24 Health Risks of Stress (No.8 Everyone Avoid This)

We bet that every one of you have already suffered from stress several times in your life, but you must know Health Risks of Stress is very danger. Stress is the common condition in human life since there are lots of things that the people must resolve within their lives. Being stressed commonly triggered by the multiple demand placed on your brain to your physical body. You can feel the stress whenever you have various problems in your life, such as finding a new job, feeling nervous before you have the presentation in fron of a lot of people, or maybe you’re being humiliated by the social conditions. But, do you know that the excessive stress or chronic stress could lead you to various health risks? Here are the health risks associated with the feeling of stress.

Asthma

The first health risk that would be more likely to occur whenever you have stress is asthma. So, asthma is the condition that occurs whenever there is an inflammation in your airways, which then will affect the air passages in the lungs. Although the mechanism why the stress could induce the asthma, but many studies have already evidenced that stress could increase the risk of asthma. In the matter of fact, children whose their parents have the chronic stress will be more likely to suffer from asthma. Whenever their mother had the excessive exposure of air pollution and even smoking, the chance of children have the asthma would be higher than usual.

Obesity

There is also a connection between stress feelings and the obesity. Obesity is the condition whenever you have the excessive body weight. So, according to many health experts, whenever you have stress, the body will release the cortisol hormone. The increased level of cortisol hormone will also increase the amount of fat that is stored in your stomach, which then will lead you to obesity. In the matter of fact, whenever you have stress, your brain would also order you to eat more foods in order to suppress the stress, which then will make you crave for foods. This condition without a doubt will lead you to obesity too.

Colds

You will be more susceptible of having the cold whenever you have the constant stress. This is because whenever you have stress, your body will be less sensitive to the cortisol hormone, which will inhibit the inflammatory response in your body. That condition would make you become more susceptible of having the colds. In the matter of fact, based on the study in 2012 published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the immune system in the people who had a constant stress would be less sensitive to the cortisol hormone, which then will cause the inflammatory response grow and lead them to the symptoms of colds.

Weakened Immune System

There is no doubt that whenever you have stress, the immune system of your body would be weakened. Stress, actually, would be very good to stimulate your immune system. But, as already mentioned above, whenever you have stress, the cortisol hormone in the body would be elevated too. Those increase levels of cortisol hormone would inhibit the histamine secretion and inflammatory response of the foreign substances such as bacteria or viruses.

People with the constant stress would be less sensitive to cortisol hormone and as the result, your body would be more prone to have various illnesses that commonly caused by viral or bacterial. This condition would also make your body couldn’t heal themselves quick enough.

Body Aches

In case you have stress, you will be more likely to feel the pain around your body, especially in your back and in your shoulder, and accompanied with the headache. So, the question is why stress could lead you to the body aches? According to the health experts, the pain around your body could be occurred because whenever you’re having a stress, the muscle will tense up to protect themselves from the injury. As you have the constant under pressure and feel the stress all the time, your muscle wouldn’t have the chance to relax and thus, the constant tense in the muscle would cause the pain around your back and also your shoulder.

Hair Loss

While the hair loss is considered as the normal condition, but whenever you’re suffering from the excessive hair loss, that would be a problem. The constant under pressure feeling and the stress feeling could speed up the process of hair loss. In the matter of fact, the constant stress will lead you to the condition called telogen effluvium, which is the condition when the mental stress causes a large number of hair follicles to go to the resting phase and thus, your hair will begin to stop growing as usual and begin fall out whenever you’re touching or washing your hair. In case you’re not stress anymore, the growth of the hair will be beack to normal again.

Shrink the Brain

Do you know that excessive stress could also make the shrink in your brain? Well, based on some research, the constant stress would make your brain smaller than usual. According to researchers from Yale University, shrink in the brain while you have stress could occur because of the reduction of grey matter in regions that tied the physiological and emotional functions in the brain. The result from the reduction of grey matter in the brain will lead you to the psychiatric problems in the future such as the intellectual disability, for example. So, if you want to keep your intellectual ability, you need to avoid the stress as soon as possible.

