Stress Less in 7 Steps

When she was 29, Russell had a demanding job working for a start-up nonprofit organization in Sacramento. "I did everything, from training volunteers to public relations and marketing." Then the unthinkable happened: her younger sister, Liz, just 26 years old, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. At the same time, the nonprofit Russell worked for began to sink. "It made what was going on with my sister so much worse," she recalls.

Although she had not been much of an athlete in her teen years, Russell had taken up running after college and ran in a marathon the year before her sister's diagnosis. After her employer folded, Russell put off looking for another job so she could help with her sister's care. She credits regular running (about 25 miles per week when she's not training for a marathon) with reducing the ongoing stress she was experiencing. "It helped keep me focused and enabled me to better support my sister," she says.

Repetitive exercise, such as running, brings forth the stress-busting "relaxation response," according to research conducted by Herbert Benson, MD, of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Benson and his colleagues found that the relaxation response changes the way your body and brain react to stress. Put simply, you slow your metabolism, heart rate and breathing; lower your blood pressure; and reduce muscle tension. Recent research shows that the relaxation response can change gene expression for long-term benefits.

That process worked for Russell as she coped with her sister's illness and death, the loss of two other young family members and separation from her brother, who enlisted and went to war. "When I run, I feel things melt away," she says. "It gives you energy you didn't have." Running also sparked an idea for a business that Russell, now 33, created in her sister's memory. Called Uptown Liz (www.uptownliz.com), the shopping Web site refers customers to products that benefit charitable causes.

Stress-busters that work

Don't worry—you can get good stress relief from exercise without running a marathon. "There's tons of research on this," says Dr. Molitor. "Physical exercise of a very moderate amount, two times a week or more, is the best thing you can do to cope with chronic stress."