We hear that everyone is so stressed and that their hair is falling out but is stress really that harmful to our bodies? Now different types of stress can affect us, but how do we become stressed? How does stress affect our everyday lives and in what ways can we reduce stress? Does stress cause our bodies harm and how? I will go over these topics in detail, to get a better idea of stress and how it affects us.
You may not know but there are different types of stress. Short-term and Long-term. Short-term stress can be good for you and your body, it can be motivational. Whereas long-term stress is very dangerous and can cause health problems and anxiety. Short-term stress is good for you in small amounts, it can boost your memory and help you complete more tasks more often. Long-term stress that sticks around for weeks or months can take a toll on your immune system and can cause high blood pressure, depression, and fatigue. When stress is present your body releases chemicals such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. When there is too much epinephrine is released it can be harmful to your heart, it can cause the arteries to change and how the cells regenerate. Although we all experience stress your body gives you signs if you have an enormous amount, are unable to concentrate, get sick quite often, have body aches, have headaches, change in appetite, and more. Even though there is bad stress there is also good and there are ways to help manage stress and reduce it.
You may have stress you do not think you can get rid of but there are things you can do at home to lessen it or you could go somewhere and relieve some stress. Personally, painting helps me relax and let go of what is stressing me out. A great way to help relieve stress is exercise, exercise can help lower stress hormones such as cortisol. Exercise releases endorphins which are a natural pain killer and can improve your mood. Another relaxer you can consider is lighting a candle or using oils that have certain scents to help relax. Lavender is a great relaxer, putting certain since into the air is called aromatherapy. In some studies, aromatherapy has been proven to decrease anxiety. Lavender, Rose, vetiver, bergamot, roman chamomile, neroli, frankincense, and sandalwood are great scents that help relieve and relax. I love spending time with my dog and just petting him helps me let go of what is stressing me out. When you spend time with your pet your brain releases a chemical called oxytocin that improves mood and promotes positive mood. Now take a deep breath and hold it for three seconds, that gets blood flow to your brain and activates your parasympathetic nervous system that controls your relaxation response. Taking deep breaths and doing it often when you're stressed will help you relax now take another one. Lastly, find an activity that you like very much and do it when you are feeling stressed that could be painting, writing, reading, or going for a run it's up to you but distracts yourself so you don't have to worry about the stress.
Many obstacles in our lives stress us out. It could be your job, financial troubles, kids, pets, and just driving. But all of these things are a part of life and you will not be able to do anything about it. Stress will show up in many things, I get stressed out about taking tests and playing sports. At a young age, I had to learn how to balance playing sports and going to school, I was always stressed that I would not have enough time to study or I would not finish this project in time. But I was not the only one who had to learn how to balance them. If you are struggling to balance too many things at once and it is putting a lot of stress on you step back, take a deep breath, and ask for help or guidance on something. It could range from taking the kids to practice to a tall stack of papers on your desk. Getting the little things done at a time will help relieve some stress in the long run.
So how does stress affect our bodies? Stress can affect every system in our bodies in different ways. All the information below was retrieved from www.apa.org,When stress is detected our muscles tense up, a reflex reaction to stress. In small doses of stress, the body response is fine and takes care of it but when one large dose of stress hits the body all the muscles tense at once and do not relax until all the stress is gone. When your muscles are tense for a long period it could activate other reactions from the body such as tension-type headaches and migraines. These can be activated when there is tension in the neck, shoulders, and head. Job stress has a link between lower back and upper body pain.
Stress can affect the respiratory system with signs of shortness of breath and rapid breathing. The airway between the nose and the lungs is blocked. For many people who have a respiratory disease mental stressors can cause breathing problems. Whereas people who do not have any respiratory diseases can still breathe fine with mental stressors. Some stress can even cause people to hyperventilate or bring on a panic attack if someone is prone to it.
When short-term stress is present in the body the heart is involved by pumping blood to large muscles and once there stress has passed the body returns to a normal state. Let's say you were writing an essay for us and you only have two more days to write it, as the stress helps you concentrate your heart pumps faster and more blood more often to your large muscle groups such as your brain. It highers your blood pressure and releases stress hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. Long-term stress weighs heavy on the heart potentially causing hypertension, heart attack, or a stroke. Short-term stress happens often and long-term stress can cause the circulatory system to become inflamed. This is one way the stress and heart attacks are linked.
The endocrine system has many parts involved that keep it running smoothly but when stress hits hormone levels increase. When stress first starts the hypothalamus sends signals to the kidneys that connect to the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, which is known for being the stress hormone. On a normal day cortisol is produced at different levels more when you are first waking up and has you get ready to go to sleep. But in a stressful event, the cortisol can get you the necessary amount of energy to complete a task.
In our stomachs, we have hundreds of millions of neurons that function well on their own and they are always communicating with our brain telling it that we need food or that something is not right. Stress can affect the brain and our stomachs making us feel pain or bloating and other abdominal discomfort. The gut consists of our stomach, and small and large intestines, and the rectum has bacteria throughout it that can impact our health and brain health. That can lead you to your ability to think and affect your emotions. When stressed people eat a lot more or a lot less than normal or use alcohol or tobacco. Which can cause acid reflux or heartburn. Stress does not cause stomach ulcers as many people think but it can cause a decrease in appetite and very severe cases vomiting. In the bowels of our bodies is where our food moves but stress can affect the speed and digestion of food and can cause very painful muscle spasms. Stress can cause your bowels not to absorb nutrients that you have gained and can allow for bacteria to come into the gut, these bacteria are not very dangerous and can be destroyed by the immune system.
The nervous system can be broken down into many parts, the first part is the central nervous system (CNS) which consists of the brain and spinal cord. Next is the peripheral nervous system (PNS) which is broken down further into the somatic and autonomic systems. The automatic system is directly involved with the stress response. The automatic can also be divided into two more parts the sympathetic and the parasympathetic system. When the body is experiencing stress the sympathetic system activates the flight or fight response. The sympathetic system sends a signal to the adrenal glands to produce hormones. The hormones make everything in the body increase from your heart rate to your blood pressure to your blood vessels dilating. The sympathetic system has to work fast to correctly respond to the stress. Once the stress has left the body, it should return to a normal state. Then the parasympathetic system kicks in to help recover from all the action the sympathetic system has put the body through. The parasympathetic can also feed the stress by causing compromising blood circulaThe male.
Male reproductive system is heavily impacted by the nervous system. As the sympathetic system is arousal they also need the parasympathetic to help keep their hormone levels in check. When the automatic system is turned on males produce testosterone and it activates the sympathetic system. For males when stress is apparent their sex drive declines.
As for females, it can mess up their menstruation cycles, by making them irregular in length or even more painful. Stress can even reduce sexual desire for women. Stress can negatively impact a woman's health if they are trying to conceive. Stress can also affect the baby if the mother is pregnant. For women who are PMSing stress can make them irritable, moody, bloated, and have mood swings and fluid retention.
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Essay on Why Stress Is Bad.
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