Everyone knows that job stress has an obvious negative implication on health, specifically, the cardiovascular system. While various studies have been conducted and validated to establish that job strain increases the risk of a first coronary heart disease, little was known about the connection between stressful jobs and recurrent coronary heart disease. Recently, however, scientists have decided to bring their research to the next level by studying nearly a thousand men and women who returned to work after having a heart attack. Observations were made for the first six weeks after their return to their jobs, and the again two years later. Early findings show that the people who return to a chronically stressful job after a heart attack are twice as likely to experience another heart attack than those with stress-free jobs. Job strain, as specifically defined by researchers, involves high psychological demands with low decision control. If the stress of the job doesn’t change upon return to work, there is a much higher risk of having another heart attack or developing angina and coronary heart disease. A heart attack occurs when a blood vessel that supplies blood to the heart becomes blocked. Due to the lack of blood flow, it results in a permanent damage to the heart. Blood vessels are blocked by advancing atherosclerotic plaque lesions, a sudden formation of a blood clot, or from the spasming of a coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart. Many people have the notion that a heart attack is caused by a slow, progressive build-up of plaque. To think that a blood vessel takes a lifetime to become completely clogged is simply not true for most cases of heart attacks. When an unstable, atherosclerotic plaque lesion, filled with cholesterol and fat, suddenly breaks apart, thus forming an open wound within the artery wall, a heart attack occurs. Blood platelets and clotting proteins rush to the wound and form a clot, called a thrombus. In a matter of moments, the clot can enlarge and may cause obstruction of blood flow to the heart with resultant angina (chest pain). If the blood flow becomes completely obstructed, a heart attack ensues.
In addition to the evidence linking workplace stress and heart disease was another study on the occurrence of cardiac events and heart attacks on Monday than any other day of the week. A study carried out by Japan’s Tokyo Women’s Medical University and published in the American Journal of Hypertension showed that many workers suffer a significant increase in blood pressure as they return to the office after the weekend. High blood pressure is associated with a greater risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke, and the results could help to explain why there are more heart attacks on Mondays than at any other time of the week. While workplace stress can have a negative impact on your health, marriage, on the other hand, can be good for your health. However, it is important to be more specific as a bad marriage can increase the risk of heart disease as compared with married couples who are having great relationships.
You don’t have to suffer in silence. In most cases of panic attack, it usually starts with depression. A female reporter in Hong Kong who successfully juggled the demands of writing for publications around the world suddenly suffered panic attack. She often had panic attacks as she was overwhelmed by feelings of isolation, hopelessness, inadequacy and failure. She would always excuse herself and pretended to have urgent private calls to make so that she could get out and calm down.
A cartoonist for a famous Japanese magazines; suddenly hit a dry spell in 1986 and she was afraid to get out of bed in the morning. She stopped eating and lost seven kilos within a few days. She was left without getting any assignments for a month and spent her time lying in bed, smoking and drinking and was overwhelmed with thoughts of dying. Both the female reporter and cartoonist were suffering from clinical depression.
There are millions of people like them and they kept the illness to themselves. In Japan alone there are more than six millions people suffering from depression according to Dr Takahashi Toru of the Toru Clinic in Tokyo. It is estimated that one in 13 people aged 24 to 64 suffered from depression according to a study done by Singapore National Mental Health survey.
We seldom hear about depression just thirty years ago but the world is different now. People were different then, but presently many human beings have lost their value of life. Many have lost their conscience and killing is everywhere. People live in fear from many kinds of threats and even in the comfort of their homes, danger is there. There is no peace even to just go marketing for fresh vegetables. A bomb may explode anytime, anyplace.
Financial security is one of the main causes for depression. Jobless people or those hardly can make end meet, are usually victims of depression which can after some time of suffering start to have panic attacks. Depressive disorders range from dysthymia – low grade, chronic depression – to bipolar disorder, or manic depression, which causes extreme swings between depressive lows and manic high. Depression remains widely misunderstood and sufferers lead a double life. One minute full of confidence and another minute worse than a little mouse when panic attack. Depression is a taboo among Chinese and if people know that you are depressed, they will avoid you.
I should say broken heart is the worst mental blues and almost everyone gets the blues once in a lifetime. Those who have not experience it are lucky or maybe they have never fallen in love before. They will not be able to grasp the anguish depression brings. It’s so emotionally intense that it paralyses you and says one sufferer, “You never know when it will end, the pain is so overwhelming that you want to end it all.”
People will sometimes give advice with the best intentions for broken heart but says Siti Mohammad, a young female accountant who has lived with depression for much of her life: “Sometimes my relatives will tell me to look at the positive side of things. They say, ‘You have to be strong and believe in God.’ They make it sound as if I could just snap out of it. If it was that simple, I wouldn’t be like this.”
Depression is often inadequately treated or not treated at all because the truth of broken heart may not be admitted by the sufferers. For instance, many Malays believe the emotions lie in the liver and will complain about stomach soreness rather than admit to depression. Among the Chinese, the heart is often seen as the source of emotions, so they complain about chest discomfort. Singapore National University’s Kua says these cultural factors lead to misdiagnosis or no diagnosis at all in as many as one-third of cases.
For the elderly, physical ailments can mask symptoms of depression (it is often confused with Alzheimer’s disease), and there is a belief, even in the medical community, that depression is simply a fact of an older person’s life. According to a study conducted in the 1980s by Dr Lee Aik Hoe, president of the Malaysian Mental Health Association, showed that three-quarters of people who had attempted suicide also suffered from depression.
