Stree & Strain

people, for it is a well-known saying among the physicians of New York that 'When stocks in Wall Street go down, sugar in the urine goes up.'

Broadly speaking, stress diseases are caused when the "combat mechanism" of the body goes into action under some shock, the thyroid demanding a "purposeless increase" in metabolic output, the pituitary sending ACTH flooding to the adrenals, and the blood pressure, blood salt and blood sugar increasing. Once stimulated by shock, the mechanism keeps on going. The human system is exhilarated, but badly unbalanced. Exhaustion usually follows, often with a dangerous lowering of the body's normal resistance to infection.

Exactly how stress then goes on to do its damage is a matter of disagreement among the experts. Heart Specialist Clarence J. Gavey says that even in heart disease stress is not usually associated with physical overexertion, because shortness of breath and exhaustion serve as automatic checks on the heart patient's activities. Dr. Gavey concedes, however, that shocks and anxiety can easily precipitate heart attacks. Anxiety, many of his colleagues agree, is the most dangerous form that stress can take.

Buddhists & Freethinkers. What can be done to reduce the ravages of stress? There is no single rule, for as Psychiatrist Douglas R. MacCalman points out, some men thrive on distractions and dangers that would send others to hospital beds. Suggested the bishop of Manchester: "The church is meant to supply, though I freely admit it does not always do so, one of those deficiencies of modern life which . . . cause stress and anxiety . . . Within the family life of the Christian Church,

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