It’s already midnight and you have a major presentation due tomorrow, and you’re not even close to being ready. Feel stressed? How does your body react when it’s under stress? Do you get stomach pains? Do you suffer from insomnia? Do you have a mental block? Although not everyone reacts to stress in the same way, we've all felt the impact of stress on our minds and bodies in some manner – it saps our energy and makes us feel awful. But what happens if your body is subjected to such stress for months, if not years?
Have you ever wished to abandon your obligations and relocate to a remote location in the mountains where no one can annoy you or tell you what to do? We all yearn for peace and calm, especially when we are pressed for time to accomplish a project. With all of the work we have to do, we sometimes feel as if we're going insane, and many of us feel as if we're continuously pushing ourselves to the edge, with little room for error.
So, how does stress work?
When we are in a tight or challenging circumstance, the hypothalamus, a region of our brain, triggers the production of a few essential hormones, including epinephrine, often known as adrenaline, and cortisol. This triggers our bodies' "fight-or-flight" response, which causes our hearts to race, blood pressure to rise, pupils to dilate, and blood to rush to our muscles, essentially preparing us for an emergency. This answer is useful if we are ever in danger, but what about in our everyday lives?
Our bodies require a particular level of internal equilibrium, or homeostasis, to function properly. Chronic stress, on the other hand, leads us to be hyperactive all of the time, and our bodies eventually overwork themselves to the point where they can no longer operate correctly.
Stress affects our brain
Hans Selye of McGill University, a Canadian biochemist, defined two forms of stress: eustress, which is a cathartic stress that can help us achieve a goal, and distress, which is a negative stress that is more akin to a continual state of anxiety.
Distress causes our bodies to produce more cortisol, which destroys and kills the cells in the hippocampus, which is responsible for episodic memory. Cortisol levels were linked to hippocampus volume reductions in children aged 7 to 14, according to a Stanford University study. This will not only affect our learning, memory, emotions, and addiction, but it will also cause premature brain aging and make us more susceptible to a variety of mental illnesses. This is particularly harmful, especially in children, because it severely damages the brain's structures by breaking and restricting connections, and it can obstruct normal development.
Stress affects our body
Epinephrine is another stress-related substance that causes a rise in heart rate and blood pressure. In the near term, this offers us an extra lift, but what about in the long run?
Cortisol buildup in the blood might cause cholesterol plaque to form in the arteries. Because our blood vessels have been compromised, our heart is forced to work harder to pump blood throughout our bodies. This damage causes life-threatening disorders like heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke, and has also been linked to an increase in mortality rates.
Our livers will work extra hard to produce more blood sugar to give us with energy when our stress response is activated, but our bodies will not be able to manage this increased blood sugar in the long run, thus increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Stress also produces a buildup of stomach acid, which causes discomfort as well as an increased risk of ulcers.
Stress affects our immune system
Stress stimulates the immune system at first, but over time, our immune system loses its ability to respond efficiently. As cortisol levels rise, lymphocyte production decreases, weakening our immune system and making it less efficient at safeguarding us from outside invaders.
Chronically stressed people have been discovered to be more susceptible to infections and take longer to recover. Cortisol in the bloodstream for an extended period of time causes inflammation and raises cytokines, which play a role in chronic and autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases, such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, emerge when the body perceives itself as a threat and attacks itself.
276 healthy persons were examined in a study at Carnegie Mellon University after being exposed to a virus that causes the common cold. Immune cells were discovered to be unable to produce the signals that govern inflammation in the bodies of people who had had a protracted stressful event, and as a result, the patients were significantly more likely to acquire a disease.
Cortisol has a number of other negative effects, including decreased muscle mass, aching muscles and bones, thinning skin, reproductive difficulties, irritable bowel disorders, and weight gain through increasing hunger for high-energy meals.
People nowadays are continuously stressed out and depressed because they can't seem to take control of their lives. There are actually some wonderful scientific proven strategies that will help you fight back and stop all of the terrible consequences of stress from ruining your body and mind, from meditation and exercise to healthy diet and laughter.
