You’re stuck in traffic, late for your work presentation, and you just can’t do anything but watch the time tick away. Your brain’s tiny control tower, the hypothalamus, then triggers the activation of your stress hormones! These hormones are in charge of prompting your “fight or flight” response. As a result, you start to breathe rapidly, your heart races, and your muscles feel more tense.

Interestingly, this response seeks to protect your body in case of an emergency. However, when stress response keeps firing continuously, it can threaten your health and wellbeing.

Stress is inevitable and can affect almost everyone in different ways and levels. Some experience symptoms like headache, insomnia, decreased productivity, and lack of appetite. Common causes of these include job and workplace, money and finances, disasters and trauma, relationship and family, and other external pressures.

How does stress affect your health?

1. Central Nervous and Endocrine Systems

The central nervous system is responsible for your “fight or flight” bodily response. Your brain’s hypothalamus instructs your adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol, two stress hormones. These pump up your heartbeat and send blood rushing to areas that need it, like muscles and the heart. an increase in heart rate poses the risk for stroke and hypertension.

2. Mental Health

Stress and mental health are often intertwined. Stress has a psychological impact that can manifest as irritability, a feeling of loss of control, sadness, and memory problems, and can reduce your enthusiasm for activities you normally enjoy and cause you to struggle to complete everyday tasks. Long-term stress and worrying may also lead to mental health concerns like anxiety and depression.

3. Respiratory and Cardiovascular Systems

When feeling stressed, you usually breathe faster as your body seeks to rapidly distribute oxygen-rich blood to your body. If you have breathing concerns like asthma or emphysema, stress can make it even more difficult to breathe.
Stress also causes your heart to pump faster than usual and your blood vessels to constrict and supply more oxygen to your muscles so you have more power for action. This results in increased blood pressure, which may also lead to stroke or heart attack.

4. Immune System

Chronic stress can impair the immune system, making you more vulnerable to health problems—from simple colds to more serious ones.
Cortisol enters the bloodstream when you feel stressed. Cortisol typically aids in regulating many of your body’s natural functions like sleep, weight, blood sugar, and blood pressure. However, with long-term stress, cortisol levels remain elevated, causing body inflammation and reduced white blood cell counts, which compromises the immune system

5. Digestive system

Have you ever felt a stomach ache or constipation due to stress? Stress at extreme levels can affect how your body processes food, leading to constipation, pain, gas, and diarrhea. Sometimes, you may also experience nausea, vomiting, acid reflux or heartburn as a result of increased stomach acid.
Aside from your stomach, your liver also produces extra blood sugar (glucose) to give you an energy boost. But under chronic stress, an extra glucose surge may increase your risk of having type 2 diabetes.

6. Muscular system

When stressed, muscles tense up to safeguard themselves from possible injuries. They only tend to loosen up with relaxation. However, if you’re constantly under stress, tight muscles can lead to headaches, back and shoulder pain, and body aches. Over time, this can prompt an unhealthy cycle like lacking the energy and strength to exercise and relying on pain relievers.

7. Sexuality and Reproductive system

It’s easy to lose desire when you’re under constant stress. If experiencing chronic stress, men’s testosterone levels may start to drop, interfering with sperm production and may prompt impotence or erectile dysfunction. For women, stress affects the menstrual cycle. It leads to irregular, more painful, and heavier periods and can also intensify the physical symptoms of menopause.

Ways to counteract the effects of stress

There are simple and feasible stress management strategies you can try to help you recover and feel at ease. Let’s read on!

1. Identify stressors

The best way to cope is to acknowledge your feelings and identify your stressors. Is it work, money, a relationship, or something else?

2. Getting regular physical activity

Having an active lifestyle is one of the easiest and most effective ways to de-stress. Consider taking morning walks, riding a bike, gardening, and working out, among others. Exercise creates endorphins, known as hormones that make you feel good and happier. Consider these workout tips to help you kickstart your healthier physical journey.

3. Practice deep breathing

For anxiety relief, try quiet mindfulness and practice deep breathing. You may employ deep breathing techniques like the 4-7-8 breathing. This is where you inhale through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for a count of seven, and exhale through your mouth for eight seconds.

4. Get involved in leisure activities

Try to also find your hobby or participate in volunteering activities. This helps shift your focus away from stress and onto something that makes you feel better.

5. Spending time with family and friends

Spend leisure time with people who make you feel at home, safe, and relaxed. Talk about how you feel to those whom you can trust.

6. Eat and sleep healthily

Make sure to get around seven to nine hours of sleep and avoid food that is unhealthy, too salty or sweet, and has excessive caffeine and alcohol content to stay well.

7. Talk to your therapist or doctor

If your symptoms continue despite taking some actions to manage stress, see your doctor or therapist. They can help you check other potential causes and provide new coping tools.

Conclusion

Our bodies are equipped to handle little day-to-day stress encounters. While stress is unavoidable, we can still learn to manage it so we can live happier and healthier lives. Acknowledge what you feel, identify your stressors, and consider the tips above to help you manage your stress.