Hostility - One Stress You Don't Need

Of all the stress in life, hostility is one of the worst. Hostility not only makes you miserable, but it might just kill you. There are some correlations between hostility and disease risk factors.

Hostility can be related to:

1. Increased cholesterol levels, with decreases in the protective HDL levels.

2. Increased tendency to smoke.

3. Greater physical reaction (higher blood pressure and heart rate) to specific stressful situations.

4. Increased atherosclerosis.

5. High blood pressure.

It all boils down to worse health. Not all hostility research agrees, and non hostile people also end up with heart disease and unhealthy habits. Perhaps we'll eventually discover that underlying health problems existed before the hostility surfaced.

In the meantime, one of the best things a hostile person or any stressed person can do is exercise. For the person with a really bad attitude, aerobic exercise defuses a hostile personality, making the person less reactive to stress.

Other Anti Hostile Pills

1. When you start to get hostile, take a walk or do weight training.

2. See the humor in situations.

3. Empathize, putting yourself in your antagonist's place.

4. Put situations in perspective. Will today's problem seem so important in a week or a month?

5. Don't hold grudges.

6. Share your feelings with caring family members and friends.

7. If your hostility is extreme, consider professional counseling.

Laughter and Stress

For minimizing stress, it's the best medicine. Stress is almost always relieved when someone says something funny. Laughter helps buffer everything from fear to stress to serious illness.

Norman Cousins claimed that laughter saved his life. He was diagnosed with having ankylosing spondylitis and had a one in 500 chance of survival. His two part therapy program included huge amounts of ascorbic acid and laughter. He found that his pain would go away while he watched Marx brothers' movies. He recovered completely.