How Stress Affects Your Body

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Not All Stress Is Bad For Your Body!

Stress is defined as something that causes a psychological, physical, or emotional strain.  Someone says the word stress, it conjures up images of anxiety and depression, or even anger. 

Some stress is actually okay for your body.  Eustress is a form of stress you experience whenever you're doing something fun and exciting, like riding a rollercoaster. Even acute stress, which is short-term stress you have from time to time, like when someone cuts you off on the highway, isn't necessarily damaging to your body.

But when the small stress evolves into episodic acute stress or chronic stress, you have a problem on your hands.  Episodic acute stress is when someone is constantly in a state of chaos and anxiety - the person who's always late to appointments, consistently angry during rush-hour traffic, or exhausted seven days a week.

The chronically stressed individual is someone who also can't escape stress, but it's stress built on a long-term event, like their career or marriage, and not events that occur, cause anxiety, and are over quickly.

For those who have been living with chronic or episodic stress, there is help available.

Click here to discover how to deal with stress on a regular basis and improve your life for the better.

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The Miracle Ball Method: Relieve Your Pain, Reshape Your Body, Reduce Your Stress [2 Miracle Balls Included]

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Health Implications of Chronic Stress 

When your body endures stress on a regular basis, it releases hormones to combat it, such as adrenalin and cortisol. This speeds up your heart and slows digestion. Blood races to the major muscle groups and your body goes into fight or flight mode.

As soon as the stress threat disappears, your body is supposed to go back to a relaxed state. But some people continue on their stress path, and the body never recovers. Eventually, symptoms become obvious and your body is left vulnerable to disease, including:

  • cancer
  • depression
  • diabetes
  • hair loss
  • heart disease
  • hyperthyroidism
  • obesity
  • OCD
  • sexual disorders
  • tooth and gum decay
  • ulcers


Scientists now believe stress can be a factor in everything from simple headaches to fibromyalgia. It can cause a woman to miss her menstrual cycle. It can result in dermatological conditions and irritable bowel syndrome.

Diet and exercise aren't enough to combat the effects of high stress levels. To find out how you can better manage the stress in your life, visit How to Deal with Stress.

Meditation for Stress, YouTube video 

CBS News Bonnie Kaye: Meditation for Stress

Fitness correspondent Bonnie Kaye reports on the health benefits of having a positive mindset.

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curated content from YouTube

Could Stress Be Making You Fat? 

We all know the effect of obesity on your health. If your weight gets out of control, it can cause depression, diabetes, and even contribute to cancer development in your body. Many men and women alike gain weight because of all the stress in their lives.

We mentioned earlier that when you're under stress, your body releases hormones to help you during fight or flight mode. But this period also alters your metabolism. It's a common thread for many overweight individuals - stress and food go hand in hand!

The coritsol your body pumps out slows your metabolism, making it harder to lose or even maintain your weight. In response to the stress, your body begins craving certain foods - because it's seeking the feel-good endorphins to fend off stress you carry with you.

Your blood sugar spikes, which means your moods get altered, you experience extreme fatigue, and you begin storing fat your body can't process. These factors can all lead to a disease like diabetes.

As our bodies respond this way over time, we form bad habits, like stress eating. Whenever someone annoys us at work, we make a quick trip to the vending machine. A bad relationship at home causes us to avoid it by stopping off for some fast food.

The busy schedule that leads to so much stress in the first place means we take shortcuts in other areas, such as relying on pre-packaged or fast, unhealthy food. And because we're too busy, we can't squeeze in 30 minutes a day to move our bodies.

If you're feeling overwhelmed with the stress of your life, and it's starting to show in your waist, check out How to Deal with Stress, where you'll learn how to manage times of anxiety without reaching for a chocolate bar!

Recommended Reading! 

When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection

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Stress, according to Wikipedia 

Stress is a term in psychology and biology, first coined in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become a commonplace of popular parlance. It refers to the consequence of the failure of an organismhuman or animalto respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined.The Stress of Life, Hans Selye, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.

Stress symptoms commonly include a state of alarm and adrenaline production, short-term resistance as a coping mechanism, and exhaustion, as well as irritability, muscular tension, inability to concentrate and a variety of physiological reactions such as headache and elevated heart rate. Stress can occur in a variety of forms, including anxiety, a form of stress often accompanied by additional symptoms and bodily reactions.EHealthMD: What is stress? Retrieved September 3, 2008

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