Stress and Health: Effects of Stress on the Body

Effects of stress on the Body
Stress happens when the body has to react (usually suddenly) to certain situations either mentally, emotionally, or physically.

Stress is a part of our everyday life, coming from events that happen all around us. They could be triggered by something / someone external, our own body, or our own thoughts. The effects of stress could either be good or bad, depending entirely on how you handle it.

How Does Stress Affect Health?
Stress when handled positively is beneficial to us. It helps keep us alert, active, and more energetic.

When stress gets too much it turns into distress, and if we handle it in a negative manner, it begins having an affect on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. This is really bad for us because it can strain our relations with everyone around us and deteriorate our physical and mental condition.

How Does Stress Affect Your Overall Health?
When stress is handled in a negative manner it usually leads to depression. To come out of this depression many take the harmful help of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, all of which give a sense of stress relief. In reality your body still remains stressed, and these substances just help make matters worse.

Stress effects on the body can be physical, physiological, and psychological.

The physical effects of stress, physiological effects of stress, and psychological effects of stress will all vary from person to person depending upon factors such as age, physical and mental health, attitude and outlook towards life, and the amount / level of stress.

Following are some of the health effects of stress on the body.

-- Hair loss or early graying of hair
-- Problem remembering things
-- Poor concentration
-- Poor judgment
-- Hypersensitive and extremely moody
-- Able to see only the negative side of things
-- Confused mind
-- An urge to get away (isolate) from everyone / everything
-- Sudden and unwarranted anger
-- Getting irritated for the smallest of reasons
-- Overreacting to any situation
-- Loss of confidence
-- Eating too much or too little
-- Sleeping too much or too little
-- Sharp increase in alcohol / tobacco consumption
-- Disturbed sleep, leading to a host of other problems
-- Constant headache
-- Severe digestive problems (constipation, diarrhea)
-- High blood pressure
-- Breathing problems
-- Feeling tired constantly (even when you wake up in the morning)
-- Irregular heartbeats
-- Muscle tension and severe muscle pain

A combination of one or more of these health effects of stress can lead to one or more of the following diseases.

-- Severe substance abuse
-- Insomnia
-- Heart problems
-- Stroke
-- Hypertension
-- Extreme eating disorders
-- Severe weight-gain or weight-loss
-- Ulcers
-- Severe depression
-- Infertility
-- Skin problems
-- Missed or irregular periods in women

The effects of Stress on the Immune System
Stress causes our immune system to weaken, leading to poor health and falling ill regularly.

Following are some immune system disorders that are caused / affected by stress.

-- Eczema
-- Psoriasis
-- Ulcerative colitis
-- Oral and genital herpes
-- Crohn's disease

Most of the above mentioned conditions / diseases can be avoided (if they are stress induced) if we know how best to manage stressful situations positively.

Seek professional help if required. It is better that we control stress, than stress controlling us.