Stress and Your Body

Wednesday 27 July 2016

No-one avoids stress in life, but stress can affect people in many different ways. Sometimes the smallest things can throw someone overboard, while others are completely unaffected by pressure. This is all generally down to personality and a person's ability to withstand stress and work under pressure. Stress is a horrible thing no matter why or how it is effecting you.

Overall stress has many effects on our bodies, over a short term this is usually harmless, but constant or chronic stress can have huge repercussions on the body and a person's health.

Stress can cause headaches, difficulty sleeping and a feeling of anxiety, worry and depression. This is due to the fluctuating hormones (such as cortisol and adrenaline) in the brain during stress. If the stress is short lived the hormones soon balance, while long term stress causes failure for the central nervous system to return to normal. Stress increases blood circulation, raising blood pressure and constricting blood vessels, over long periods of time, stress can increase the risk of hypertension (High Blood Pressure) and raise the risk of having a stroke or heart attack. In the digestive system, stress causes excess glucose production in the liver, the body can find coping with the excess sugar difficult, placing the person under risk of Type 2 Diabetes. It can also disrupt the way in which food moves through the body, so stress is often linked with constipation and diarrhea, since the 'fight or flight' hormone levels are elavated. Over long periods of time, stress can affect the immune system, as excess hormone production compromises it, leaving a person more susceptible to the flu and other viral infections.

Stress can be triggered by many aspects of our lives and no-one is immune to it, however after reading up on the many repercussions of stress I think it is important to notes the link between stress and health, which goes much deeper than affecting only our mental health.

There are many way to reduce stress and it's so important to find what works for yourself.

Some great ideas are:
Having a bath
Going for a walk, cycle or exercise in general
Reading
Meditation
Having a cup of tea
Listening to music
Taking time for yourself

There are so many way to relax and de-stress, and everyone is different. It's important to gain perspective to how your worries weigh into your life, and remember the things you worry about are usually not even worth over thinking.



 
FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATE BY DESIGNER BLOGS