How Daily Stress Effects Your Health

Many of us spend our days in a constant state of stress

. Now this isn't to say we are constantly being faced with life or death threats. It is the day to day stress that we allow to build up. Financial and job stress, family and relationship stress, etc. These daily stressors have negative effects on your emotional and physical well being. Why does our body react the way it does to stress?

Stress is what happens when we are faced with a problem. It goes back to the early days of man when many situations were life or death events. The body would react by pumping adrenaline throughout the body to allow for quick action to fight off the danger or run away from it. Although we rarely need to fight or flight reflex today, our body still reacts in the same way. Our heart beat quickens, our breathing is more rapid and our muscles become tense. We are poised for action, even if no action is needed.

Biologically, the threat alarm in our body does not react differently to different types of threats. In other words, it will react the same to a frightening encounter with an intruder as it will to pressure from your boss or falling behind in an athletic competition. However, the strength of the reaction will vary depending on the degree of the threat.

Once the threat of danger is received by the brain, an entire alarm system is put into play. The brain sends a message to the sympathetic nervous system, which starts pumping stress hormones into the body so we can fight the threat. Adrenaline is the stress hormone that we are most familiar with, but norepinephrine and cortisol are also released as well. Just a note: cortisol is the stress hormone that is associated with hard to lose belly fat. Studies have shown that when we have high amounts of this stress hormone in our body we carry more weight in our abdominal area.

In addition to the stress hormones that are released, the heart rate goes up and blood pressure is increased. As the increased blood flow prepares our large muscles for fighting or running, our blood sugar also increases to boost our energy and speed reaction time.

While all these things are happening to help us to fight, other processes are slowing down or shutting down completely. Our immune system is repressed, the digestive and reproductive systems slow down and growth hormones are shut off. This explains why people who are faced with constant stress may have difficulty losing weight, getting pregnant, or are sick much of the time.

While the stress response that our body has is beneficial when you are faced with a physical threat, it can be extremely harmful to overall health on a daily basis. The extended effects of stress can cause long term health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, digestive problems, etc.

It is important to allow your body to be stress free so it can recover, heal and rebuild. By practicing proven stress management techniques you will be able to lower your stress levels and increase your overall health. It is time to look at the stressors in your life and decide if they are really worth all they put your body through!

How Daily Stress Effects Your Health

By: Cathy H. Jones

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