the negative impact stress HAS ON YOUR HEALTH

For immediate, short-term situations, the fight or flight response of stress prepares you to  cope with potentially serious situations. Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones that increase your heart and breathing rates and ready your muscles to respond.

Yet if your stress response doesn’t stop firing, and these stress levels stay elevated far longer than is necessary for survival, it can take a toll on your health. 

Your central nervous system, via the hypothalamus releases hormones when you encounter an acute stressful event, this stimulates your adrenal glands to produce hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline. This is the fight or flight response. This is ultimately to be a protective mechanism, which leads to a diversion of blood flow in a emergency, to areas of your body that needs oxygen the most. When the acute stressful event passes, the cycle stops and your body and blood flow return to normal. However, if the stressor continues the fight or flight response in your body will persist. These stress hormones then continue to circulate at higher levels than your body was designed to tolerate ( cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline).

Your Heart and your Lungs:

Stress hormones affect your respiratory and cardiovascular systems. During the stress response, you breathe faster in an effort to quickly distribute oxygen-rich blood to your body.

Under stress, your heart also pumps faster. Stress hormones cause your blood vessels to constrict and divert more oxygen to your muscles so you’ll have more strength to take action. But this also raises your blood pressure.

However prolonged or frequent  stress will make your heart work too hard for too long

-your blood pressure rises, so do your risks for having a stroke or a heart attack.

Your Digestive system

Under stress, your liver produces extra blood sugar to give you a boost of energy. If you’re under chronic stress, your body may not be able to keep up with this extra glucose surge. Chronic stress may increase your risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes 

The rush of hormones, (Fight or Flight response) that leads to rapid breathing, and increased heart rate, can also upset your digestive system leading to heartburn or acid reflux, exacerbate ulcers and it may also affect the  digestion of food ,causing  nausea, vomiting, stomachaches, diarrhea or constipation.

Muscular-Skeletal system

Your muscles tense up to protect themselves from injury when you’re stressed. They tend to release again once you relax, but if you’re constantly under stress, your muscles may not get the chance to relax. Tight muscles cause headaches, back and shoulder pain, and body aches. This may result in an  unhealthy cycle as you stop

 exercising and turn to pain medication for relief. ( Increasing your risk for weight gain, Diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol), quite a vicious cycle.

Immune system

Stress stimulates the immune system, which is needed for immediate situations. This stimulation can help you avoid infections and heal wounds. But over time, stress hormones will weaken your immune system and reduce your body’s response to infections.This makes you more  susceptible to viral illnesses like the flu and the common cold and  other infections. Stress can delay your recovery  an illness or injury.

Sexuality and Fertility

Stress is exhausting for both the body and mind. It’s not unusual to lose your desire when you’re under constant stress. While short-term stress may cause men to produce more testosterone, this effect doesn’t last.

If stress continues for a long time, a man’s testosterone levels fall. This can decrease sperm production and cause erectile dysfunction & impotence. Chronic stress may also increase risk of infection for male reproductive organs like the prostate and testes.

For women, stress can affect the menstrual cycle. It can lead to irregular, heavier, or more painful periods. Chronic stress can also mimic the physical symptoms of 

menopause.

Thus prolonged or chronic stress can impact all organs in our body in a negative way. There are many ways to treat, avoid or prevent chronic stress: Body movement  therapy Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness, Medical massages, Reflexology, Reiki, Herbs and other naturopathic forms of treatment are available..

Learn more on the series of webinars coming soon. Speak to your doctor about referring you to Eastern practitioners for management of stress and not write you a prescription- have you take a tablet for stress when natural practices for stress reduction exist without the side effects and addictive anxiolytics.