Public Enemy Number 1--stress

It can slowly drain the life force from your body over time. Or kill swiftly without warning. But you will never find it on a medical chart or see it listed on a death certificate. It's called stress. It exacts a tremendous toll on our lives. It saps our strength, robs our youth and makes us old before our time. We encounter it day in and day out, yet do little, if anything about it. It's no wonder. In today's 'pressure cooker society', the average lunch hour lasts about 11 minutes. Dinner is often consumed in less than 6 minutes (usually seated in front of the television). The average workday can last 10 hours or more. We seem to be living in a society where there's virtually no time for quality time. Strictly speaking, stress itself is not among the direct causes of ageing, yet it plays an extremely important role in the ageing process. It is a powerful force that serves as a catalyst in every known mechanism that causes us to age. Readers might be surprised to find out that this book has as much to do with ageing, life extension and specific measures we can take to postpone the inevitable as it does with stress. The fact is that stress and ageing are inextricably bound together.