Whenever you feel stressed, you likely notice certain physical changes. Profuse sweating, headaches, butterflies in your stomach, an uncomfortable feeling in your chest, and overall muscle tightness are just some of the common side effects of stress that you may experience. However, the effects don’t stop there.
Long-term stress, in particular, can have a significant negative impact on your health. It can disrupt the functioning of vital organs in the nervous, circulatory, and digestive systems, as well as affect your heart and overall immunity. In the following blog, we will explore more about how stress affects health.
Why Long-Term Stress Is Bad
Long-term stress, also known as chronic stress, should be treated or controlled properly. Otherwise, it can increase your risk of serious issues in the future. This is because when you are stressed for a long time, your body releases more stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline and epinephrine) than necessary. The increased secretion of these hormones can interrupt your daily routines, thereby affecting your sleep and appetite. It can also increase your risk of cardiac issues, strokes, increased blood pressure levels, depression and anxiety disorders.
Stress and how it affects the body can be observed in the following ways:
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Increased inflammations
Chronic stress is one of the most important reasons for the increased inflammation in your body. Stress triggers the production of pro-inflammatory cells (known as cytokines) in your body, which eventually increases inflammation.
You have to monitor your stress levels regularly because increased inflammations can put you at great risk of cardiac ailments, autoimmune disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis and more.
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Hampers digestive functions
Increased stress levels can activate the immune cells found in your gut. This can trigger symptoms of acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and butterflies in the stomach, triggering vomiting & an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach.
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Affects overall immunity
Long-term stress causes the body's lymphocytes to decrease. Lymphocytes are the white blood cells that safeguard your body against illnesses and infections. When these are reduced, your immune system gets hampered severely. This is most probably why you may feel sick when you are stressed. This problem is even more prominent in people with autoimmune problems, as their immune systems are already not in great shape.
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Hampers brain functions
Increased stress can hamper your brain’s normal functions, thereby affecting your thinking capabilities and cognitive skills. This is because stress can cause imbalances in your nervous system, which hampers the brain’s functions to send the right signals at the right time. This is why you might feel completely lost and clueless when you are stressed. You lose your ability to learn new things or focus on anything during periods of high stress.
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Increased exhaustion
Chronic stress can impact your daily routines, especially your sleep and eating patterns. Sleep time can trigger nightmares, which keep you awake most of the night and cause fatigue. Some people tend to overeat, while others completely lose their appetite when they are stressed. Irregularities in sleep and eating cycles can leave you irritated and exhausted throughout the day, unless you learn to keep your stress levels under control.
Steps to Reduce The Stress
Some ways to reduce stress are as follows:
Leading a healthy lifestyle includes:
- Spending a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes per day exercising
- Enjoying sound sleep every day (6 to 7 hours at least)
- Eating a healthy and balanced food with lots of fruits, vegetables, whole nuts, seeds, grains and more
- Staying away processed, refined and frozen foods
- Staying away from smoking and drinking
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Mental conditioning exercises
While a healthy lifestyle helps keep your body active and stress-free, it is important to keep your mind calm as well. Yoga and meditation are great options to condition your mind.
Connect with old friends and plan reunions. Build new friendships in your community. Build a social life to keep your mind free from negativity and stress.
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Learn to do something creative
Engage your mind in learning a new language, musical instrument, or something creative. This way, you can divert your mind from stress triggers.
Vent out all your feelings in a journal. Your mind will feel light when you pen down your feelings.
If these tips don’t work for you, you should book an appointment with a counsellor without any delay. Counselling and therapy sessions conducted by your counsellor can relieve you of all types of stress.
Conclusion
Chronic stress can create a huge negative impact on your health if it is not diagnosed and controlled on time.
Simple lifestyle changes can also help you reduce chronic stress. However, if you still feel discomfort, you can seek professional help for managing stress.
If you suffer from chronic stress or related conditions, a health insurance policy can help alleviate the financial burden of necessary treatment. An appropriate plan will make healthcare more accessible and offer financial support that supports your recovery.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult your general physician or another certified medical professional for any questions regarding a medical condition. Relying on any information provided in this blog is solely at your own risk, and ICICI Lombard is not responsible for any effects or consequences resulting from the use of the information shared.