Dr. Tara Narula

In the last month, I had three female patients who are married to male patients of mine talk to me about the stress that they are having because they're caregiving for their husbands, their kids,

and everyone else in their life.

I had one whose husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's and she's trying to manage his failing health and dementia that's developing.

Another one whose husband had a stroke is no longer who he was.

And the third one was a woman who said her husband had his own mental health issues the last six months.

And so all three of these women were talking to me about the massive stress that they were facing being caregivers.

And we talked about how to manage that stress and how to handle that stress and the fact that they needed support and help in order to continue to be caregivers to their spouses, but also to protect their own health.

Because you're so overpowered and overwhelmed by the care and love and empathy and responsibility that you feel for another human being.

And so that's an amazing thing, right?

To have so much love for someone that you're giving up everything, but you can't, you know, we have to take care of ourselves in order to be able to be there for someone else.

You have to.

Why?

Because it is critical to your survival and it's going to be critical to the survival of the person that you're caring for.

Because if you decompensate, if your health declines, it's game over, right?

And so again, I think people just think of stress as this invisible force that we don't really understand.

But Mel, I mean, I will tell you from a cardiovascular perspective, a whole cascade of events happens inside your body

particularly in your cardiovascular system, which are all negative.

And cardiovascular disease is already the leading cause of death for men and women.

And I'm telling you, I'm seeing it every day in my exam rooms.

I'm hearing it.