If you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you might be worried about taking medication to bring your numbers down. Chronic（慢性的） stress may contribute to high blood pressure. More research is needed to determine the effects of chronic stress on blood pressure. Occasional stress also can contribute to high blood pressure if you react to stress by eating unhealthy food, drinking alcohol or smoking.

    Take some time to think about what causes you to feel stressed, such as work, family, finances or illness. Once you know what's causing your stress, consider how you can rid or reduce stress. If you can't rid all of your stressors, you can at least handle them in a healthier way. Try to:

    Change your expectations. For example, plan your day and focus on your strengths. Avoid trying to do too much and learn to say no. Understand there are some things you can't change or control, but you can focus on how you react to them.

    Focus on issues you can control and make plans to solve them. If you are having an issue at work, try talking to your manager. If you are having a conflict with your kids or spouse, take steps to resolve it.

    Avoid stress triggers（诱因）. Try to avoid triggers when you can. For example, if rush-hour traffic on the way to work causes stress, try leaving earlier in the morning, or take public transportation. Avoid people who cause you stress if possible.

    Make time to relax and to do activities you enjoy. Take time each day to sit quietly and breathe deeply. Make time for enjoyable activities or hobbies in your schedule, such as taking a walk, cooking or volunteering.

    Practice gratitude. Expressing gratitude to others can help reduce your stress.

    If you successfully control your blood pressure with reducing stress, you might avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication.

    CHICAGO(Reuters)－Smoking not only can wrinkle (皱纹) the face and turn it yellow—it can do the same to the whole body, researchers reported on Monday.

    The study, published in the Archives of Dermatology, shows that smoking affects the skin all over the body－even skin protected from the sun.

    "We examined non-facial skin that was protected from the sun, and found that the total number of packs of cigarette smoked per day and the total years a person has smoked were linked with the amount of skin damage a person experienced," Dr. Yolanda, who led the study, said in a statement.

    "In participants older than 65 years, smokers had significantly more wrinkling than nonsmokers. Similar findings were seen in participants aged 45 to 65 years." Yolanda's team added in their report.

    The researchers tested 82 people, smokers and nonsmokers, taking pictures of the inner right arms. They ranged, in age from 22 to 91 and half were smokers. Independent judges decided how wrinkled each person's skin was.

    When skin is exposed to sunlight, especially the face, it becomes coarse(粗糙的), wrinkled and discolored with a pale yellow color, Yolanda's team wrote.

    Several previous studies have found that cigarette smoking led to premature(过早的)skin aging as measured by facial wrinkles, the study said, but little has been done to measure the aging of skin not exposed to light.

    The previous research has found that cigarette smoke, among other things, causes blood vessels(血管)beneath the skin to constrict(紧缩), reducing blood supply to the skin.

    Smoking can also damage the connective tissue(组织)that supports both die skin and the internal organs (器官).

    Recently, the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED, added about 1,000 words and new definitions to its website. The changes are to help users understand a mix of terms, some dating back many centuries. The additions include words such as "brencheese", "deathshildy" and "hip-pop".

    The new entries are part of the company's update to oed.com, its searchable online dictionary for paid members. The OED makes changes to the website four times each year. But the latest print version has been in process since the year 2000, and may not be ready for 10 more years. That information comes from Katherine Connor Martin, who heads the company's dictionary operations in the United States.

    Usually, the OED watches usage of a word for at least 10 years before deciding whether to add a new entry, new definition or word related to an existing entry, she said. This general rule, however, is sometimes not followed. That is what happened with "tweet", a word that the OED added far before the 10-year mark. Other times, the company adds words that are very old, but were not included in the dictionary in the past.

    “It's funny because we talk about new words, but many of the words we add are already obsolete. It's just that they were never in the dictionary before," Martin told the Associated Press.

    That is the reality, she said, of a historical dictionary trying to put more than 1,000 years of English into books that already have over 855,000 entries. So, you get "brencheese", a rarely used term for when bread and cheese are eaten together. The word dates back to the year 1665. The word "deathshildy" is from Old English. It means someone who is guilty of a serious crime and condemned to death.

    The website defines the term "hip-pop" for music that combines parts of hip-hop and popular music. The OED discovered the term “hip-hip pop” was used in a 1985 story from a Pennsylvania newspaper. It noted that the term "hip-pop" appeared in a 1991 U. S. newspaper report about the rap artist M.C. Hammer.

    The website has added several other terms related to modern culture. They include three popular terms: "binge-watching", "spoiler alert" and "microaggression".

