The Effects Stress Has on Your Body

The Effects Stress Has on Your Body Related Information:

Stress is something that most of us have suffered from at some point during our lives, whether it is due to exams as a teenager, love-life as a twenty-something, family, bereavement, work, money…the list goes on. There are so many possible causes of stress that it is inevitably going to affect us at some point.

The worst thing about stress is that it is not only our mental well being that suffers. Stress can have an affect on our physical well being as well, and sometimes this effect can be dramatic. In fact, many doctors are concerned that a great proportion of the patients they see each day suffer from physiological problems that stem from stress.

Stress can start of as quite minor, and as such many people think that it will simply go away and they don’t need to bother trying to resolve the problem that is causing it, otherwise known as the stressor. However, without the removal or rectification of the stressor, the stress simply starts to build and symptoms start to become evident. It can begin with sleepless nights and headaches, and could end in a nervous breakdown or a heart attack.

Stress can show itself in many ways. Some common symptoms include headaches, backache, stomach cramps, hot and cold flushes, chest pains, muscle pains, the onset of skin problems, and diarrhoea. However, stress can cause our behaviour to change as well, which brings with it a whole string of other related problems.

For example, stress can bring about a lack of appetite, and if this goes on long term it can result in an eating disorder, malnutrition or obesity. Stress can result in sleepless nights, which can make us feel sluggish, more prone to illness and generally tires and unwell. Stress can also lead to further emotional and mental disorders such as depression, and left untreated could even lead to suicidal tendencies.

High blood pressure is another common symptom of stress, and also comes with relates health issues that can result from this hypertension. Your immune system will also take a battering and you could find yourself prone to continual colds, infections and other ailments. The irony is that all of the physical symptoms that stem from stress have one thing in common – they can make us feel even more stressed, and as we get more stressed the physiological effects get worse. So, it becomes almost like a circle of doom, where stress makes our body suffer and our suffering body makes us stressed.

The way we try and deal with stress can also take its toll on our bodies. Many people resort to drink, smoking, drugs and binge eating, which does absolutely nothing to relieve the stress but makes a splendid job of giving us a range of new problems such as obesity, respiratory problems, cancer, liver problems, and addictions. And what do we do when this happens? We get more stressed.

The right thing to do when we are feeling stressed is devise a constructive plan. The effects of alcohol and comfort eating will last a few hours at the most. However, a routine of relaxation, exercise, healthy diet, rest and quality time will serve to quickly combat stress and reduce the levels of stress by a surprising amount. This in turn will prevent the onset of physiological problems that result from stress.

Unless we learn to cope with stress and deal with it appropriately, we risk making the problem far worse, even to the point of developing chronic stress. It is important that we learn how to prevent stress, how to deal with the onset of stress and how to relieve existing stress. If not, we run the risk of posing a serious health risk both to our physical and mental well being.