The Effects of Stress on your Body

Although the medical and psychological communities still debate some of the effects of stress on your body, others are clear to everyone. A rapid pulse, hypertension, high blood sugar levels and digestive problems are just a few of the effects of stress. Psychological effects of stress on your body may be more subtle, but their importance should not be underestimated. A high level of chronic stress can cause irritability. This will cause a person to become quick-tempered and easily moved to anger. He or she will lose a lot of patience and become more inclined to fear the future, reducing that person's ability to deal with present issues. Stressed out people find that it's harder to concentrate, and that they have a great deal of difficulty choosing available options. There is some overlap between these two situations. The hypothalamus and the pituitary gland are heavily involved in mediating stressful events. The adrenal glands, near the kidneys, release cortisol after being stimulated. A substance called ACTH (adrenocorticoptropic hormone) initiates this. An excess of ACTH can cause a constant "flight or fight" response that is typically experienced during times of great stress. Cortisol levels will normally fluctuate somewhat throughout our day, however.

This excess can lead to bowel and stomach upset, neck muscle tension, and a host of other effects of stress on your body. There are studies that suggest that if the person's stressful state continues to persist, it can contributed to impaired immune system functioning. This, in turn, leads to more colds and higher chances of catching other contagious illnesses.

Shortened attention span, less efficient memory recall, lowered objectivity and other cognitive problems are all symptoms are caused by high stress levels. When worrisome thoughts circulate in your mind, you are less able to focus on solving problems. This results in moodiness, unreasonable anger, and feelings of injustice, among other negative emotions caused by the effects of stress on your body.

This can evolve into the presence of negative thoughts, heightened fear of failure, and other emotional consequences like depression, apathy, crying without any reason, etc. Both of these are extremes, though, and are not inevitable. A vicious cycle may be set up by these effects of stress on your body. One doesn't always recognize that even some important things can't always be done, and stress only makes it tougher to do what you need to do. Losing confidence in one's ability with dealing with life's challenges can become a self-fulling prophecy. It doesn't have to be that way, however. When the things that produced the stress are focused on, evaluated honestly and in perspective,the effects of stress on your body can be reduced or even eliminated before it becomes a bigger problem. That, in turn, helps to reduce the times when a small problem leads to big amounts of stress, even in the short term.