    Here are a few other new entries if you long to read on.

    The first day my new teacher walked into our school in Spanish Harlem, I burst out laughing. Ron Clark was this young white guy from North Carolina who talked with a funny Southern accent(口音). He said he used to be a singing waiter. I thought, who is this guy? He's a complete joke.

    It was 1999 and I was in the fifth grade at New York City's P.S. 83. I guessed I'd spend most of the year in the headmaster's office. I'd always been a troublemaker. I'd get shouted at, and then the teachers would give up on me. I thought that's what would happen with Ron Clark.

    I was wrong. That first week, I kept laughing at him. He pulled me out to the hallway and said I'd better shape up(表现好). "Tamara," he said, "you're a smart kid. You can do better."

    He told me I was a natural leader and that I'd go far in life if I started studying hard. I was mad at first, but then something happened: I began to respect him. There were 29 students in our class, and it didn't take long for us to realize that Ron Clark was no ordinary teacher.

    Like most teachers, he had lots of rules: Treat each other like family. Don't cut in line. But the real difference was how concerned he was. Mr. Clark ate with us in the lunchroom instead of going to the teachers' day-room. At first, my friends and I were thinking. What is he doing?

    He asked us what was going on in our lives. Between classes, he came outside with us, and we taught him how to jump rope. When it snowed, Mr. Clark, who'd never seen snow before, threw us with snowballs, and we threw him back.

    Before coming to P.S. 83, he taught at Snowden Elementary in his hometown, Belhaven, North Carolina. His parents were DJs(流行音乐节目主持人)at dance clubs, so he grew up with music and energy. He wanted a life of adventure, he told me, but his mom encouraged him to ask for a position at Snowden when one of the teachers passed away. Mr. Clark ended up loving it. He came to Harlem because he'd seen a TV show about our troubled schools and the lack of qualified teachers. He wanted a challenge. Boy, did he get one.

    We don't know how different our future will be in the future. We can only try to imagine it.

    At first we think about human relationship. In the year 2050, we will use computers almost every day. We will be making new friends through the Internet—even our husbands or wives will be met in this way. It will be much faster and easier for us. On the other hand, our relationships with people won't be as important as they are today—we will feel a little lonely.

    Computers will also help us in many other activities in 2050.For example, they will be used by the children at school to make their learning easier. In addition, there will be much more other machines which will play a similar role as computers, like robots which will do the housework for us.

    Spending holidays will also be completely different. Traveling to other planets or to the moon will be available for everyone. Means of transport will, of course, change, too. We will be using solar­powered cars, which will be much more environmentally friendly.

    We could expect that the faster technological progress would lead to a more polluted environment. But it isn't true. We will pay more attention to protecting the environment. And, scientists will probably find cures for many dangerous diseases, like cancer or AIDS. Therefore, our surroundings as well as health will be in better condition.

    Although we can't predict the exact changes which will be made in the world, we often think about them. We worry about our and our children's future; we have expectations, hopes as well as fears. But I think we should be rather optimistic about our future. We should be happy and believe good things will happen.

    Runners never forget crossing the finishing line at their first marathon, and that will be especially true for Mike Kohler. When Kohler crossed the starting line in Fargo last Saturday, he thought he was going to run 13.1 miles, his first half marathon. Six hours later, he had "mistakenly” completed his first full marathon, 26.2 miles.

    Kohler, a 26-year-old plumber (水管工) who now lives in West Fargo, had lined up for the half marathon that he hoped to complete in 150 minutes. He didn't realize he was in a starting fence with the full marathoners. Several miles later, Kohler began to realize he was on the course for the full marathon. "The 8-mile mark was when I figured out that I had made a mistake," he said. "Between then and 13.1, I debated with myself about what I should do."

    At some point — he doesn't remember when — he doubled down on the distance. "After I decided I was going to keep going, the thought of quitting didn't come back. Run, walk, or crawl, I wanted to finish," he said.

    Until Saturday, Kohler's longest race was a 10-kilometer run, just over 6 miles. Even the most casual marathoners do a training run of 18 miles before the race. From his experience, he said he learned one thing: sometimes people can do more than they think they can.

    After his long race, he went right back to work, put in a 10-hour day and then boarded a flight to Scotland for a vacation. "I was pretty sore, but I found the more I kept moving, the less sore I was, so I tried my best to go about life normally — minus running,” Kohler said from Glasgow. "I needed a break from that for a bit."

    Not for too long, though. He's already considering the Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon in October.