Why Stress Is Bad for Your Health

Why Stress Is Bad for Your Health

Not Just in Your Head

You don’t need a doctor to tell you that anxiety can have a negative effect on your health. But do you really know the toll that long-term stress can take?

Stress is the body’s reaction to something that taxes or exceeds its resources, says Frances Cohen, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco. When we perceive something as harmful, our brain triggers hormones such as cortisol, which flood the body and contribute to various physical responses.

Here are several ways stress can affect different aspects of your health — and how you can protect yourself against them.

Lack of Sleep

Anxiety is one of the main causes of insomnia and sleep disruption: When you think about something stressful while lying in bed, it’s harder for your body to relax and drift off to dreamland — and this nightly pattern only gets worse as your brain and body learn to dread bedtime.

You may also be deliberately robbing yourself of much-needed rest by staying up too late or rising too early: Most of us need seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but many overscheduled and overworked adults regularly get by on less. Skimping on sleep can cause fatigue and attention problems, and increase your risk of disease.

Weakened Immune System

We’ve all experienced the nasty cold that comes after a deadline — a reminder that psychological stress can weaken defenses and make us more susceptible to germs. It can also slow our recovery from illnesses; in fact, research has shown that stress hormones actually make immune cells age faster.

It’s not just minor ailments to which stress leaves us vulnerable, either: Consistently high levels of stress can reduce a woman’s ability to fight infections such as human papilloma virus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer.

Low-Level Inflammation

Whether you scrape your knee, twist your ankle, or succumb to strep throat, the body’s reaction is the same: The immune system sends in white blood cells to destroy bacteria and repair the tissue, causing redness, swelling, and warmth. This healing process, called the inflammatory response, is one of the body’s most basic survival instincts.
But when bombarded by unrelenting stress, the immune system works overtime, releasing a stream of inflammation-promoting compounds that spread throughout the body, damaging cells and tissues. If left unchecked, low-level inflammation can simmer for years, contributing to a range of seemingly unrelated ailments such as heart disease, asthma, and cancers.
High Blood Pressure

Stress and anxiety stimulate your nervous system to raise levels of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which narrow blood vessels and therefore increase your risk of developing hypertension. Only about a third of people with hypertension (blood pressure higher than 140/90) know they have it — even though it affects around one in three American adults.
The condition can be bad news if left untreated, raising your risk of such ailments as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and blindness. Fortunately, eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly — and learning to stress less — can help you stay healthy.

Blemishes and Wrinkles

Just as inflammation can have a negative effect on your long-term health, it can also have a physical — and much more immediate — effect on your appearance. Stress and fatigue can lead to puffy skin and a blotchy complexion, dark circles under the eyes, and early wrinkles. Hormones triggered by stress can also cause breakouts well into adulthood.

In addition to getting enough sleep and reducing stress levels, you can calm redness and blemishes with serums and gels that contain extracts of anti-inflammatory herbs like chamomile, calendula, and lavender

Aches and Pains

Millions of us work at desks every day, and our bodies pay the price. From stiff necks and tension headaches to throbbing backs, head-to-toe pain can result from staring at a computer for hours on end — and when you’re stressed about your job, you’re less likely to take frequent breaks and more likely to overdo it.

Inflammation caused by stress has also been linked to migraines and rheumatoid arthritis, two chronic pain conditions that may improve with stress-reduction techniques.

Mental Health

Trying to do too much at once — whether it’s work assignments, family obligations, or social appointments — can leave you feeling burned out and empty inside. 817132d7edd2b285_stress.xxxlarge
Too often, when stressors start to pile up, the first things we push aside are the ones that can help us cope: quailty time with friends and family, alone time for reflection and enjoyment, a good night’s sleep, and regular exercise. These activities help our brains and bodies cope with the harmful effects of stress, and without them to keep us grounded, it’s easy to spin out of control.
Substance Abuse

When you’re juggling the multiple responsibilities of work and home, being frazzled can start to feel normal. Many people have never learned healthy ways of dealing with stress, instead turning to alcohol or nicotine.

Weight Gain

Stress, fatigue, and weight gain are common companions: Sleep deprivation can cue your body to release stress hormones, triggering weight gain. Studies have shown that those who sleep fewer than eight hours a night have higher body mass than people who sleep a full eight hours, and that babies who sleep fewer than 12 hours a day are twice as likely to be overweight by age 3.

Meanwhile, stress can also lead to poor food choices; this can put your body on a blood-sugar roller coaster, which causes low energy (and, in turn, makes it even harder to get to the gym or outside for a walk). And the less time you have to take care of yourself, the harder it is to make healthy changes.

Infertility

Infertility is a medical condition used to describe couples who have tried unsuccessfully to conceive for 12 months. By the time a woman or a couple receives this label, they’re often highly stressed, says Tracy Gaudet, M.D., director of Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University — which only makes matters worse. (Read Dr. Gaudet’s guide to coping with infertility.)

The higher a woman’s stress level, the lower her fertility. Highly stressed women can stop ovulating altogether, which makes sense biologically: In the hunter-gatherer days, stress probably indicated a lack of food or an imminent threat — not wise times to bring an infant into the world

Low Libido

There are quite a few external causes of low libido and tension between you and your partner, and many of them have to do with stress. The first year or two after the birth of a baby, for instance, when both parents are often overwhelmed and sleep-deprived, is a notorious libido killer. Career-focused years can leave women depleted and stressed, with all of their passion going into their jobs. And chronic stress can lead to depression, also a cause of plummeting desire.

