The True "Toll" Trials Take on Our Health by Chris White

Here’s an interesting piece of news: losing your job may actually improve your health.  A study produced by University of North Carolina analyzed 14 years of statistics from the Center for Disease Control and found that when people face hard economic times, they tend to live healthier lifestyles.  The findings were that the jobless were more likely to exercise, eat a healthy diet, and lose weight.  The statistics also revealed that for every one-point rise in the national unemployment rate, the national death rate dropped by a half-percent.  The study noted several reasons for this which included that the unemployed had the extra time to take care of themselves and that reduced income makes it harder to finance habits like smoking.  Another position taken from the study is that indulging in smoking, fast-food, alcohol, and inactivity may simply be self-medicating behaviors related to working a stressful job.  The uncertainty of a job loss is normally considered quite stressful and for some, idleness turns quickly to depression which is a health issue with many other consequences.  But on the other hand this study seems to bear out another truth: we can be so busy and so successful that we neglect other aspects of our lives such as body-care and good health habits. 

Some great advice on Stress Management from the Mayo Clinic 

 From my spiritual perspective I see new meaning in the words of St. James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  In God’s economy sometimes a loss can truly be turned to a gain and we can gain the world and find it a true loss.  Think about it and trust Him with your life.  Your Creator always knows what’s best for his people.

36 ideas for Christians on "de-stressing" your life