Prematurely Ages

The next health risks of stress is prematurely ages. Whenever you have the constant stress, there is no doubt that you will look older than your ages. In the matter of fact, there was a study in the Journal Molecular Psychiatry conducted in a lot of children that had a constant stress because of the act of bullying and other violent things. The study found out that the children with higher stress level als hoad the shorter telomeres, which is the sign that they were aging faster.In addition to that, there was also a study that has already evidenced that constant stress would accelerate the aging process about 9 to 17 additional years! So, there is no doubt that the stress would make you look older than your age.

Forgetfulness

Since the constant stress would cause the shrink in the brain, there is a possibility that you will have the forgetfulness too. Forgetfulness is the condition whenever we often to forget the things that we should know. In the matter of fact, according to many health experts, the longer the stress that you feel, the more frequent the forgetfulness will occur. This is because whenever we have the constant stress, the communication between the brain cells would be disrupted. Not just that, the prolonged stress will also reduce the ability of our brain to store the information, which then without a doubt can lead you to the more serius health problems associated with the brain such as Alzheimer’s.

Memory Loss

Aside could lead you to the frequent forgetfulness, the constant stress would also cause the memory loss in the future. Memory loss is the condition that commonly described whenever you couldn’t remember anything that you do in the past, even the thing that you just do few minutes ago. As already mentioned above, the constant stress could affect the ability of your brain to store the information.

So, according to many health experts, the cortisol hormone would affect the synapsis which is the house of the short-term memory and as the result, you will be struggling to remember the thing that you just do. In the matter of fact, based on a study that published in the journal Nature, the rats which are being stressed after the electrical shock couldn’t remember their way around the maze and many health experts believed that the same effect would occur in human too.

Damage on the Teeth

You might be surprised that the constant and frequent stress could lead you to this condition. But, in the matter of fact, there is a connection between the frequent stress and the damage of the teeth. So, whenever people get teh frequent stress, there is no doubt that they will be more likely to have the condition which is called bruxism. Bruixsm is the condition whenever people clench their teeth just like whenever they feel the cold around their body. In fact, they will clench their teeth even whenever they want to sleep or even during the day if they have the constant stress. That habit would damage and wear down your teeth and also in severe case, you will be more likely to suffer from the neck or jaw pain.

Acne

There is no doubt that acne would be appeared in your face whenever you have the constant stress. So, what is the connection between stress and acne? According to the medical experts, whenever you have the constant stress, there are the hormonal imbalance in your body, which then will make the androgen hormone level increase rapidly. This condition then will increase the production of the sebum in your face too. The excessive production of sebum in your face will clog the skin pores and thus, there is no doubt that acne would be appeared in your face. So, if you want to stay away from acne, avoid stress at all cost.

Depression and Anxiety

This is another obvious health risk that you would likely to get whenever you have the constant and frequent stress. So, depression is the condition whenever you have the extreme sadness. In the matter of fact, there are many studies which have already evidenced that the constant stress would increase the rate of depression and anxiety, which then will lead you to panic attack too. In a study that conducted in a working people shown that the workers who had the stress related to their job had an 80% higher risk of developing the depression in a few years compared to workers with lower levels of stress.

Stroke

This is one of the most serious health risk whenever you have the frequent and constant stress. The prolonged stress will lead you to stroke, which is the condition whenever your brain couldn’t have enough supply of oxygen from the blood. Since the constant stress is commonly related to diabetes, obesity, and high blood sugar, there is no doubt that you will be more likely to suffer from this life-threatening disease.

According to the study that published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, the people who had the stressful habits are associated with higher risk of stroke. In addition to that, people with the stressful habits tend to have the unhealthy lifestyle, such as the excessive consumption of alcohol, caffeine, or smoking all day long. Those things would be very dangerous for the health of the cardiovascular system.

Insomnia

This health risk is an obvious one as the the health risk that would be occurred whenever you have the constant stress. Insomnia is the condition that described whenever you’re struggling to sleep or even couldn’t sleep at all. So, the body response to stress comes from the nervous system and our nervous system has two parts, which is the ‘on button’ and ‘off button’.

‘On button’ will be occur whenever we face some situations that really need our attention, while ‘off button’ will be occurred whenever we feel relaxed and calm. Whenever we have stressful feelings, the ‘on button’ in the nervous system will stay on all the time and this condition without a doubt will make you really struggle to sleep. Even if you can sleep, you will be awake in the middle of the night or you will feel very tired when you’re waking up in the morning.

