The Effects of Stress on Your Life
...rms and can contribute to symptoms of illness. Everyone has stress. We have short-term stress like, getting lost while driving or missing an important phone call. Stressful everyday events can make us feel worried or anxious. We also face long-term stress; such as racial discrimination, life-threatening illness, or divorce. These stressful events affect your health on many levels. Long-term stress is real and can increase your risk for some health problems, like depression. Both short and long-term stress can have effects on your body. Research is starting to show the serious effects of stress on our bodies. Stress triggers changes in our bodies and makes us more likely to get sick. It can also make problems we already have worse. Stress can play a part in all the following: trouble sleeping, headaches, irritability, lack of energy, anger, less sexual desire, weight gain or loss, heart problems and high blood pressure. There can be little dispute against the growing research that stress has a significant negative impact on an individual’s well-being. Links have been demonstrated between stress and the incidence of heart disease, alcoholism, mental breakdowns, family problems and certain forms of cancer. Studies by the American Medical Association have shown stress to be a factor in over 75% of all illnesses today. Almost all body functions and organs react to stress. Your body responds to stress with a series of physiological changes that include increased secretion of adrenaline, elevation of blood pressure, accelerated heart rate, and greater tension in the muscles. Digestion slows or stops. Within 24 to 48 hours after a stress-anxiety-anger reaction, major physical symptoms can and do occur. Stress is an excellent breading ground for illness. Increased adrenaline production causes the body to step up its metabo...