Do you deal with stress daily? If so, you’re not alone. According to the American Psychological Association, 74 percent of polled respondents stated they regularly experience at least one symptom associated with stress, including headaches, muscle fatigue, pain, and gastrointestinal problems.

Forty-five percent of those respondents stated they have insomnia. Another 37 percent said they eat unhealthy food or overeat because of stress in their lives. The top sources of stress include jobs, school, finances, health-related problems, and interpersonal concerns.

Before discussing the effects of stress on health, it’s important to understand some of the key aspects of stress. First, it is important to note that we researchers of stress cannot agree on one definition. (That’s not uncommon in the social sciences.) However, what we do agree on is that there is one physiological stress response that doesn’t differentiate between physical and psychological stress.

Stress can affect people positively or negatively. Whereas positive stress motivates us to do better with tasks such as tests or projects, negative stress can cause anxiety, worry, or sadness. Stress also involves a great deal of perception. How people think about their stress and how they cope with stress varies from person to person. As a health psychologist, I’m primarily concerned about physiological responses to stress because it has a direct impact on a person’s health.

However, as a clinical health psychologist also, I am very concerned with perceptions about health and stress, and people’s ability to believe they can deal with stress effectively. This is where I hope to be a significant change agent.

There are two primary types of stress: acute and chronic. For acute stress, our bodies call on the sympathetic nervous system, which releases epinephrine and norepinephrine to ready the body for a fight-or-flight response. After the response to acute stress, the body goes back to homeostasis. While there is indeed interest in acute stress, my work focuses more on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis system that deals with chronic, or long-lasting, stress. This system involves the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands.

Think of the hypothalamus as the command center that is ultimately responsible for the release of hormones. These hormones eventually make their way down to the adrenal glands at the top of our kidneys and release the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol helps mobilize the body to produce the energy needed to meet the demands of stress. However, with that long-term stress, there is hopefully an end in sight. When it’s over, the cortisol that provides energy should ultimately shut off. We refer to that as a negative feedback loop. However, under chronic stress, like helping with cancer on top of doing your everyday job, there isn’t an end in sight.

What happens then? There is significant wear and tear on that shut-off mechanism, and that leads to excess cortisol circulating in the body. Cortisol is very influential in the body’s metabolism processes, and for inflammation reduction and memory formation. When there is an overabundance of cortisol circulating in our bodies, it can lead to long-term health problems such as heart disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, and other mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Stress is a part of our everyday experience. It’s unavoidable. However, we can embrace it by learning to deal with it. It is not easy, but it is possible. At Howard University, I am researching African-American women who are at risk for cardiovascular disease. We are developing an intervention for stress reduction using a form of meditation called mindfulness. Mindfulness, according to Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts, involves bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis. It is present-oriented consciousness that is nonjudgmental and involves an awareness of each thought, feeling, and sensation. It’s about being, not doing, and being intentional, not automatic.

Consider a mundane activity like brushing our teeth. We do it every day without being aware of what we’re doing when we do it. Mindfulness is the exact opposite. It focuses on being aware of the things we normally do and embracing them in the present moment. I hope this information will spur you to consider some of the many techniques and tools available to you to reduce stress in your life. Managing stress can only lead to a healthier, happier, and more productive outlook and lifestyle.