Gastrointestinal Issues

That feeling of butterflies in your stomach may very well have a physiological basis: Your GI tract has its own nervous system, which is why stress can cause digestive problems such as diarrhea, heartburn, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Learn to manage stress — and reduce GI problems — by exploring massage, art therapy, breathing exercises, and other relaxation techniques.

Self-Fulfilling Pessimism

There’s nothing wrong with considering the potential pitfalls of your current situation — for a little while. It’s smart to anticipate and plan for how you’ll handle a given obstacle.
But endlessly stressing over what might go wrong often proves more than unproductive. It can actually set you up for the very thing you fear the most. When you visualize a negative outcome, you approach things differently. You operate, ironically, in a way that supports the result you most want to avoid.

Source: Whole living


Girl falls asleep 30 times a day after receiving flu vaccine

It was supposed to be a simple vaccine against swine flu, but since she had it, Chloe Glasson’s life has been like a bad dream.

Just four months after being given the Pandemrix injection, the 15-year-old schoolgirl developed the sleeping disorder narcolepsy.

Now, without warning, she falls asleep up to 30 times a day wherever she is.
Naturally, this has made her life at school challenging, as she often drops off in class. But it is also potentially dangerous.

Chloe recently went missing for two hours after going into a ‘dream-like autopilot’ state while making a short journey to her grandmother’s house. She eventually found her own way home safely, but not before her terrified family had contacted police, amid fears of what might have happened to her.

Now she is hoping a pioneering treatment will help her to establish a more normal sleeping pattern.

She is to receive the specialist drug sodium oxybate – at a cost of £13,000 a year – at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.
Chloe said: ‘I am putting a lot of faith in the treatment.

‘While the tablets won’t cure me, they may offer the chance of a more normal life.’

Vaccinated with Pandemrix in November 2009 during a flu pandemic, she is one of at least 100 people estimated to have developed narcolepsy afterwards.
Studies have found a ten-fold increase in the risk of developing the disorder after the jab.

Chloe’s mother Rebecca, from Dysart, Fife, said: ‘Her life has been devastated after we followed government advice to have her immunised against the threat of swine flu.

‘She has gone from being a bright, outgoing girl to one who cannot go out on her own. She doesn’t doze for more than a couple of hours at a time, but she can have disturbing dreams.

‘We desperately hope this new treatment will help.’
The Government revealed in September that it would pay damages to some of those who developed problems after being given the Pandemrix vaccine before August 31, 2010.

Chloe’s family hope she will receive the maximum compensation of £120,000.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency dropped the vaccine from its flu campaign in 2011.

Matt O’Neill, of the charity Narcolepsy UK, said: ‘We believe that more than 100 people have developed narcolepsy because of the swine flu vaccine.’ He added that families affected would meet to discuss the issue at the charity’s conference in Birmingham this month.

GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Pandemrix, said: ‘Patient safety is our number one priority and we are researching how narcolepsy is triggered and how this vaccine might have interacted with other risk factors in affected individuals. We hope ongoing research efforts will enable us to provide more answers.’

Narcolepsy is typically caused by the loss of neurons that produce a hormone that keeps people awake.

Source: Daily mail


Sleep disturbances linked to poor quality of life in obese

A new research has showed that poor sleep quality is strongly associated with mood disturbance and lower quality of life among people with extreme obesity.

Results show that 74.8 percent of participants were poor sleepers, and their mean self-reported sleep duration was only six hours and 20 minutes.

Fifty-two percent of study subjects were anxious, and 43 percent were depressed. After controlling for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea, sleep quality and daytime sleepiness were significantly associated with mood disturbance and quality of life impairment.

“There was a clear association between the sleep problems such as short sleep duration and the psychological disorders and with quality of life,” Dr. G. Neil Thomas, from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said. “These associations remained significant even after adjusting for a range of potential confounders.

According to the authors, the potential role of sleep in the health and well-being of individuals with severe obesity is underappreciated. The results suggested that the early detection of disturbed sleep could prevent the potential development and perpetuation of psychological problems among people with extreme obesity.

The study was published in the journal Sleep.
Source: dna India


Excessive use of internet ‘causing sleep problems’

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It was found that one in five said that they needed to check their Twitter, Facebook or email accounts because they have a “fear of missing out

A new survey has revealed that one out of 10 people do not sleep properly at night in order to stay in touch on the internet.

In the poll conducted by Nytol last December, more than 50 percent of 2000 people polled admitted that they went online while in bed trying to sleep, News.com.au reported.

It was found that one in five said that they needed to check their Twitter, Facebook or email accounts because they have a “fear of missing out”, while just one in 10 described their quality of sleep as “good”.

The survey suggested that while almost half of the respondents went straight from the couch to bed, less than 15 minutes after switching off the TV, two in five checked emails or social media accounts straight before bed, and one in four thought they were addicted to checking emails and social media in bed.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/wellness/excessive-use-of-internet-causing-sleep-problems_141798.htm