Q: My husband is constantly under stress. He is a farmer, aged 54 years. We run a fairly large operation, mostly grain with a few head of cattle. We don’t have a lot of financial worries like some farmers because the farm is paid for. I am concerned that his health will suffer as heart attacks and strokes run in the family. How can he learn to be less stressed out?
A: Farming has always been known as a stressful occupation. It also ranks with mining and fishing as one of the most dangerous. You are correct to be concerned about your husband’s risk of cardiovascular diseases, since farmers also have one of the highest death rates due to heart and artery disease, hypertension and some psychiatric disorders.
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Changes have made farming less of a physical challenge and more of a mental one. Farmers these days need to be computer literate and be able to handle the complexities of such things as the grain futures markets. They are now responsible for much larger amounts of money.
Machines are larger and more complex with electronic controls. When one of them breaks down, they are more difficult and expensive to fix, and the loss of seeding or harvesting time during the repair may cause the farmer to lose a valuable window of
opportunity in dealing with weather conditions. Of course, unpredictable weather and unexpected machinery breakdowns have always been causes of stress for farmers. Now it just happens on a bigger scale.
Social factors are also a source of stress. At one time, large and tight knit families helped to ease social isolation. Nowadays, farmers have smaller families and often the adult children are not interested in helping their parents run the farm. As farms get larger and farther apart, neighbours are not close at hand. Even churches are not as supportive as they used to be, with many ministers working “nine to five” hours, and hardly ever making house calls.
There are local agricultural groups and sports such as curling, but the highly stressed farmer may not find time to participate.
A Welsh study that surveyed a group of farmers attending a major agricultural show found that finances, lack of time and
government policies ranked as the highest sources of stress. A North Carolina study showed that uncontrollable events were the highest contributors to stress.
Stress causes the heart to beat faster, the blood pressure to rise and the muscles to tighten. Over time, this can lead to chronic physical diseases.
Although it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks, it is not impossible for your husband to make some changes. It can help if he takes a few moments now and then to breathe deeply and relax. Make sure he has an adequate support network of family, friends and neighbours, and try to get him to communicate with them as much as possible. Sharing a problem may not fix it, but it does help mentally.
It also helps to understand that we do not have the power to control many things in our lives, so worrying about them will not make any difference.
Clare Rowson is a retired medical doctor with a practice near Belleville, Ont. Her columns are intended for general information only. Individuals are encouraged to also seek the advice of their own doctor regarding medical questions and treatments.
