​​What in the world has stress to do with diabetes? And why more prevalent in women?

Okay, there is some new research in this area and there are some important general facts and considerations.

General stress factors for women 
Let’s first take a look at the general facts around stress and diabetes. In the most general way the medical community has told us that stress is the cause or an aggravating factor in about 80% of disease. 

That alone tells us that stress increases the risk of illness. More specifically, the stress hormones cause the liver to immediately push more glucose into the bloodstream. 

​Why does that happen? ​​Because in a situation of danger our automatic survival response is to fight or run for our life. Therefore our survival brain wants to make sure there is enough fuel for the muscles to help us survive. In today’s world even a mild level of stress in the office without the need to run or fight will unfortunately increase the amount of sugar the liver puts into our bloodstream. Over time that will cause an environment to support the development of diabetes type II.

Women appeared to be a bit more susceptible to these low levels of constant stress. They also tend to help themselves to some little treats to have some sweetness in their stressful lives. Biologically, women have already more body fat than men and their love for sweets combined with stress make it worse. Obesity is also a factor in diabetes type II.

Another important factor in the amount of stress we feel in a work situation depends on the amount of control we have on the job. Women on average have less control and lower pay at work. That also makes them feel more stress than men in similar positions despite the progress which has been made thus far.

New research supports these general factors
Canadian researchers followed over 7000 workers for 12 years to analyze their working hours and health. They found that the amount of working hours did not have any effect on men. But women who worked over 45 hours per week had a 51% higher chance to get diabetes when compared to women who worked only 35 to 40 hours per week (Mahee Gilbert-Ouimet, Institute for Work & Health, Toronto). This clearly shows how women are at greater risk when it comes to stress and health.


Increased risk of diabetes is another important reason to learn and use the only “real-time” stress management method available today. You can use SciStress techniques anytime and anywhere at work or at home for an immediate effect of reducing stress and improving your performance.

If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to send them to us:
   fred@scistress.com
   judy@scistress.com

Enjoy a low stress life with SciStress!

Fred and Judy

Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng, Stress Reduction Coach, Business Process Improvement & Productivity Specialist
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

​Fred with some of the attendees

​On June 19, we presented the keynote address at the monthly dinner meeting of the American Business Women’s Association, ABWA, a delightful group of energetic professionals. Women in business have special stress issues which we discussed.
 
Women’s Special Stress Issues at Work

• Work-life balance is difficult when so much is expected of a woman at home in the family. Typically women take on an unequally heavier load of responsibilities for children and caring for elderly parents. Several members have aging parents to care for.
• Less than equal pay and fewer career opportunities cause financial problems and the message of being second class. Even in a predominantly female organization men are given preferential treatment, as one member recounted.
• Harassment and disrespectful behavior are still widespread making working life more difficult. Recently we heard from a lawyer that in a business women’s support group where she is a member 100% of the 150 members had experienced harassment.

Then we offered and demonstrated a powerful solution:
 
SciStress Quick-Help Process
 
We demonstrated the “Stress Now” Quick-Help Process a couple of times to give ABWA members an opportunity to experience how the technique can be used and what the effects are in a short time. Unfortunately there is not time to provide adequate training in a brief presentation. However, the ABWA Board has expressed interest in offering a workshop for the techniques to members.
 
NOTE: the SciStress “Stress Now” Quick-Help Technique is detailed in the book “The Girl Who Couldn’t Laugh” page 177.
 
We all can see why it is so important to manage our stresses consistently!
 

At the end of the meeting, Judith was inducted as a member of the ABWA

We thank the ABWA for the honor and opportunity to share our work with them.
 
If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to send them to us:
   fred@scistress.com
   judy@scistress.com
 
Enjoy a low stress life with SciStress!
​

Fred and Judy

​Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng, Stress Management Coach, Business Process Improvement & Productivity Specialist, Author
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Stress Scientist, Ret. Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

• Every day, stress disrupts individual lives at work, school and at home.
• Each year, as a result stress causes businesses, communities and the economy billions of dollars in lost time at work, reduced productivity and less creativity.
• Stress is behind 80% of all human disease. The word “dis-ease” even points to the relationship to stress.

