How Does Stress Affect the Human Body

The question “How does stress affect the human body?” is often part of discussions on stress. Everyone experiences stress from time to time, but prolonged stress can have disastrous effects on all of your major body systems. Stress is a natural response that your body has to external and internal stimuli that make you feel threatened. Although this was a helpful response when our ancient ancestors were being chased by dangerous animals, these days the physical effects of stress can harm your health with both short and long term affects.

Stress have several affects on the body.

Stress has widespread effects on all of your body’s major systems. When you feel stressed due to a physical threat or a perceived threat (called a psychological threat), your body reacts in very specific ways. You begin running in “fight or flight” mode because of stress hormones released into your system. Adrenalin, dopamine, cortisol, noradrenalin, and endorphins are all released into your bloodstream, producing a wide variety of effects.

These hormones increase your energy levels, speed up your heart rate, accelerate your blood flow, heighten your brain activity, produce rapid breathing, and slow down digestion. All of your energy reserves are shifted from regular body functions to functions that will help you survive the stressful situation.

In a physically threatening environment, these changes are useful and good. If you are threatened, you need the extra energy to think quickly and to protect yourself. However, living in a state of constant stress can harm your body.

The symptoms of stress affect everyone in slightly different ways. It is sometimes hard to determine how stress is affecting you because stress symptoms can mimic symptoms of other conditions. For example, acne is often treated as an external problem but it can be a result of chronic stress.

Too much stress can break down your major body systems. At first, you’ll notice that you get headaches more frequently. This is a result of your body rerouting the blood flow to other parts of your body. You’ll also experience a decrease in your immune system. You may begin to notice that you get sick more often and stay sick for longer periods of time.

When stress goes on for several days or weeks, your sleep habits will be interrupted. You may find yourself feeling sleepy in the middle of the day and wide awake later at night. The sleep that you do manage to get will be of lower quality than the sleep you get when you aren’t stressed. Lack of sleep causes fatigue, which leads to a whole host of other problems.

Weight gain is caused by increased stress and stress induced fatigue. Both stress and fatigue can slow down your metabolism. This means that the food you eat when you are stressed and in the future will have a bigger impact on your waistline than before.

Your libido may also take a major hit due to chronic stress. Stress can lower your desire for sex, which can in turn cause more stress. Sex and physical intimacy are closely linked to happiness. When you feel unhappy and stressed out, you are less likely to want to be with your partner. This can cause problems in your relationship which can lead to even more stress in your life.

Most importantly, stress can raise your blood pressure to dangerously high levels. High blood pressure coupled with additional stress can result in a stroke or heart attack.

Obviously, these risks make it easy to see why reducing stress is an important goal. The answer to “How does stress affect the human body?” may be all the information you need to change your life to reduce stress to protect your health and longevity.

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