How Does Stress Affect Health

From LoveToKnow Stress

How does stress affect health? Studies show stress is responsible for a large majority of health problems. Learn how stress can affect your health, and be proactive in your reducing your risk of disease.

Stress can lead to poor health.

You Need to Know: How Does Stress Affect Health?

Stress causes the body to produce a chemical response. Your body releases stress hormones that cause your heart to work harder, your blood pressure to elevate, your breathing rate to increase and your anxiety level to rise. While this is a good thing when one needs to react, as in a “fight or flight” response, an overload of stress hormones can wreak havoc on your health. Prolonged exposure to these chemicals can negatively affect every organ in the body.

Physical Illness Caused by Stress

Many practitioners believe that a far-reaching number of illnesses are cause by the stress in our lives.

Heart disease is a major killer in our country, yet it is known that stress causes high blood pressure and other conditions known to aggravate such conditions.
Stress can also compromise your immune system, leaving you susceptible. People experiencing stressful times in their lives tend to catch communicable diseases more often such as the cold and flu.
Lowering your immune system can also make your body less likely to fight off free radicals. Free radicals are molecules within your body damaged by a variety of factors. They are thought to be responsible for causing cancer cells.
Stress can cause irritable bowel and other digestive disorders, such as ulcers. Stress hormones actually shut down the digestive processes, causing a disruption in that system that can lead to variety of digestive discomforts.
Back pain, neck pain and other joint pain can be the result of too much tension in the body. Relieving that tension can result in reduced or eliminated pain.
Increased blood pressure caused by stress can increase your chances of having a stroke, especially if you are at risk.

See a doctor to help with stress.

Obesity can be caused by stress related eating. Many of us eat in order to relieve worry or tension, and that weight gain can lead to many other physical problems. This includes diabetes, which is increasing in this country at an alarming rate. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are also caused by or aggravated by obesity.

Mental Conditions Caused by Stress

Stress can also cause a variety of mental health conditions. Depression and anxiety disorders are on the rise, and they are largely caused by worry and anxiety. According to the CDC, more than 118 million Americans were prescribed antidepressants in 2005 for a variety of ailments, most of which are related to stress. Recently the focus on these disorders has increased, so they are more fully understood and treated. However, many demographics of society still see mental health issues as a stigma. Teenagers and the elderly are two groups who tend to avoid treatment for these conditions.

Mental health conditions can also affect your physical health. People who are experiencing anxiety or depression are much less likely to seek help from a doctor for physical symptoms. They are also less likely to follow a doctor-prescribed regimen for a particular ailment or to take their regular medications reliably.

How does stress affect health? Stress definitely affects your health; however, there are many ways to reduce your risk. There are many methods to relieve stress, and what works for one person may not work for another. It is important to add stress-reducing activities to your every day routine. Reducing the tension now may go a long way to preventing health problems in the future. If you still are experiencing significant issues after taking self-care steps towards reducing it, don’t be afraid to make an appointment with your doctor. He or she will assist you in developing a plan to reduce your stress and protect your health.