 ​
WHY Scientific Stress Management

• Reducing the burden of stress frees unimaginable energy.
• Eliminating the subtle inhibitors to performance allows people to be at their best.
• Freeing the body of the health sabotaging effects of stress lets it heal and thrive.

 
Stress drains energy
We feel stressed and our body instantly begins to work overtime. It gets ready for “fight or flight”. This preparation consumes enormous amounts of energy. The nervous system switches from parasympathetic mode, or relaxation, where we perform most effectively, to sympathetic mode or stress mode. The result is a whole combination of physical and mental changes to prepare for “a survival emergency”. This automatic response drains our energy and focuses away from our current tasks, from what we want to accomplish now.
 
Stress blocks performance
When our nervous system switches on the stress response and moves to sympathetic mode our performance immediately suffers. Our thinking becomes foggy as up to 70% of the blood flow is reduced to our thinking brain, the prefrontal lobes of the neocortex. The feeling of pressure and anxiety translates in a predisposition to react aggressively or defensively. Our muscles become tense and twitchy causing back aches, headaches and migraines. We tend to tunnel vision. We feel restless and irritable.
 
Stress sabotages health and well-being
The stress reaction causes a whole cocktail of physical changes. They are only useful when we are in a true life or death situation. Frequent stress reactions in normal life will cause increasingly detrimental effects to our health. Stress instantly increases blood pressure and heart rate. Ongoing levels of high stress will therefore predispose us for chronically high blood pressure and heart disease. It causes our liver to pump more glucose into the bloodstream which over time opens the door to diabetes.
 
Stress will slow down digestion causing indigestion and bloating. The stress hormone cortisol makes us grave sugar and fat. This inevitably leads to bad food choices and over-eating. Resulting obesity reduces lifespan and invites a whole new set of diseases. Long-term exposure to stress will even change the structures of our chromosomes. It will shorten telomeres and thereby accelerate aging.
 
 
HOW Can New Scientific Stress Management Help?
 
Modern stress management is faster and more effective than any conventional methods. It is based on the neuroscience. Better yet, these tools are easy to learn and easy to use. They can be applied anywhere and at any time. You can use them at work and at home, in the car or on the plane, during a stressful phone call or luncheon meeting. You will feel the effects clearly in a short time. These stress management tools can be applied to any problem physical or mental. Results last longer, often are permanent and can even prevent future stress. And it’s easy to train groups of people, large or small.
 
You are fast becoming skeptical. That’s very natural. How can so much be accomplished so quickly? How could the tools be helpful for so many kinds of problems? And how could such powerful tools be learned so easily?
 
Important questions. They deserve clear and unequivocal answers.

• Why are modern scientific stress management tools so amazingly effective?
• Because they aim directly at that part of the brain where the stress response is generated.

They virtually instantly calm the stress response in the exact location in the brain where it is generated. Therefore, the tools allow the nervous system to switch quickly from stress mode, sympathetic, to relaxation mode, parasympathetic.
 
Switching quickly to parasympathetic, relaxed mode, changes all the body’s and the brain’s functions. Instead of the toxic cocktail of stress reactions the nervous system switches to a symphony of positive changes. These changes counteract the negative effects of stress on performance, health and well-being.
 
 
WHAT Are the Tools to Make this Happen?
 
What is SciStress scientific stress management?
SciStress provides natural tools to quickly induce changes in neural functioning. They are based on rhythmic tapping on sensitive acupressure points on the body. This tapping generates electrical impulses which the nervous system immediately transmits to the stress centers of the brain. These rhythmic signals are not compatible with the typical survival signals which generate stress. Therefore, the stress centers switch off the survival alarm. The nervous system returns naturally to the parasympathetic relaxation mode of functioning.
 
