We all suffer from stress at different points in our lives, and it can play havoc with our health and overall well-being. It’s natural to feel stressed over a short period of time, and it can even be a good thing at times in that it can help you feel alert and focused in particular circumstances. However, on the other hand, long-term stress can not only trigger or worsen mental health issues, but it can also damage our physical health.
It so happens that when we feel stressed, we have a fight or flight response, and this switches on what’s known as the sympathetic nervous system that produces adrenaline and other chemicals in our bodies. These make the heart beat faster, the brain to be more alert, and muscles tenser.
Effects of Stress on Your Physical Health
The hormones and other chemicals produced when you are stressed can lead to issues like:
1. Stomach problems: When we have the fight or flight response, our digestive system is affected. This is because it’s controlled by what is known as the enteric nervous system made up of nerves that communicate with the central nervous system in our brains. The digestive system shuts down the blood flow to the stomach altering the secretion of chemicals needed to digest food, causing digestive muscles to contract. That’s why when some people are stressed, they get stomach aches, cramping, diarrhoea, and constipation, which can lead to conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
2. Aches and Pains
Muscle tension, headaches, and migraines are a common side effect of stress because it causes facial and scalp muscles to contract. This can cause aches and pains in our body, and it happens when the above-mentioned hormones and chemicals are released over a prolonged period of time. Other side effects of stress can include difficulty when walking and uncontrollable shaking.
3. Cardiovascular Problems
When excessively stressed, your cardiovascular system can become affected. So, again, when these hormones are activated, your heart rate and blood pressure go up. If this goes on over a long period of time, the high blood pressure can lead to increased vascular risks such as heart attacks and stroke. People who have these particular symptoms usually try to deal with it by adopting bad habits like smoking, which in itself exacerbates the risk of cardiovascular problems even further.
4. Compromised Immune System
Long periods of stress cause an increase in a hormone known as cortisol. This causes inflammation through the body, which reduces the overall ability of your immune system to fight infections caused by viruses and bacteria. The result of this is repeated infections throughout the body. One of the things I frequently see in people who have stress in the workplace over long periods of time is recurrent infections such as coughs and colds, and sore throats. A lot of times, this is triggered by chronic stress.
5. Over-eating and Lack of Appetite
Long periods of stress can lead one to develop depression, and with that, you can either find comfort in eating, which results in having problems associated with obesity and poor diet. On the other hand, instead of over-eating, some people lose their appetite, which can lead to excessive weight loss, with significant nutritional problems.
6. Mental Health
Stress can easily affect your mental health by altering your behaviour. Sometimes you might not realise it, but people might say that you’re becoming increasingly irritable or snappy at work. It might also cause you to have problems with your personal relationships.
Also, chronic stress that doesn’t go away after maybe a few days or a couple of weeks after you’ve tried to alleviate it naturally can be quite problematic and can lead to depression. If you have these persistent symptoms, you need to see your family medicine doctor and find a way to solve it.
How to Deal with Stress
If you think that you’re suffering from stress, and you recognise the symptoms, then there are some simple things that you can do to begin to try and address them, like:
1. Listening to your body and knowing whether what you’re going through is either emotional or mental stress.
2. Taking control of the situation. This includes improving your time management by setting aside some time every single day where you can help yourself relax. This can include taking an adequate lunch break while at work, or if you feel overwhelmed with the number of things to do, make a list of important tasks then tick them off one by one.
3. Getting more exercise. There’s plenty of evidence that shows that stress can be dealt with through exercising. This is because it helps clear your head in addition to other benefits like making your body fit and healthy.
4. If you suffer from conditions like IBS due to stress, then it’s advisable to keep a diary of the triggers that might start the symptoms associated with it.
5. A healthy diet can also help make your body feel better and limit the stress that you might be going through.
6. Finding time to relax and implementing relaxation techniques like deep breathing exercises can be very useful. Meditation is also a good way of relieving stress. So, when you start feeling your heart beating fast and feel unwell, take a break and practice the mentioned relaxation methods to help control your heart rate.
7. Relying on friends and family. These are what we call a support network; so it’s important to just have a chat with people close to you over a cup of tea to get things off your chest.
8. Professional help. Finally, if you find that the stress is a bit too much for you, then it might be time to get some professional help. You can see your family medicine doctor or a psychologist for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. There are also stress management courses that we can refer you to help ease things.
Sometimes the symptoms can be a bit more persistent, at which point medication may be an option as well, and it could be combined with all of the above treatments based on the individual.
