? 9 reasons you can't focus from MSNBC

You walk into a restaurant to meet a friend and remember you were supposed to meet somewhere else. You leave your boss's office and, quick as that, forget the deadline she gave you for a new project. You had your keys in your hand, you were just holding them, and now they're gone — again. What's going on? Here, nine possibilities for why your mind is wandering, and expert advice on how to get your concentration back.

For the full article please go here.

Holiday Stress: 6 Ways To Deal With Difficult Family Members During The Holidays from Huffington Post

George Burns once said: "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." So that would explain why the holidays are so stressful. Those dear relatives who live in San Francisco suddenly are lingering in front of your refrigerator in Cincinnati, Ohio and you have to figure out a socially acceptable way of setting the table together, resisting the urge to re-expose the childhood wounds that you've learned to protect.

Here are a few tips I use in interacting with those family members who tend to wake my grumpy inner child, triggering an ugly tantrum right about the time Santa shows up with his loot.

1. Repeat: It's Not About Me

You think it's about you when your brother calls you a "selfish, lazy, son of a something," but actually it's not. He may point his finger at you and say, "You. I'm talking about you." But he's really not. He is seeing something that has nothing to do with who you are.

For the full article please go here.