Stress can be damaging to the health. Here are some of the reasons why it may sometimes be necessary to avoid it whenever you can.
Stress often starts in the brain. When you are stressed, there is a hormonal rush to your brain which results to intense alertness. This makes you unable to sleep well or even relax. Because of this, you end up feeling exhausted and with exhaustion come a variety of problems. Headaches may occur and personality changes, making one irritable and aggressive. It will also be difficult for you to concentrate and you may even experience some degree of memory loss in the process.
When stress is not dealt with properly, it can suppress the function of the hypothalamus, that part of the brain that controls emotions, thus resulting to depression, loss of energy and the like.
While this hormonal rush has negative effects on the brain’s function, it improves your sense of hearing. However, while a heightened sense of hearing can make you more alert to danger, it can nonetheless prove damaging to your health. According to certain studies, moderate noise pumps up the heart-damaging stress hormones. Moreover, even small noisy stressors like the sounds of honking horns, telephone ringing and loud co-workers, when added together can be more damaging to your health than one big stressor.
The lungs are also affected when you are stressed. Your body normally reacts to stress by hyperventilating. When this becomes excessive, it can be really damaging. You will also need more oxygen than you would under normal circumstances. Hyperventilating can make you dizzy and cause pains in your diaphragm. At the same time, it can cause dry mouth, bad breath, and difficulty in swallowing. When the stress becomes too much to handle, it can possibly worsen your asthma, as well as the other medical conditions of your respiratory system.
Your vision may improve with stress, but there are tendencies for your eye muscles to experience fatigue. In certain cases, the thyroid gland may even be affected, thus making your eyes appear protruded.
Sometimes you can tell if a person is experiencing stress just by looking at the hair. If it is dull and lacking life, it may indicate stress. Essential vitamins, such as selenium, which is responsible for giving glow to the hair, are lost when you are stressed. Falling hair can sometimes result from chronic stress.
Stress also attacks the heart, a major organ of the body. When under stress, the heart pumps a lot faster and a lot harder. Blood pressure rises, and heart palpitations and chest pains may occur. Those with existing heart ailments should avoid getting stressed as stress can keep the normal flow of the blood, resulting to plaque formation which can plug the arteries.
Stress lowers your white blood cell count as well, thus lowering your body’s resistance. With a low resistance, you have a bigger chance of being afflicted with diseases. Sometimes, medicines will not work effectively if you are under stress. It has been reported that the pneumonia vaccine might not be effective on people who are constantly experiencing stress.
Other disorders that occur or are aggravated with stress are rheumatoid arthritis, skin problems, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation and other digestive disorders.
Given all these untoward effects to the body, it is important to limit getting stressed out and you can do this by engaging in exercises three times a week, going to yoga sessions, avoiding sweets and of course, by enjoying life and having fun.
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