"Stop worrying, it's not good for your health": advice from an Italian medical professional on how to overcome stress during the Coronavirus Outbreak
The situation that is uniting the entire world together in this moment is not a happy or easy one. To keep the Coronavirus outbreak from spreading, many countries have ordered their citizens to stay home, closing all non-essential businesses and gatherings down until further notice. These extreme measures, of course, have increased people's worries exponentially. And it's beginning to affect their health.
It should come to no surprise that epidemics and other types of national/international emergencies have a negative affect on our wellbeing. The more serious the situation, the more we see an increase in negative feelings like anxiety, depression, and dread. One medical professional saw such a dramatic change in his patients' emotional states that he decided to reach out to the rest of the world, offering advice on how to stay calm during the coronavirus outbreak.
The medical professional's name is Dr. Adolfo Panfili, who is an Italian orthopedic and the President of the International Association of Orthomolecular Medicine (AIMO). In the video, Dr. Palfini explains that axiety and stress are our health and wellbeing's biggest arch enemies. Not only do they have a negative impact on our mental health, but they also affect our immune system's functionality.
When we find ourselves in stressful situations, our body produces an excess amount of adrenaline, cortisol, and noradrenaline. In life-threatening situations, these hormones are meant to help us survive. In all other situations, they do us more harm than they actually help us. This is because they reduce our body's ability to fight off possible infections and diseases that have entered into our blood system.
Apart from damaging our body's immune system, studies have shown that stress and anxiety cause us harm in other ways. When we are stressed or anxious, humans have the tendency to give into vices or old bad habits, such as smoking, drinking or overeating. It can also negatively affect our personal relationships and productivity at work.
This is why Dr. Panfili's message is so important. In a time where so many people are experiencing self-quarantine, the Coronavirus outbreak is a reality for just about all of us. We owe it to ourselves to take Dr. Panfili's advice: let's try to stay calm and put an end to our fears and anxieties. Let's start concentrating on the things that are going to get us through this. Pick up that guitar you haven't play in 6 months. Get back to writing that book you haven't touched in a year. Join that online support group that offers company to people who live alone. The bottom line is: don't let your fears and anxieties get the best of you. We are all in this together and, together, we'll see our way out of it.
