Do you ever feel like you always have tension in your body, or maybe that you’re always sick? Maybe you just have no energy and are always tired. My first 2 years of college, that’s exactly how I felt. My neck, shoulders, and back were always tight and I always had a mild cold and stuffy nose that I could never seem to get rid of. I tried to take medications to ease my symptoms, but it never made things go away. It wasn’t until I started tuning in more to my body and digging deeper into the causes of my pain that I realized what the major contributor to all my symptoms had been-- stress. Moving out of my hometown and starting a new part of my life was stressful enough, but with all the school work and extracurricular activities piled on top, I was under more constant stress than I ever had been. After so long, the daily stress of college life began to impact my body in ways I never would’ve thought possible. Consistent stress can negatively impact the body that might surprise you. Fortunately, there are many things we can do combat the harmful symptoms and live in harmony with our stress.
What happens in our body during stress? Stress can manifest in our bodies in many different ways. It is first important to know a little bit about what biologically happens inside our bodies during stress. Most of the stress symptoms we feel arise due to the hormones released during our stress response- two of which are cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are released to stimulate and prepare our bodies for a stressful situation. They cause the increased the heart rate, faster breathing, and sweaty palms that we’re all familiar with, as well as many other more specific symptoms that I will get into later in the post. Our bodies are designed to undergo stress for a certain period of time, and then return to homeostasis. However, with the increasing pressures and stressors of daily, modern life, most of our bodies are not returning to homeostasis, and our stress response is activated almost 24/7. This means that our bodies are constantly impacted by stress, and we never really get a chance to recover. How does stress impact the body? Constant stress can wreak havoc on our health and well-being. It affects all areas of our body, including our cardiovascular, digestive, and immune system, as well as our mental health. I’ll go into each system a little more in depth so you can get a full picture of how stress influences the body. Effects of Stress on the Cardiovascular System We know already that adrenaline and cortisol are stress hormones that are released during a stress response. Adrenaline causes our heart to beat faster and stimulates the production of blood cells, which raises blood pressure (Hanafi, 2015). While this can be helpful in the short term stress response, over time, it actually causes chronic hypertension. Cortisol can cause the inner lining of the blood vessels to not function properly, which has been seen as early step in cholesterol build up in the arteries (Bergquist, 2015). Since our bodies are almost always in a stress response, this means that we are releasing more stress hormones than we need to be. Both of these hormones do have important functions in our bodies, but too much of a good thing is always a bad thing. Chronic stress can lead to consistently high blood pressure and plaque filled arteries, which together, greatly increase your risk of a heart attack or a stroke. Effects of Stress on the Digestive System Our guts have natural rhythmic movements to help push food along and stimulate digestion. A healthy gut is also full of healthy bacteria that helps us break down and digest our food to get all the nutrients we need from it. However, both of these are compromised with an overproduction of stress hormones, as they can disturb the natural movements in our gut and actually change the composition and function of our gut bacteria (Bergquist, 2015). Not only that, but cortisol increases our appetite for calorie loaded foods, like carbohydrates. I know that when I am stressed, all I want is pizza or pasta or something that will comfort me. However, this can make us overeat, and cortisol increases how much visceral fat our bodies stores. Visceral fat is hard to get rid of because it is stored deep within our abdominal tissue. Visceral fat also releases more hormones (which you hopefully know by now is the opposite of what we want) and it increases your risk for chronic diseases (Bergquist, 2015). All of this combined leaves us with an underperforming gut and a growing belly, just because we are too stressed out on a daily basis. Effects of Stress on the Immune System Our immune system keeps us healthy and heals us when we are not. We have many different immune cells that talk to and work with each other to help us fight off pathogens and viruses. However, cortisol inhibits immune cell signaling, which is the process by which the immune cells communicate (Hanafi, 2015). If the cells can’t talk to each other, they can’t properly fight off invaders or heal wounds. The humoral response of our immune system is responsible for the production and execution of antibodies, which are blood proteins that stick to foreign cells to remove them from the body. However, the humoral response is severely impacted by stress and stress hormones (Hanafi, 2015). When we are under chronic stress, our humoral response is constantly being limited. We aren’t properly fighting off illness or healing our ailments, and this is keeping us