2025 may be remembered for a new pandemic — worldwide stress induced by Donald Trump.

With his threats to our nation's economy and sovereignty, many of my patients are fearful of the rising cost of food, housing and the other essentials of daily living as well as a radical change in international relations.

Like most family doctors, I'm an expert on stress. I care for over 2,500 patients in my practice. Every day of the week, I receive over 200 tasks related to my patients, including hospital, lab, investigation and specialist reports and requests for prescriptions, forms and other reports. Each task must be reviewed, summarized and filed into patients’ medical records.

Of the three dozen patients I see on clinic days, each may have presented with two or three concerns but some will add several more during their visits. For each problem, I take a complete history, perform an appropriate examination, formulate a differential diagnosis and discuss management options. No wonder family doctors suffer decision fatigue even before tackling two hours of tasks in the evening long after the last patient has left the clinic.

Over the past three months, patients have been reporting anxiety symptoms including insomnia, feeling on edge and overwhelmed, and excessive worry. Many are triggered by Trump’s voice.

What can we do to manage stress in this uncertain time of Trump? How can we prevent post-Trump stress disorder?

In the classic fight-or-flight response, our bodies respond to a threat by releasing cortisol and adrenaline that increase alertness, heart rate, blood pressure and constriction (narrowing) of arteries. This prepares us to fight or run from danger. But a prolonged fight-or-flight response to stress can be harmful by contributing to hypertension (persistent elevation of blood pressure) and stress on the heart.

We often neglect the positive effects of stress though Hans Selye coined the term eustress (in contrast........

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