Surprising Ways In Which Stress Can Affect Your Health

Stress can affect our health in many ways. It can raise the blood pressure, increase cravings, fat storage, etc. Read to know how stress affects health.

By Sravia Sivaram

Thursday, May 25, 2017, 16:46

Psychological stress can affect our health in several ways. Stress can manifest in many ways, whether it may be due to a major life event like divorce or job loss, or other work-related factors. It may also occur due to short-term frustration like traffic jam.

There are several ways in which stress can affect our bodies. Your nagging headache, frequent insomnia or decreased productivity at work might actually be the after-effects of stress.

Before it's too late to realize how stress can affect your health, it's high time you realized the ways in which stress can affect your health.

Stress symptoms can affect the body, thoughts, feelings as well as the behaviour. If you're able to recognize the common symptoms of stress, you'll be able to manage them better.

When stress is left unchecked, it can lead to many health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Some of the common effects of stress on the body can be headache, chest pain, muscle tension, fatigue, change in sex drive and stomach problems.

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In this article, you'll come to know how stress affects health. So, continue reading in order to know the effects that stress can have on health.

1. Blood Pressure:

Stress can churn out hormones like cortisol that can raise the blood pressure levels. If this is sustained for days, it can lead to serious health complications as well. Stressful situations can raise your blood pressure level temporarily, by constricting the blood vessels and speeding up the heart rate.

2. Cravings:

Cortisol, a hormone that is released during the time of stress, increases the craving for sugar and fat. If you already have a high body mass index, then you're more susceptible to it.

The only way to protect yourself from this is to know about the possible triggers (of stress) and stock up on healthy snacks.

3. Fat Storage:

Stress is correlated to weight gain. The stress hormone cortisol may increase the amount of fat tissue your body hangs onto and also enlarges the size of the fat cells.

Higher levels of cortisol is linked with more abdominal fat. This will let you know how stress affects health.

4. Heart:

People who have more stressful jobs are likely to have a first heart attack than people with less job-related stress. You need to focus more on reducing the stress in your life in order to lead a heart-healthy lifestyle. This is also mentioned in the study 'Type D Personality: The Heart, Stress And Cortisol'.

5. Insomnia:

Insomnia can cause hyperarousal, a state in which people just don't feel sleepy. Long-term exposure to chronic stress can disrupt the sleep and contribute to sleeping disorders.

Trying yoga and other stress-busting activities during the day will help in a big way.

6. Headaches:

Chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol can cause vascular changes that can leave you with a tension headache or migraine. Stress can also make your muscles tense, which can make your migraine pain worse. This is also confirmed in the study 'Stress, Anxiety, Depression And Migraine'.

7. Memory:

Too much of stress hormone cortisol can interfere with the brain's ability to form new memories. During stress, the hormone interferes with neurotransmitters, the chemicals which the brain use to communicate with each other.

This will make it difficult to think straight or find relief from stress.

8. Can Affect Hair Texture:

Severe stress can actually affect your hair texture. Stress is known to play a role in triggering hair loss in the autoimmune condition called alopecia areata.

9. Pregnancy:

Severe stress can increase the chance of premature labour. High levels of stress can also affect the developing foetal brain. Prenatal yoga and stress-reduction techniques are advised during such situations. This is one of the top causes and effects of stress.

10. Blood Sugar:

Stress can raise the blood sugar levels. If you already have type 2 diabetes, then you'll find that your blood sugar is higher when you're under stress.

Tweaking your eating habits, exercising often, changing your medication will help to keep it under control. This is one of the top effects of stress on the health.

11. Digestion:

Stress can worsen heart burn, stomach cramping and diarrhoea. Further, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is also fueled by stress.

12. Brain Tissue:

Major stresses can reduce the amount of tissue in the regions of the brain that regulates emotion and self control. This damage can make it difficult to deal with future stresses even harder.

This can be reversed with stress management techniques.

13. Skin:

Acne sufferers can attribute it to stress. Stress can increase the occurrence of zits and outbreaks. An increase in the male hormone called androgens is the main culprit in the case of women.