from ever truly healing. We are more susceptible to illness and we take longer to recover from that illness, keeping us feeling unhealthy on a regular basis. Effects of Stress on our Mental Health When we are stressed out, we’re often spread thin trying to get everything accomplished in a short period of time. If this only happens every once in a while, it is probably nothing to worry about. However, if this is happening on a daily basis, it’s only a matter of time before our minds get tired of so much stress and worrying and it leads us to something more serious. We may feel worry, irritability, restlessness, anger or hostility. We might have a hard time concentrating since we have so much else on our mind, or we may even begin to feel anxiety and panic at the prospect of overcoming everything on our to-do list. We start to feel stress and all the negative emotions that come with it more than we feel relaxed and happy, and this may make us worry even more! Sometimes, the negative emotions can manifest themselves as physical symptoms in our body. For example, when I feel anxious, I tense my neck and shoulders, which leads to knots in my upper body. Then, I get worried about the tension in my neck, which causes me additional mental stress. With an overactive stress response, the “mind and body can amplify each other's distress signals, creating a vicious cycle of tension and anxiety” (Harvard Health, 2018). Keeping our bodies in a constant state of stress is fuel for this cycle, causing us more mental and physical pain than needed. Things we can do reverse this impact As you can see, the impact that stress has on the body can be extremely harmful to all aspects of our health. Our bodies and minds suffer greatly when we live under constant stress and pressure. We will never be able to completely remove all of our stressors, but we can learn to manage our stress so that its impact on our bodies is beneficial. It is possible to live and grow through your stress, it just may take some practice. One of the biggest things we can do is implement behavioral and mindfulness training into our daily lives. This type of practice can ease the mental effects we feel from stress, as we take time away from our stressors. to calm our minds, breathe, and relax. These practices can also help ease some of our physical symptoms as well. Like I mentioned earlier, my stress causes me a lot of neck and shoulder pain, because I tense my shoulders very tight when I am stress. Similarly, many people experience tension in their upper body and back due to stress. A study conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the University of Washington in Seattle found that “both mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy proved more effective than “usual care” in relieving chronic low back pain and improving patients’ function” (Brody, 2017). These practices teach people to rethink their views on their problems and get more in tune with their bodies, minds, and lives. Meditation is one mindfulness technique that they used for their patients to help them slow down and reduce stress. It must work, since meditation has actually been proven to “lower the heart rate, lower the blood pressure, reduce the breathing rate, diminish the body's oxygen consumption, reduce blood adrenaline levels, and change skin temperature” (Harvard Health, 2018). Most of us have high levels of adrenaline and high blood pressure due to our chronic stress, so lowering both of those is extremely beneficial for reducing our stress response symptoms. Exercising is another way that we can reduce our stress and counteract the symptoms that we feel. Exercise is often used to help treat anxiety and depression due to its amazing biological effects in our bodies. Physical activity can reduce the levels of the stress hormones, and replaces them with endorphins, our body’s “natural pain killers and mood elevators… responsible for the ‘runner's high’ and for the feelings of relaxation and optimism that accompany many hard workouts” (Harvard Health, 2018). Given that we have an overproduction of stress hormones in our bodies, reducing them will greatly improve our health. Exercise also just helps you look and feel healthier, which increases our physical and mental strength! It also gives you time to do something good for yourself and take time away from your stressors, allowing you to relax your mind and get your body moving. While stress may be the root of a lot of our health issues, it is not something we have to live with forever. By taking a little time everyday to practice being with and managing our stress, we can learn to live in harmony with it. Our bodies, minds, guts, hearts, and immune systems will all be very thankful if we do. Reference List Bergquist, S. (2015, October 22). How stress affects your body TED Ed. Video retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-t1Z5-oPtU. Brody, E. (2017, September 11). Alternative to Drugs for Treating Pain. Retrieved from:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/well/alternatives-to-drugs-for-treating-pain.html Hanafi, Z. (2015, March 23). PSA: Stress and The Immune System. Video retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrihWOruRgQ Harvard Health. (2018, July 13). Exercising to relax. Retrieved from: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax.
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AuthorHannah Brewington Archives
November 2018
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