What happens to the thinking brain and the rest of the body?
Immediately more blood and oxygen returns to our prefrontal lobes. Our thinking is clear again. Our memory becomes unfrozen. Tunnel vision recedes. Our focus broadens. Aggressive or defensive overreactions dissipate as adrenaline levels drop. Muscles relax and any tension induced headaches or backaches ease away. Blood pressure, blood sugar and pulse rate levels return to normal.
 
Do you have to tell everyone about your problems? Is this some kind of therapy?
Absolutely not. These powerful tools are used by each individual by themselves and for themselves. Even when you work with the tools in a group or with a coach your privacy can be fully maintained. Don’t you have to tell your coach or other people in a group what your stress inducing problems are? Again, absolutely not. Even when you work with a coach on very intensive stress issues you do not have to disclose what they are! The tools are perfect for effective self management.
 
Obviously, in a coaching or training situation you can talk about what issues cause your stress. An experienced coach may then be able to help relate your experience to that of others and how they solved it. In a team situation you may help other team members by discussing your stress issues. However, this is always your personal choice. You do not have to disclose your issues in order to apply the techniques successfully. You alone make this choice.
 
 
Outcomes: Results of Scientific Research
 
A significant body of research is available. This is true in spite of a lack of funding for these new techniques by either institutions or government. This research shows consistent and fast improvements in anxieties. Anxieties inhibit performance. Here are some related outcomes:

• Eliminate the fear of public speaking and test anxiety
• Improve communication skills and academic performance
• Reduce mental and psychological distress
• Manage occupational stress

 
Further areas of effectiveness identified by research:

• PTSD which affects veterans but also victims of accidents and abuse
• Food cravings and unhealthy eating
• Even addictions, e.g. smoking, and relief with mental health problems

 
Outcomes: Case Studies and Practical Experience
 
Over 8000 case studies have been recorded demonstrating the effectiveness of the tapping techniques in virtually any problem area, any distress and even many diseases. A few example are:

• Overwhelm and burnout
• Anxieties and phobias
• Fear of failure, fear of success or “feeling like a fraud”
• Poor decision making

 
Again, how can this be possible? Because the rhythmic tapping signals are transmitted directly to the stress causing survival functions of the subconscious part of the brain. That part of the brain initiates the “fight or flight” survival response. If that fight or flight response is mild, feelings of stress and discomfort are also mild, sometimes barely noticeable. Yet even these light reactions surreptitiously affect performance and well-being. If this survival response is powerful, then the feelings of distress, pain and discomfort are also powerful, at times overwhelming. In those instances we cannot function successfully or in the extreme cannot function at all.
 
What is the the most central and powerful element of brain and nervous system? It’s the survival function! It affects everything in body and mind. We wouldn’t have survived as a species without it. Therefore, the ability to calm this response will also affect everything in body and mind!
 
 
The Vision for a Healthy, Thriving Organization
 
How can such easy to use natural tools help an organization, small or large, be healthy and thriving? Because when the cells of the body are healthy the whole body becomes healthy. Because when the employees of an organization are healthy and function at their best the whole organization is healthier and functions optimally.
 
Imagine the health of your employees steadily improving as they manage their stress levels with ease. They can reduce any stress during their day-to-day work without taking more than a few minutes. Imagine overwhelm, burnout, and resistance to change gently receding week after week. Imagine absenteeism and healthcare costs steadily decreasing month after month.
 
Imagine the performance of your team steadily increasing. As your team members and employees continuously reduce the inhibitors to their performance with ease, what will that mean for your organization? Can you see enthusiasm rising? Can you see results improving while your employees stress level drops. Can you see the instances of “dis-stress” gently transforming to positive “eu-stress”? Can you envision the freed up energy and creativity?
 
Imagine your management team further improving their focus, their communication amongst themselves and their employees, and their performance without increasing pressure and stress. Imagine how this can make their lives at home with families and friends better. Imagine the possibilities to bring this to your schools, your civic organizations and into your communities.
 
