Are you one of the millions of people that suffer from something called stress? What are some of the worst health problems that stress can cause? Here are a few examples:
Why is Stress Ruining Your Life?
1. Cardiac Disease
Researchers have known for a long time that people with Type A personalities and a lot of stress are more likely to have high blood pressure and heart problems. We don’t know why. Stress can make your heart beat early and flow more blood through your body. It can also make your body release cholesterol and triglycerides into your bloodstream. It’s also possible that stress is linked to other problems, like being more likely to smoke or being overweight, which raise the heart risk indirectly.
Doctors know that sudden emotional stress can cause heart attacks and other serious heart problems. People with long-term heart problems should try to avoid acute stress as much as possible and learn how to deal with the stresses they can’t avoid.
2. Allergies
Stress can make asthma worse, as many studies have shown. Some evidence suggests that a child’s asthma risk might increase if their parents are always stressed. One study looked at how parental stress affected the asthma rates of young children exposed to air pollution or whose mothers smoked while pregnant. The kids whose parents were stressed out had a much higher chance of getting asthma.
3. Overweight
Excess fat in the tummy seems to be worse for your health than fat on the legs or hips, and unfortunately, that’s where people with a lot of stress tend to store it.
4. Diabetes.
In two ways, stress can make diabetes worse. First, it makes it more likely that people will do bad things, like eat badly and drink too much. Second, stress seems to directly cause people with type 2 diabetes to have higher glucose levels.
5. Headaches
Stress is consideration to be one of the main causes of tension headaches and migraines.
6. Stress and depression
It probably doesn’t surprise that depression and anxiety are more common in people with long-term stress. One review of recent studies found that people with job-related stress, like hard work with few rewards, were 80% more likely to get depressed within a few years than those with less job-related stress.
7. Digestive problems
Stress doesn’t give you ulcers. That’s one thing it doesn’t do. It can, however, make things worse. The winner says stress is a common cause of many other GI problems, like chronic heartburn (also called gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
8. Alzheimer’s disease
One animal study found that stress might make Alzheimer’s disease worse by speeding up the formation of brain lesions. Some researchers think cutting down on stress could slow the progression of the disease.
9. Enhanced aging.
There is evidence that stress can make you age faster or slower. In one study, the DNA of women who were under high stress because they were taking care of a child who was always sick was compared to the DNA of women who were not under high stress. Researchers found that one part of the chromosomes showed signs of aging faster than normal. Stress seemed to make people age about 9–17 years faster.
10. Early death
A study looked at how stress affects the health of older people who take care of their spouses. These people are once under a lot of stress. It was found that the death rate for caregivers was 63% higher than that for people the same age who were not caregivers.
You may still be wondering why. Why does stress make us feel bad? Why would how we feel emotionally mess up our bodies?
Stress isn’t just a way you feel. The winner says, “Stress isn’t just in your head.” It is a built-in way for your body to react to a threat. When you’re under a lot of stress, your body reacts. The blood vessels in your body narrow. Your heart rate and arterial tension go up. You breathe more quickly. Hormones like cortisol and adrenaline flow through your bloodstream in large amounts.
Destress or Stress Reduction Solutions
Even though stress can cause many health problems, don’t give up hope. Studies show that techniques for dealing with stress will make you feel better and may also be good for your health.
For example, one study of people who had already had a heart attack found that taking a class on how to deal with stress cut their chances of having another heart attack by 74%. Some evidence is that getting rid of stress will make you healthier.
Still, many of us have doubts about how to deal with stress. After all, our lives are just simple tense. We have full schedules at work, families to take care of, tight budgets, and no extra time. Managing stress might sound like a good idea, but it’s impossible.
Indeed, you might not be able to get rid of everything that stresses you out. But, says Winner, you can change how you deal with them. This is what managing stress is all about. It’s also not hard to learn simple ways to deal with stress.
Read more: What happens when you don’t have enough sleep? How to get a better sleep?