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TAKE
A STRESS TEST
The standard tests that
doctors use to tell whether you are an easily stressed “hot
reactor” (and at greater risk for disease) are pretty simple,
so take your pick, says Frank Barry, M.D., a family practice
physician in Colorado Springs and author of Make the Change
for a Healthy Heart. For
the first two tests, you’ll want to take a blood-pressure
reading twice – once before the test and once during the test
– for comparison.
Test
1: Chill out.
In Test 1, put your hand into a bucket of cold water for
one minute and have someone measure your blood pressure right
after you have done it. If
it goes up into the high range in response to physical stress,
you are a “hot reactor.”
Test
2: Do some math.
Test 2 is a little more cerebral.
Start with the number 100 and mentally subtract 7, then
continue to subtract 7 until you get to 2.
In the midst of your figuring, have your blood pressure
taken. “There’s
no exercise, no threat to your life, but a lot of people still
feel mental stress and their blood pressures shoot up,” says
Dr. Barry.
Test
3: Talk to
yourself. You can
also test yourself without the shock of cold water or the mental
anguish of math. As
yourself: "Are
you working toward your own true goals or someone else’s?
" If you are busy
trying to keep up with the Joneses, you’re still in the rat
race, even if you have retired.
You’re much more likely to feel the effects of stress
regardless of whether you’re a “hot reactor,” says Dr.
Barry.
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