How Stress Affects Your Body
There have been various studies that go on to prove that there is a strong relationship between physical health and emotional well being, let’s take a small glimpse at what happens inside the body when you’re faced with stress and how relaxation helps in overcoming all the negatives of stress.
Stress mechanism
Whenever a human mind perceives danger at close distance, the brain triggers off messages to the body parts to get prepared and mediate the approaching threat. There are small glands in the brain which receive the threat message and send directions to the pituitary glands, which control several glands in the body.
You might have come across the phrase “a rush of adrenaline”, adrenaline is a hormones released by glands situated around the kidney and they are normally produced when the brain is overly excited, both negatively and positively. During negative impulses along with this hormone, there are a few more harmonious released in the brain which prepare the body to either fight or escape the situation.
It is because of these hormones that you experience increased heart rate and a rush of blood all over your body. Cortisol in particular is the hormone which prepares the body for prolonged sessions of stress, by increasing the blood pressure and the blood sugar. When the stressful situation goes on for long, all these stress hormones have a dampening effect on the immunity system.
With a stressful condition continuing, the body maintains the high levels of stress hormones, which in consequence results in a constantly high blood sugar and blood pressure. And since, all through your immunity system remains depressed you’re likely to pick up diseases easily and suffer from ailing health.
The respite
If you’ve understood the process of how the internal defense mechanism starts functioning under stressful conditions, then quite likely you got the underlying message which talks about relaxing and staying away from stress to stay healthy.
There are several options for you to cut down your stress levels and stay relaxed, and all that’s needed is some initiative. Pickup health magazines or log onto health websites and you’re sure to find at least one stress buster that will work well for you. However, when things seem to be going out of control, medical advice from a doctor, can be quite fruitful.