Diabetes

Diabetes type 2 will be more likely to occur whenever you have the constant and frequent stress. So, the question is why the stress could lead you to diabetes type 2? In the matter of fact, people who have the stressful habits will tend to have the unhealthy lifestyle, such as drinking too much caffeine and alcohol, and also the excessive use of tobacco. Those habits would raise the blood sugar level in the body which then will lead you to diabetes type 2.

In addition to that, people who have the stressful habits would also have increased level of glucose in their body in order to give your body the extra energy. If you have the frequent and chronic stress, your body couldn’t keep up with these glucose surge, which then without a doubt would lead you to the diabetes type 2.

Digestive Problem

Whenever you have the prolonged stress, you will be more likely to have a problem related to your digestive system, either diarrhea or constipation. So, whenever you have the constant stress, the heart palpitations or increased heartbeat and rapid breathing will upset your digestive system, which then will lead you to the heartburn or acid reflux. Heartburn and acid reflux is the condition that commonly described as the pain in the chest. In addition to that, the stressful feelings around people could also affect the way the foods move through the body, which then without a doubt would lead you to either constipation or diarrhea.

Sexual Problems

There is no doubt that you will have various sexual problems whenever you have the chronic stress. Whether you’re men or women, the sexual problems would occur to you whenever you have constant stress. So, whenever you’re stress, your body needs a lot of energy, which then will make you lose your sexual desire. In addition to that, if you’re women, stress could affect the menstrual cycle, which then will make you have irregular menstruation. In the matter of fact, there is no wonder that you will have the menopause if you have chronic stress.

If you’re men, having a chronic stress will reduce the amount of your testosterone hormone, which then will reduce the amount of the sperm as well as its quality. In a chronic stress, there will no surprise if you have erectile dysfunction, or even impotence.

Heart Disease

This is another health risk of having the chronic stress. According to many health experts, heart disease would be more likely to occur whenever you have the heart disease. Although the direct mechanism on why the stress could raise the blood pressure that can lead you to the increase blood flow, there is no doubt that stress could cause the heart disease. Stress has been known for its ability to release cholesterol and triglycerides into the blood stream. In addition to that, unhealthy lifestyle that would be more likely to occur whenever people have stress such as smoking and consume unhealthy foods have a vital role in the development of heart disease.

Premature Labor

If you’re pregnant women and you have the chronic stress, the opportunity of having the premature labor would be increased rapidly. In the matter of fact, there is a study that published in the journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology has already evidenced that the elevated cortisol during the pregnancy will increase the risk of having preterm labor, hypertension, preeclampsia, miscarriage, and other health risks associated with the pregnancy problems. As you already know, during the chronic stress, the cortisol level would increase rapidly.

How to Reduce the Stress Level

So, now after you already know all of the health risks related to the chronic stress, you might also want to know the tips so that you can reduce the stress levels. Reducing the stress level is not impossible at all. Here are the various tips that you could do to reduce the stress level in you.

Avoid Any Condition That Can make You Angry. The stress level would be elevated as soon as you’re getting angry. If you meet someone that make you angry, don’t react aggressively. You need to walk away from them before you’re stressed out because of the, Express your anger to the beneficial activity, such as exercise.
Exercise, Exercise, Exercise. Do you know that exercise or any sport activity would be very beneficial to reduce the stress level? Well, exercise or any sport activity would be very beneficial to release the endorphine hormone, which is the mood-boster hormone. Exercise is truly beneficial to improve the quality of your life as well as reducing the stress level in the body.
Identify the Main Cause of Stress. The thing that you need to do to avoid stress at all cost is identifying the main cause of your stress. In case you already know what kind of things that would stimulate your stress, try to figure out the strategy how to deal with it. Once you know how to deal with it, try to keep your commitment to avoid the things that could trigger the stressful habits inside your body.
Create the Healthy Relationship. There is no doubt that whenever you’re having the chronic stress, you will need the help from the people that you love. So, it is important that you always keep in touch with them and build a healthy relationship with them. Whenever you’re having a stress or having a tough time, you could share your problem with them. Their hugs or their point of view to response your problem would be very beneficial to alleviate the stress.
Get Help. This is the thing that you should do whenever you’re having the chronic stress and you just don’t know other people that could help you with your problem. You need to go to the psychiatrist or psychologist so that you can lear how to manage and alleviate your stress in an effective way. Also, you can tell your problem with them, as then they will assist and provide you the best way to resolve your problems.