Introduction
Any event or threat may give you physical or emotional tension called stress. Chronic stress may make you nervous, anxious, angry, frustrated, or helpless. Stress is how your body naturally reacts to any demand or challenging situation. Scientists say positive or acute stress is healthy since it kicks you into action.
However, negative or chronic stress lasts long and doesn’t seem to end. For example, if you get angry, you remain angry and depressed for a long time to the extent of developing mental or emotional illnesses. You need to manage chronic stress to avoid unhealthy effects.
Chronic stress can cause memory loss, heart problems, digestive issues, diabetes, depression, and more. You can exercise, get entertainment, sleep, get a balanced diet, or seek medical help if overwhelmed by stress. Also, your doctor can suggest top-rated memory pills to help you manage stress before it affects your brain health.
8 Ways Stress Affects Your Health
If you let chronic stress last long, it will affect your overall health. Unfortunately, stress affects all body systems since it releases excess hormones that harm your body.
It may affect your sexuality, heart, skin, digestion, brain, metabolism, nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and respiratory system. Eventually, you may develop health complications in many parts of your body.
As reported on Health Web Magazine, nearly one-third of Americans suffer from some stress.
Here are some ways how stress may affect your health.
- Effects on sexual and reproductive health –
As stated earlier, positive short-term stress may make you enjoy sex. But, long-term stress makes your body release excess cortisol hormone. For men, increased cortisol makes the body produce less testosterone.
Studies show that cortisol has an inverse relationship with testosterone. Lower testosterone causes low libido, impotence, premature ejaculation, and erectile dysfunction. In addition, chronic stress may cause infections to the prostate and testes.
Chronic stress also results in menstrual cycle imbalances, missed menses, painful periods, low sexual desire, and infertility in women. Stress may also affect menopause and its onset.
- Lowers your immunity –
Short-term stress stimulates the immune system, helping you deal with immediate threats and infections. But, with time, the immune systems weaken, and your body doesn’t fight infections like before.
Chronic stress makes you more prone to viral diseases like flu, among several other infections. Though many diseases may still heal, healing may take longer than expected.
- Stress causes psychological, mental, and emotional issues –
Stress makes you react positively to psychological, emotional, and mental stimuli. When stress goes on for long, it may result in anger, emotional disturbance, anxiety, irritability, and depression. Such emotional and mental states eventually result in chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension. Unmanaged stress is one of the leading causes of psychiatric or mental disorders. These disorders may affect normal daily activities, and you may live on mental health medications. Worse still, stress may cause the pituitary glands to be hyperactive. This interferes with normal feelings of well-being.
- Chronic stress may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes –
When you get chronic stress, the liver responds by producing more glucose or blood sugar to provide extra energy to deal with the situation. When you are stressed, the body may not use the increased sugars in the blood. It may fail to release insulin to digest the excess sugars, or your pancreas may not release enough insulin to cope with the increased blood sugar. Then, the blood will constantly have elevated sugar levels, a condition called type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease. It has many complications like heart and kidney diseases. And it’s almost irreversible.
- Effects on the digestive system –
Stress stimulates the overproduction of some hormones and gastric juices. Excess hormones and stomach acids cause complications like heartburn and indigestion. You may also experience reduced or increased appetite due to the effects on metabolism.
Furthermore, metabolic disorders may result in weight gain or weight loss. Other digestive system effects include nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pains. At times, stress is a catalyst for peptic ulcers or it may worsen the ulcers if you already have them.
- May affect heart health and respiratory system –
Stress makes you breathe faster than normal, as you react to unexpected events or situations. The body tries to pump more oxygenated blood to the muscles to help you act or react. Remember, the blood vessels constrict due to stress hormones. The faster heartbeat raises your blood pressure since your heart must force more blood to the muscles through narrow blood vessels. Stress also makes preexisting breathing ailments like asthma worse. Plus, other ailments like heart failure, stroke, and arterial diseases may follow due to stress.
- Effects on the central nervous functions –
Your central nervous system must function well for you to respond to a stressful episode. The hypothalamus glands in your brain recognize threats and command your adrenal glands to produce cortisol and adrenaline hormones. The hormones increase the heartbeat, which pumps blood to the response organs or muscles. At times, the central nervous system doesn’t revert even when the stressor goes away.
So, the reactions to stress continue, making the situation worse. With time, stress causes abnormal behaviors like alcoholism, drug abuse, being antisocial, overeating, or loss of appetite.
- Headaches, backaches, muscular pains –
Every time you get stressed, your muscles become tense, a defense against the stressor. Fortunately, the muscles relax after the stressor goes away. However, constant stress and the accompanying relaxation and tension cause aches.
Sometimes the muscles remain tense and result in severe pains and fatigue. This causes headaches, backaches, shoulder pains, and pains in several body parts. Reliable studies show that stress causes migraine headaches.
Do Memory Pills Help?
Health Web Magazine reviews some products that may help deal with stress. The supplements contain nootropic nutrients with few or no side effects. These supplements may give you more memory, alertness, cognition, and mental relief.
Several Primal Mind Fuel reviews say the supplements may work, and it uses well-tested ingredients with virtually no side effects. Always consult your physician before taking anti-stressors or antidepressants.
Conclusion
Stress is normal and causes you to react to danger and various emotions. But chronic stress may cause serious health problems.
Stress affects the muscles, brain, digestion, blood sugars, reproduction, skin, heart, and sexual functions. You can develop anxiety, anger, irritability, depression, and mental disorders.
For relief, you can try having fun, practice yoga, or go for counseling to bring down stress. Seek medical attention if the condition gets serious. Your doctor may recommend top-rated memory pills and antidepressants to remedy the condition.
Studies show that some smart pills work. You can regain memory, reduce stress, get more energy, be more alert, and enjoy a more stress-free life. Otherwise, you may take the recommended nootropic pills like Primal Mind. But, always read several Primal Mind Fuel reviews to establish its efficacy and any side effects before buying.
