How Does Stress Affect Your Overall Health Plus Tips

[rosemary wahlberg]

How can stress affect your overall health? Several ways. First of all
stress is linked to two very common, yet very difficult problems:
Depression and Anxiety. Sometimes stress is a good thing, if it brings
out the best in us. However other times when the stress is too much,
which can be different for everyone because each person responds
differently to things, the stress causes either fear or withdrawal,
which lead to anxiety and depression.
The fight or flight feeling we get when we are sometimes over stressed
causes physical symptoms. Dry mouth, increased adrenaline, sweating
and sleeplessness are all common instant signs of stress, but stress
goes deeper.
Did you know that stress causes a certain part of your body, your
nerves to sort of cut off blood flow to organs (though not completely)
that are not pertinent to fight or flight. One main organ system that
gets a shortened blood supply is your digestive system. This causes
poor digestion, you aren't able to digest all of the nutrients you are
suppose to, your body is not processing your food the way it is
intended to. Other organs get a lower blood supply also. In effect
healing and organ function suffer.
What is more is that all of this is even worse today. So many people
are stressed in our fast paced, no break world. Think about it, when
was the last time you didn't feel stressed? The last time you didn't
have something important to get done now? Stress is causing way more
problems than needed, and we are actually putting ourselves, our
health, our digestion, healing and other organ functions on the line
by not taking breaks.
It is important to remember also that taking a break is good for us
mentally. Avoiding meltdowns, a mid life crisis, and anxiety and
depression.
Do you know how stressed you are? Most of us do not, and most of us do
not realize what it is doing to our bodies and minds. There is a
stress test (scale) on wikipedia (online encyclopedia) by Holmes and
Rahe. It is an interesting test scale to check, because although most
of us can tell when we are stressed this scale can give us a better
idea of how stressed, and what it is doing to your health. Check out
the scale here.