How does stress affect health?
What is stress?
Stress is basically anything that causes you physical or mental strain. The amount of stress that is generated by any condition also depends on how you react to that situation.
Not all stress is bad. In fact every human being needs a little stress in their lives to stimulate them to e.g. meet a deadline. Without a little stress you’d go out of your mind with boredom. The problem comes when you have too much stress bombarding you. The key to stress management is achieving a balance.
How does stress affect health?
Remember that stress affects your health negatively if it is continuous over a long period of time (i.e. chronic). Almost half of all adults suffer from effects of prolonged stress.
These range from mild to severe.
Side effects of stress include:
- sleeplessness
- tiredness
- change in appetite and gastrointestinal disturbances
- irritability
- headaches and memory loss
- lowered sex drive
- shallow breathing
- high blood pressure
- severe emotional disturbances
Many major illnesses like diabetes, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, heart disease and skin disorders have stress as a major contributing factor.
Sometimes the stressed out body starts attacking itself contributing to disorders like multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
The symptoms of stress are brought about by 2 main hormones in the body
- cortisol and
- adrenaline
These bring about what is known as the ‘flight or fight’ response which helps us survive when faced with danger.
Effects of cortisol and adrenaline
- The body uses up stored nutrients faster
- The body cannot absorb nutrients from the food you eat so there is a shortage of vitamins necessary for proper functioning of the body especially the nervous system.
- The body diverts from producing progesterone and other sex hormones to producing cortisol. This explains why you feel tired and uninterested in sex when you’re under stress.
