STRESS AND HOW

IT AFFECTS OUR

BODY
BREANNA BRUUN

COURSE: STRESS MANAGEMENT

Spring 2015
 Stress is one of the biggest and most important problems in today’s

society because stress always affects our life in a negative way. At the point

when anxiety begins interfering with your ability to carry on with an ordinary life

for an extended period of time, that is when it becomes even more dangerous.

You may feel tired, unable to concentrate or irritable. However, the biggest

concern with stress is that it can cause you to become ill, and can damage

your physical body.

The first way stress takes a toll on your body is in the Musculoskeletal

System. When the body is stressed, muscles tense up. Muscle tension in your

body is a reflex reaction to stress, because it the body's way of ‘guarding’

against injury and pain. When our muscles are in a constant state of being

tense it can cause stress-related disorders. For example, both tension-type

headache and migraine headache are caused by muscle tension in the

shoulders, neck, and head. Additionally, stress can cause a painful condition

called tendinitis, and could eventually result in muscle atrophy, which are both

chronic stress-related musculoskeletal conditions.

 In addition to the damage tension from stress can cause on your body,

your Respiratory system as well as your cardiovascular system deteriorate from

the silent killer. When you get stressed or anxious, people tell you to focus on

your breathing and relax.. The effect of stress on your respiratory system is

very alarming for people who suffer from asthma or possibly emphysema.

Sometimes stress actually can cause you to develop asthma over time.

Breathing that becomes so fast can cause you to hyperventilate, or better

known as having a panic attack. Acute stress, or short term, causes your

stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol to increase. This

causes your heart rate to increase and blood vessels dilate, which then results

in high blood pressure. Chronic stress however, or constant stress for a long

period of time, can result in damage to your cardiovascular system. Constant

stress can contribute to long-term problems for your heart and blood vessels.

Ultimately, stress can end up causing hypertension, heart palpitations, heart

attack, or stroke.

Another way stress can affect your body that might not seem as extreme

the previous examples is acne and hair loss. Acne and hair loss might seem

like a small thing to some people, but for people that have it know it can be

absolutely devastating to a person, and stress is a big contributor it. When

your body is stressed, there is a hormone fluctuation that causes an increase

in the amount of oil your skin produces, which can cause acne to form or

worsen. The inflammation response in the body and can make the walls of

the pores to break, which then fills with pus. One-half to three-quarters of

scalp hair to shed do to stress, this is called Telogen effluvium. Your hair will

start coming out in clumps when you shampoo or comb it. Even though acne

and hair loss are not life threatening it is just another negative side effect that

stress causes.

Finally, it has been found the stress can damage the brain. Stress has

been found to cause long-term changes in the brains structure and function.

For example, the hippocampus which controls your memory and emotions, has

been known to shrink when you stress constantly and plays a role in various

emotional disorders. Just a few of these disorders are schizophrenia, autism,

depression, suicide, ADHD and PTSD. Additionally, stress causes long-term

damage to you memory,

In conclusion, stress affects our bodies dramatically, and always in a

negative way. Whether it is muscle tension, heart, brain, respiratory system, or

your skin and hair stress is destroying our bodies. This is why people who are

suffering from stress need to seek help immediately before it causes long-term

damage to the body and mind.

 WORKS CITED

Seaward, Brian Luke. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-being. 7th

ed. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2012. Print.

Collingwood, J. (2013). The Physical Effects of Long-Term Stress. Psych Central. Retrieved on

April 30, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-physical-effects-of-long-term-stress/000935

Sanders, Robert .. "New Evidence That Chronic Stress Predisposes Brain to Mental Illness." New

Evidence That Chronic Stress Predisposes Brain to Mental Illness. UC Berkley Newscenter, 11 Feb. 2014.

Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Smith, Melinda .., Jeanna .. Segal, and Robert .. Segal. "Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes."

Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes: The Effects of Stress Overload and What You Can Do About It. Help

Guide.org, Apr. 2015. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.