Have you ever had one of those
experiences where you were about to give a speech only to find
that you need to go to the bathroom? Instead of doing the thing
you were very nervous about, you end up with diarrhea and
painful cramping. That is only of the many ways that stress can
cause health problems. How exactly does stress affect your
health and how severe are its effects?
Stress can affect your health in
many ways, more ways that you thought possible. Some people
experience benign symptoms such as slight stomachaches, while
others are gripped by heart attacks and strokes. All of them
avoidable and all of them stress related. But, how does stress
really affect your health? What is it about it that makes you
binge eat or loose hours of sleep? Continue reading to find out.
The effect of stress on the
body depends on the type of bodily system involved. The
digestive and cardiovascular systems are usually the most
affected by stress. Chances are, most of your stress related
symptoms are digestive and cardiovascular in origin. How exactly
does stress affect you health in terms of those two? We'll find
out later. Stress can also affect your immune system as well as
your sleep pattern. What about those, how does stress affect
your health in those terms? Read on.
The digestive system is very
vulnerable to stress hormones. Those hormones can cause your
bowel movement to speed up or slow down. It can decrease or
increase the acidity of your gastric juices. Decrease the speed
and you get constipation. Increase it and you will be experience
loose bowels and cramping. Decrease the acidity of your stomach
and you get indigestion, increase it and you will suffer from
heartburn.
How does stress affect your
cardiovascular health? The cardiovascular system is perhaps the
most volatile system affected by stress. Here, stress hormones
can increase your heart rate and spike your blood pressure.
Those two symptoms are very degenerative and may later on give
you a heart attack or a stroke.
As mentioned, stress also
affects your immune system and sleep pattern. So, how does
stress affect your health in those terms, you ask? Well, stress
is a big burden on your body. Your brain will be on hyper-drive
trying to find out what is causing it and how it can be
remedied. As a result, other bodily functions are given less
priority. One of these systems is the immune system and if your
body can't fight off harmful bacteria and viruses. Then you are
susceptible to infection.
The remaining question is how
does stress affect your health in terms of sleeping patterns?
Well, when you are stressed out, you will find that you can't go
to sleep as quickly as you would like to. Your mind keeps
working even if you are telling it to rest. As a result, you end
up loosing precious hours of sleep.
