First of all, what is stress?
Stress is a mental, physical, emotional factor, that causes bodily or mental tension.
Stress can come in different shapes and forms, can be external or internal.
- Physical: exercise, labor, lack of sleep, travelling, extreme temperature, loud noise etc.
- Chemical: alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, cleaning products, drugs, contraceptive pill, IUD, pesticides, perfumes, make-up, processed foods etc.
- Mental: worry, anxiety, long work hours etc.
- Emotional: fear, loneliness, anger, guilt, lack of feeling happiness, contentedness etc.
- Nutritional: food allergies, intolerances, starvation, overeating, vitamin and mineral deficiencies etc.
- Traumatic: injuries, burns, illness, infection
Stress can be differentiated based on its length too. Some are acute, short term and others are chronic, long term stresses. Lets say, you have plenty of money on our bank account, so that’s not an issue for you. One day, you go shopping and at the cashier you realize, that you don’t have your valet with you, so you can’t pay. It’s a bit awkward situation, so you might get stressed from it. But this sort of stress is coming and going. You can run home, pick your valet up and you can pay for the things, that you had to leave at the shop. But there are people, who hardly has any money on their bank account and they live from paycheck to paycheck. For them, this financial difficulty can be a constant problem, meaning a constant stress factor.
Short term, fight or flight effects of stress
- The body starts producing stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.
- Heartrate increases, blood vessels constrict and pump more blood into the muscles.
- Blood pressure increases.
- Breathing becomes faster, to provide more oxygen-rich blood to the body. (in case of asthma, it can be problematic.)
- Liver produces extra blood sugar, to give more energy.
- Messes up digestion. It can cause both diarrhea or constipation, nausea, vomiting or stomach pain.
- Muscles get tensed up.
Short term stress reaction can be beneficial. It can save our life, when we can jump out of the way of an approaching car for example.
Long term stress effects on the body
- Muscles stay tense for a long period of time, leading to neck, shoulder, arm pain, tension headaches, migraines.
- Rapid breathing, caused by long term stress, can cause panic attacks.
- Ongoing increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure can lead to hypertension, heart attack, stroke.
- It can increase cholesterol
- It can increase inflammation
- It makes the adrenal glands produce more and more cortisol (major stress hormone), and it can lead after a while to adrenal dysfunction.
- It can increase the chances to type 2 diabetes.
- Changes eating habits – eating more or less or different foods, than we normally do.
- Lowers stomach acid level, causing digestive issues and potentially heartburn.
- Lowers digestive enzyme levels, causing digestive issues.
- Periods might become irregular or absent, painful, it can worsen the PMS.
- It can cause fatigue, depression.
- It can be a reason behind the reduction of sexual desire.
- In case of men, it can lower testosterone levels, sperm production and maturation, and it can cause erectile dysfunction or impotence.
- It weakens the immune system, making people more prone to infections and illness.
If it’s not enough, everything is related in our body and mind.
- If your digestive enzyme level dropped because of the ongoing stress, you can’t digest properly. That will lead to another type of stress, called digestive stress.
- If you have diarrhea all the time due to stress, you can’t enjoy your life properly, because you’ll be stressed about this issue. (Like finding a restroom somewhere.)
- If you have problems with your libido, erectile function, but you can’t “perform” as you’d like to, it will cause you and your partner some stress.
- If you are afraid of the coming monthly pain, or not being successful conceiving a baby, that’ll be the next stressor in your life.
I could keep going on and on.......
A big part of the solution is in your hand! You can say, that “I don’t have time…”, “I don’t know how …” But don’t wait too long! The further you don’t manage and relieve stress, the bigger the problems might become. And at the end, it might be too late.
There are different relaxation techniques you can try and use. You can choose one, or a combination of them. Some of them can easily be the part of everyday life, some take a bit more action. Some are necessary like it or not.
- Enough quality sleeping in time
- Deep breathing
- Social activities
- Meditation
- Slowing down
- Moving: walking, yoga, pilates , Tai chi…
- Gratefulness
- Music and art therapy
- Aromatherapy
- Hydrotherapy
- Epsom salt bath
- Massage
- Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique)
- Theta Healing
- Laughing
- Avoiding stress causing processed foods and chemicals
I plan to write separately about these techniques.
How do these techniques help?
- Slowing heart rate
- Lowering blood pressure
- Slowing breathing rate
- Improving digestion
- Balance blood sugar levels
- Reduce stress hormone levels
- Reduce muscle tension and pain
- Improve mood
- Improve sleep quality
- Reduce anger, frustration
Which techniques do you plan to try and build into your everyday life?
References:
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=20104
https://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-kinds-of-stress.html
https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/effects-on-body#7
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313207.php
http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress-body.aspx
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006295/
https://www.drlam.com/articles/adrenalexhaustion.asp
http://www.drtoniawinchester.com/stomach-acid-and-stress/
https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/blissing-out-10-relaxation-techniques-reduce-stress-spot#1
