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Denise McVey knows holiday stress all too well. To be sure, she loves the holidays: going caroling, shopping, buying cards, enjoying the first snow, and, most of all, loving the look of delight on her toddler\u2019s face on Christmas morning. But as the days until the holidays dwindle and the lines at the mall get longer, McVey is so beset by season-induced stress that, when the New Year rolls around, she\u2019s spent. \u201cColds, flu, you name it, every year I get it; I\u2019ve had shingles eight times,\u201d says the 40-year-old owner of a creative agency in Boonton, N.J.<\/p>\n Why do many people feel so much more stress at this time of year? We tend to blame worsening traffic, crowded malls, and incessant commercials pushing holiday consumption, but a key culprit is our own memories, according to Ronald Nathan, PhD, clinical professor at Albany Medical College in New York. \u201cWhen we think about the holidays, we dwell on the past and what went wrong, or we romanticize it and make it impossible to re-create,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Stress and the immune system<\/strong><\/p>\n Easing up on yourself over the holidays is important because the connection between stress and illness is real, says Simon A. Rego, PsyD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and associate director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y.<\/p>\n \u201cThe controversy that stress causes disease is pretty much over. We\u2019re now teasing out how stress does it,\u201d he says. In fact, a new study explains how stress may weaken the immune system. Each cell contains a tiny \u201cclock\u201d called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides. To counter this effect, the body also produces an enzyme, telomerase, which protects the cell and prevents further shortening by adding more DNA to the end of the telomere.<\/p>\n So far, so good — but under stress, the body pumps out cortisol, a hormone that suppresses this protective enzyme. The study found that people under chronic stress have shorter telomeres, which, researchers say, means they are more vulnerable to a host of ailments.<\/p>\n Health effects of stress<\/strong><\/p>\n How to reduce the wear, tear, and misery that holiday stress can inflict? When your holiday to-do list stretches longer than Santa Claus\u2019s beard, eliminate whatever is unnecessary. Doing so may reduce your risk of:<\/p>\n -Heart disease, including heart attacks<\/p>\n -Skin conditions, including psoriasis and shingles<\/p>\n -Digestive disorder flare-ups, such as symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn\u2019s disease<\/p>\n -Immune disorders, including flare-ups of multiple sclerosis and lupus<\/p>\n -Anxiety, depression, and insomnia<\/p>\n -Worsening pain, if you already have a pain disorder such as arthritis, back pain, and muscle spasms<\/p>\n As for McVey, she\u2019s paring down her holiday expectations. \u201cI\u2019m planning to take a day off, head into Manhattan, and enjoy the Christmas atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n By Charlotte Libov<\/a>. WebMD the Magazine \u2013 Feature, Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD<\/a><\/p>\n Take time off from you planning and\u00a0take my quick weekly quiz and claim your reward. Act now before they are all gone!<\/strong> I am a list maker.\u00a0 Just making the shopping list for the holidays gets my head throbbing.\u00a0 My husband has to talk me off the virtual edge.\u00a0 “It’s not a big deal,”\u00a0 he tells me.\u00a0 But then he does not have to find the perfect gift for my mother. Denise McVey knows holiday stress all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-2827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drlaurie","tag-tips-for-reducing-holiday-stress"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Tips_for_Reducing_Holiday_Stress_Blog.jpg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZGa-JB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tips_for_Reducing_Holiday_Stress_Blog\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/03c4283.netsolhost.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Tips_for_Reducing_Holiday_Stress_Blog.jpg\")
<\/a>I am a list maker.\u00a0 Just making the shopping list for the holidays gets my head throbbing.\u00a0 My husband has to talk me off the virtual edge.\u00a0 “It’s not a big deal,”\u00a0 he tells me.\u00a0 But then he does not have to find the perfect gift for my mother.<\/p>\n<\/a>Please read our\u00a0Disclaimer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"