Pilot Study

Phyisical Stress Questionnare

Researches have reported that when a person is highly stressed for a period of more than a month, it doubles his/her chances of catching a cold compared with a person with only routine stress. The greatest impact on getting sick was work related stress and problems within per-sonal relationships (Shepherd, 1999:211). Over time, if stress persists, high levels of stress hormones will drain the adrenal glands, and deplete nutrients and energy reserves in our bod-ies, which create an overall state of exhaustion. This condition has a negative effect on blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which can cause damage to the heart and blood vessels. The stomach will secrete more acid, and the brain can become starved of glucose, impairing mental ability. This situation impacts on the immune system, which leaves the body susceptible to in-fection and illness such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and cancer (Brewer, 2002:6).

Manifestations of long-term stress:

"Even when the stress factor is absent some of these physical and physiological effects of stress persist unless steps are taken to treat them" (Beware! Stress Could, 2006).

Physical Question "k"
Graph 73

Question: Do you have rapid or irregular breathing?
Control group: Minor decline
Test group: Enormous improvement
Results rating: Absolute outstanding improvement

These symptoms are indicative of the "fight or flight" response. The body goes into the alarm phase where breathing and heart beat speeds up, and more blood is pumped to the brain and muscles. The body’s excretion of stress hormones such as adrenalin increases. The body cannot sustain this high level of activity and after a while it switches to the resistance phase, and tries to return its functions to a normal level. If this second phase continues for too long, in other words, if stress continues over an extended period, the body enters phase three where the vital functions are disturbed and systemic illness (repression of the immune system) may occur (Borrel, 2004:6). The solution is to manage stress in an ongoing manner, incorporating lifestyle changes such as nutrition, exercise and natural therapies.

This result illustrates a 62.5% improvement in the rapid or irregular breathing of the Test group and a -13.3% decline in the Control group. This result is absolutely outstanding since it confirms the quantitative data regarding the impact of therapy on cardiac output as well as heart rate.

What is Workplace Violence?

What is more dangerous is some of the more severe manifestations of stress due to over exposure and no management strategy. In our country today we witness these phenomena continuously. Police officers, and people who on a daily basis are exposed to very stressful events kill themselves and even their families. A study done in the Netherlands on police officers by the International Labour Organization (2006) concluded that "stress possibly had an adverse effect on the development and maintenance of working relationships with the public, and that officers under stress could pose a real threat to their own safety and that of others." "Their stress or inability to cope adequately with stress might be a contributing factor leading them to take such drastic action. Other studies also point to a high risk of police officers taking their own lives. If stress is left untreated, the consequences can be tragic, both for the police officers concerned and for the general public who rely on them for their protection." Finally, this same research document states that stress management programs initiated by employers and government could make a difference in the current situation.

Some people become psychotic and violent; look at the level of road rage as an example (Ka Makaula, 2007). At work it might manifest in the form of an employee damaging company property, or holding fellow employees hostage. David Lewis, as cited by David (2007) says, "Many workers today are sinking under a deluge of data . . . Overwhelmed by information, . . . they become stressed out, reckless, paralysed by analysis." At best an employee might just become so aggravated that he walks out and does not return; at worst the employee might kill a colleague (Lee, 2005). In many cases, employees are even starting to bring litigation against employers claiming workplace bullying (McIlvaine, 1999). Workplace violence is escalating at an alarming rate and HR is forced to implement certain safety procedures to safeguard their employees.

Our argument is that if you manage stress in a controlled ongoing manner in the workplace, implementing HOST (Holistic Occupational Stress Therapy) as a management strategy regarding Workplace Violence, the bottom line of cost to the company can be reduced. Make no mistake; the indirect cost to companies as a result of workplace violence is escalating.

Physical Question "t"
Graph 81

Question: Do you have anger outbursts at home or work?
Control group: Significantly declined
Test group: Enormous improvement
Results rating: Absolute outstanding improvement

"American psychologist Dr. Edward Suarez has found that men and women with high hostility scores show much larger increases in blood pressure and stress hormones when harassed than those with low hostility ratings. Higher than average amounts of adrenalin have also been found in the daytime urine of high hostility people (but not at night, suggesting it is a response to the stresses of the day)... .Specifically, he believes the frequent surges of adrenalin experienced by high hostility people account for their generally higher than average cholesterol levels - because cholesterol also shoots up when we are under stress" (Suarez as cited by Thomas, 2002:47,49).

Continue reading: Blood Pressure and Pulse Profile

Extracts from pilot study report

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