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Saturday, May 11, 2002

By Deborah Mendenhall, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

On their way to Pittsburgh, a contingent of Israeli women had an experience that starkly emphasized the difference that living in a war zone makes in the lives of everyday people.

During a brief layover in Baltimore on Wednesday, the women went shopping. As they entered a mall, they automatically opened their handbags and scanned the crowd for the armed guard that they expected would search them for explosives.

And then it dawned on them: Shoppers in the United States aren't routinely frisked before they part with their money.

That slice of life illustrated the more subtle accommodations they've become used to because they live in a country under constant threat of violence.

Suicide bombers have blown themselves up and killed bystanders recently in Israeli stores, restaurants, buses and religious ceremonies.

"The hardest thing of all is this war has no borders and no boundaries. There is no front line, and you never know where an attack will be coming from," said Tammy Kenton, executive director of the Weiner/NA'AMAT Women's Health Center in Karmiel, Israel.

"This is the most stressful thing. We are all soldiers in something that we don't quite know how to cope with."

The 13 Israeli women traveled from Karmiel/Misgav in northern Israel to run in the Susan G. Komen 2002 Race for The Cure tomorrow with 400 members of Pittsburgh's Jewish community.

Relationships between the two cities formed three years ago through Partnership 2000, a United Jewish Federation program that links Jewish communities throughout the world with Israeli cities to foster personal relationships and economic and social partnerships.

Hoping the women could learn ways to deal with the stress in their daily lives, Kenton requested a meeting with stress expert Dr. Bruce Rabin, medical director of UPMC's Health Enhancement Program.

Before his presentation at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill yesterday, the women talked about the stress that living with ongoing terrorism has on their lives.

Every woman either had lost someone in terrorist attacks, or knew someone who had.

Many people have become obsessed with the news, abandoning their normal routines to watch TV for hours. By watching the same terrorist attacks over again, they recreate the terror, Kenton said.

Parents arm children with cell phones and instruct them to check in regularly, sometimes as frequently as every half hour.

Senior high boys know that after graduation, they will be going into military service, and it shows on their faces, added another member of the group, Rachela Rosenthal.

Because suicide bombers have starting dressing as Israeli soldiers, pregnant women and college students with backpacks, they are becoming harder to detect, Rosenthal said.

And yet, the women said they also are concerned about their Israeli Arab neighbors who live in small communities around their city and whose cars are searched more thoroughly and longer than theirs are at the same checkpoints.

"They are our neighbors and when this is over, we will still live together," said Marcie Lang, a Karmiel resident. "The [Arab] guy whose shop I've gone into before, who has come into our town, I'm still going to see him."

"This is a tragedy that is affecting all of us and all the people," agreed Kenton. "At the end of the day, we all live in the same region and we have to get along together. We can't harbor hatred or anger and we must keep our humanity. Otherwise, the terrorists have won."

Doctors at the Women's Clinic Kenton supervises are seeing increases in stress-related conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and eating disorders.

That came as no surprise to Rabin, who told the women that prolonged stress is harmful to physical and mental health.

Stress changes the way the immune system works, which makes people more susceptible to a variety of problems ranging from colds to multiple sclerosis and cancer, he said.

It also releases hormones in the blood that cause racing hearts and sweating. Inside the body, white cells called monocytes begin to infiltrate blood vessels in the heart and attract dangerous cholesterol.

"That is why people who have a lot of stress for a long time have more heart disease," he said.

"Coping with stress is important. You cannot make the stress in your life go away, but what you can do is to change how your brain responds to it."

Certain techniques and attitudes can prevent these elevated hormone levels, he said. People who are socially outgoing, generally optimistic, have a sense of humor, are physically active, and are religious or spiritual fare far better under stress.

Taking deep breaths will enable the body to get more air and increase oxygen in the blood stream, also reducing the effects of stress, as will meditating for 15 minutes a day, he said.