Rose Lee’s depression nearly killed her. As a teenager, she tumbled into a black pit and said, “I was severely depressed – the pain was terrible. It seemed logical to kill myself.” Richard Ng of Kuala Lumpur said he lost his father to suicide. “He displayed signs of depression – being withdrawn and losing his appetite – signs that I recognized but did nothing about, but when he committed suicide, I was shattered.”
The road to recovery is a tough one but it can be treated. If it is not because of broken heart, then the chances of recovery is good with medication. If it is because of broken heart, then there is no medicine that can cure a broken heart. There are many drugs that physicians can prescribe and certain antidepressants really work effectively so as to allow the sufferers to get on with life. But drug may have side effects like insomnia and sexual dysfunction, professional help is advised in such a case to take the right type and also avoid the risk of taking an overdose.
One of the best rescues is interpersonal and cognitive counselling. Therapy can help to change a patient’s thinking and reappraise their external circumstances. Interpersonal therapy focuses on specific-related problems, while cognitive therapy tries to counter the feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness that plague those who are depressed. In Malaysia the “Befrienders” is doing an excellent voluntarily job to make life worth living. The 24-hour helpline, modelled on the Samaritans in the United Kingdom, is one of the oldest services in Asia. It has more than 200 volunteers and fielded 24,000 calls a year.
Suicide is a grave sin according to spiritual teachings in almost every religion. Certain religion says that if a person commits suicide, he will also commit suicide for his next seven future lives. I had a relative who committed suicide many years ago. She was one of the most beautiful women in my hometown and married to one of the richest men there. Very fortunate during her younger days because of her beauty, but when her husband passed away early in life, she was cheated of everything she possessed by a conman who only wanted her properties. Unable to take the pain of her broken heart and loss of all her possessions, she took her life.
The spiritual heart of Asakusa, and for that matter Tokyo, is the impressive Sensoji Buddhist Temple. Built sometime in the 7th century before Tokyo was even Edo, to house the golden statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, which, according to legend was fished out of the nearby Simudagawa, by two local fisherman brothers. Despite their efforts to return Kannon to the river where she was found, the statue kept finding its way back to them. Subsequently a temple was built to house the goddess. Sensoji is Tokyo’s only agreed tourist attraction, and is visited daily by hundreds of tourists and worshipers from Japan and all over the world.
Arriving from Asakusa subway station, Sensoji is entered through Kiminarimon (“Thunder Gate”). A majestic structure that houses two protective deities: Fuijin, the god of wind, on the right, and Raijin, the god of thunder, on the left. These ferocious gods oversee all who enter the temple and keep the grounds safe.
Once inside the gate, you will come to Nakamise-dori. This shopping street, set within the actual temple precinct, has a history all of its own. These stalls and their proprietors are a living part of a centuries old tradition of selling wares to the pilgrims visiting the temple.
In the late 17th century, neighbors of the Sensoji who received and served visitors to the temple, were rewarded by being given a special right to open shops to sell their wares along the approach to the temple.
This continued until 1885, when the Tokyo metropolitan government, having taken control of the land belonging to Sensoji, ordered all Nakamise merchants to leave and in the same year built western style brick shops, leading to the beginning of modern Nakamese.
Today you can find everything from tourist trinkets, such as folding fans, to traditional Japanese clothing including kimonos and yukata, to local snack foods. Stretching out for some 200 meters, Nakamise-dori is the perfect place to while away an hour and pick up a souvenir or two before entering the main ground of the temple.
The main ground itself buzzes with accents from all over the world and the click of cameras. Travelers and locals mix on the temple grounds, uniting in their mission to pay their respects. 100 yen will buy you an omikuji (fortune written on a small piece of paper). You place the money in an honor box and shake a small cylinder containing sticks with numbers written on them. Shake the cylinder until one of the sticks falls out and pull your fortune from a drawer with the corresponding number. If your fortune is bad, tie the paper onto a nearby string so that the wind can disperse the bad luck.
Center stage in the temple forecourt is an incense burner. Here you will usually see a group of visitors fanning smoke from the burning incense over themselves. The incense is believed to have healing powers, and so fanning the smoke over your ailment will help to heal it. If you suffer from headache, fan some of the smoke over your head.
The main temple hall still houses the golden statue of Kannon, a diminutive 6cm tall, and is viewable by the public. Step forward to cast some coins in the offer box, which sits in front of the alter, take a step back, place your hands together, prey and then bow. This is the standard practice of preying at a Buddhist temple.
To the left of the forecourt and forming part of the temple, is the 5 story (53 meter) pagoda. A 1973 reconstruction of the original pagoda built on the same ground. This is the largest pagoda in Tokyo.
Destroyed by earthquakes and World War Two aerial bombings, Sensoji Temple has been rebuilt and reconstructed time and time again. Testament to the significance it holds within the Buddhist community and the general public. A remembrance of centuries old values and traditions that carry on today within Tokyo’s chaotic lifestyle, Sensoji is a steadying reminder that despite warring nations and new technology, some things will always remain.
Mark Eden is a freelance travel photographer and writer, and the founder and director of Expanse Photography, a photographic services company offering fine art, limited edition prints as well as stock and assignment photography and publishing services. Mark can be contacted through the Expanse Photography website http://www.expansephotography.com.
Download this single and Mini Vivas new single ‘I Wish’ by going to www.itunes.com/miniviva now! This is the new video for Mini Viva’s debut single Left My Heart In Tokyo. Directed by Ray Kay (Lady Gaga’s Pokerface, Beyonce’s Freakum Dress) and shot in Los Angeles, the single is released on September 7th through Geffen Records and Xenomania Records. Mini Viva’s debut album will be in stores in November.
