How Does Stress Affect Health
The subject of stress has become a favorite subject of everyday conversation. It is not unusual to hear ourselves talk with friends, coworkers, and family members about the difficulty we have with managing the stress of everyday living. We talk about being burned out, stressed out, overwhelmed and "losing it." We somehow knows that stress and health are related but we do not seem to know exactly how does stress affect health.
To better understand this relationship and the effects of stress on the body, lets get into some basic knowledge of the physiological functions within our body that deals with stress.
What happens in your body when you are exposed to stress?
When we experience stress, Cortisol, the so-called stress hormone within our body will be increased. This is also the hormone that is responsible for regulating body functions like proper glucoses metabolism, regulation of blood pressure, insulin level for blood sugar maintenance, proper immune function and the inflammatory response of the body.
A small increase in cotisol is good in that it brings about some positive reactions like
- A quick burst of energy for survival reasons
- Heightened memory functions
- A burst of increased immunity
- Lower sensitivity to pain
- Helps maintain homeostasis in the body.
While it is good to have these short-term responses to stress, the level of cortisol must be brought back to normal level for our body to function properly. To bring the level of stress hormone back to normal level, our body’s relaxation response has to be activated. This is where you are often told to learn how to relax! When we relax, the level of stress hormone will be gradually brought back to normal level and the effect that were brought about by the stress will be slowly diminishing.
Unfortunately, in our current high-stress culture, it is often that our body’s relaxation response is not given a chance to be fully functional. This has led to persistently elevated levels of stress hormone in our body producing what we call chronic stress. It is in this stage of stress that you begin to see your overall health being affected. It also results in the onset of many serious illness or diseases. Some stress related health problems that are commonly reported include:
- high blood pressure
- heart disease
- stroke
- cancer
- depression
- obesity
- diabetes
- abusive behavior
- memory loss
It has also been found that stress hormone affects some more than others. Some people can tolerate small amount of stress before they have problems i.e. such people have a high tolerance level for stress. On the hand, some people might be adversely affected by what most would view as just minor stress.
Studies have also found a co-relation between genetic predisposition that could make some individuals more susceptible to stress
A person's gender may also matter. Males and females have both differing level of tolerance to stress.
Whatever it is, no matter how does stress affect health, we should always try to make stress to our advantage. Stress is like body temperature: if it's too low or too high, you can't survive, but the right balance can keep you going strong. It makes sense to use stress energy positively, to meet life's challenges, experiences, and goals. Stress is not all bad. In fact, positive stress can make life both rich and satisfying.
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