How stress affects your physical health
By Vatika
Photo by cottonbro studio / Pexels
Stress, stress, stress and more stress. We live in a world full of stressors like work, school, friends, family and life. It can leave our minds feeling a little out of balance, but how does this affect our physical health? Can it even affect physical health? The answer is yes. Yes, it can.
Although considered mental, stress can also make a change to your physical health and cause problems there, too. When you are in a stressful situation, your body responds by going into fight or flight mode and pumping adrenaline and cortisol, stress hormones that can help you respond to whatever you may be facing. Stress responses developed early on in humans to keep them safe from dangerous situations in the wild.
There is good stress and bad stress and they can come from internal or external stimuli. Good stress can make sure we get our work deadlines met and pay our bills on time, but bad stress like chronic stress can affect every part of our body in negative ways that can lead to disease and pathologies. Long-term stress can release excess hormones, and neurotransmitters as your body tries to return to homeostasis or balance. But this can also lead to a feedback loop where more stress leads to more stress because more hormones are being released to combat the already existing stress.
The high levels of stress can cause a lower immune response, changes in respiration, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and onset of gastrointestinal problems among many other issues. Some women even have changes to their menstrual cycle that can cause missed periods. Prolonged stress can also cause cloud cognition, leading to changes in judgment calls, impaired decision making and an onset of mental health diseases.
There are obviously times when work, school and life in general might put us in high-stress situations that are out of our control. Even trying to find time to relax can be stressful. So, it can be helpful to try and identify what is causing you the stress. Take some time to take care of yourself, destress and relax. Whatever it is that’s causing you stress is likely not worth your health.
