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BY BRENNA HOLLAND Since 2007, the APA has been tracking the trend of stress in America and, while the results for 2019 have yet to be revealed, the annual studies stretching back over the last decade paint a very clear picture. Americans are stressed at work and at home, on their phones and at the ballot box. One notable finding in the APA's 2018 study was the level of stress among Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2015). 'Gen Z' high school and college kids report increased rates of stress and are significantly more likely to struggle with mental health than previous generations. Twenty-seven percent of Gen Zers report their mental health as fair or poor, compared to 15 percent among millennials, 13 percent among Gen Xers and 7 percent among baby boomers. You don't have to be an armchair psychologist to notice the trend here. Based on these findings, one might draw the conclusion that we are living in the most stressful times ever, but surely somewhere there is a gang of historians ready to debunk that theory. In this ever-changing world, it is also possible that we simply lack the tools to understand and manage stress, and have failed to cultivate those tools for the next generation. Tracy Scheller, MD, was 12 years into her career in obstetrics and gynecology when she realized she needed to make a change. e life of an obstetrician is not just stressful, it's entirely unpredictable; long nights, erratic work hours, and constantly being on call in case a patient goes into labor or has a complication are all natural characteristics of the job. "I was beginning to notice a lot of my patients had concerns about weight and were getting conflicting information about nutrition from other sources. I ended up dialing back my obstetrics work and going back to school to get my Master's in Nutrition from Columbia University," Dr. Scheller said. Her work in nutritional counseling is what initially got Dr. Scheller involved with the Graf Center for Integrative Medicine at Englewood Health, at first as a part of their advisory board and ultimately as Medical Director. "e mission of the Graf Center is to represent a new medical paradigm dedicated to Americans are stressed out. You'd have to be hanging out in a lot of caves or under a lot of rocks in order to miss this fact. What's to blame, you ask? Could be a lot of things: the 24-hour news cycle, the pressures of social media, growing political unrest and the like. You can take your pick, but if you ask the American Psy- chological Association, they'd choose 'D - all of the above.' V U E N J . C O M 160

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