How Does Stress Affect Health?

By Trevor Dumbleton

Stress can affect our health in many ways. Stress itself is perfectly natural and, providing it is kept in control, stress doesn't always adversely affect our health. We'll look below at some of the less healthy effects on your health that stress can give.

So, how does stress affect your health?

• Depression. Stress can be a big factor in depression. Whilst depression can be reduced with modern drugs, it's much better to get to the root cause of the stress that is leading to it.
• Excessive stress can lead to ulcers developing. These can be amongst the first signs that we are too stressed.
• Hair loss can be a sign of too much stress. People can quite literally "pull their hair out" if they are subjected to excessive stress.
• When our body is stressed, our immune system is stretched. Diseases such as diabetes can manifest when our body is subject to too much stress.
• When we are stressed, we can display anxiety disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder. Sometimes those closest to us will notice these problems before we do. Reducing your stress levels will oftentimes help reduce these disorders.
• Too much anger can be a sign of stress. Road rage is an example of a temporary effect of stress on our health. If you have become a more "angry" person, this could well be a sign that you are under too much stress. Anger management courses can help but it is best to remove the underlying cause of your anger if at all possible. With the help of friends or a professional anger management counselor, you should be able to discover this root cause.
• Obesity can be caused by stress. Comfort eating is often used to help reduce stress. That tasty looking chocolate cake can quite likely reduce your stress in the short term but could lead to obesity if you resort to comfort eating to reduce your stress too often.
• Too much stress over too long a period can even lead to heart disease or a heart attack. Whilst this is an extreme example of how stress affects your health, you should make certain that you address your stress levels to minimize the likelihood of your heart having to tell you that you are too stressed.

These are just a few examples of how stress affects your life. You can probably identify more factors in your day-to-day life that are leading to stress. Start taking steps to lower your stress now, whilst your health is still good.

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