How can we make this vision a reality together?
 
There is research and the vast body of experience with individuals. There is an even greater opportunity bringing these powerful tools into organizations. What is missing now is the research to prove and quantify the results in organizations.
 
If you want to be part of leading this effort, if you want to help prove the results in your organization we urge you to contact SciStress. Together we can lay out simple low cost and low risk pilot studies. We can demonstrate and quantify the benefits for your organization and your team. Your risks are minimal:

• You contribute only your time and that of the research participants. At a minimum everyone will learn powerful stress management techniques to use for themselves. Yet there is so much more to gain.
• We will contribute our time, experience and expertise pro bono. Our only requirement is that we publish the results of the studies.

 
Your SciStress Team stands ready to move forward together!
 
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng, Stress Management Coach, Business Process Improvement & Productivity Specialist, Author
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

Hey, what has the New Year to do with the one to 80 advantage? Advantage over what?
 
Okay! This has something to do with New Year’s resolutions. It has also something to do with how your mind works.

The new year just started and very likely you’ve made some New Year’s resolutions. The new year seems to you like a great opportunity to make a new start and do better this year than last.
 
Now here is it where you can improve your chances to be successful by a factor of 80. Sounds pretty unbelievable, right?
 
How can you make your chances to succeed 80 times greater? Naturally you have some doubts. And yet there is research and practical experience which shows there is a workable system to do it.

​
Want to find out more? Then read on.
 
What is this system? What can make it 80 times more likely for you to achieve your goals for the new year? There are basically 2 steps:
​

1. Write down your goals. This has a couple of advantages. One it forces you to be clearer about what you want to achieve. Writing it down makes it more concrete. Secondly, you can post that piece of paper with your goals at a convenient place to remind you often. Both research and practice show that this will make it 10 times more likely for you to achieve your goals.
   
2. Read your goals out aloud at least once every single day – until they  become reality! I’m sure reading them a couple of times won’t hurt either. Reading them aloud will not just remind you of your goals, it will help your subconscious mind to give your goals an increasingly high-priority. The research shows that this will make it 8 times more likely to achieve your goals over just having your goals written down.
   

 
So here is the math of success: 10 times 8 and voila here is 80! When you write down your goals and read them at least once every day out loud your chances for success improve 80 times. That is 80 times over just thinking about some goals for the New Year and not writing them down or reading them out regularly.
 
What do you think? Is such an advantage worth a little daily effort???
 
Here are 2 more tricks to make your goal setting work even more effective. The key here is that it is the subconscious part of your mind which will do most of the work for you. Therefore, you have to make your goals easy and convincing for your subconscious:
 
Make your goal a powerful statement – “Affirmation”

• First, here are some rules which make your subconscious understand what you want.
  
• Your subconscious cares only about YOU. Therefore make your goal an affirmation statement about you (I, myself, me)
• Use the present tense. The subconscious knows only the now, no past or future.
• Make it a positive statement. The subconscious ignores negatives, e.g. in “don’t smoke” it hears only “smoke”.
• Short and emotional phrases stick in your subconscious much easier.

Example: I love an exciting well-paying job (it’s “me”, in the present, positive and emotional).
 
Picture your goal vividly – “Vision Board”
Pictures go directly to your subconscious and stick there. Your goals automatically get support. A fun and easy way to do this is with a “Vision Board”. Find photos and artwork from magazines, the web or newspapers which make you feel good and represent your goals in some exciting way. Take these pictures and clue or tape them to a bulletin board. Hang the board at a place which gives you some privacy but also where you can see it easily and frequently. 
A workshop participant in Germany told me she did this for several years each New Year and each time succeeded achieving at least 80% of her goals.
 
OK, now get going to start your New Year out with a powerful initiative. That’s how you get control.
 
To your SUCCESS!   Fred George Sauer