THE EFFECTS OF STRESS ON YOUR HEALTH
Yocheved Levin
Helping Overstressed High Achieving Leaders Sleep Better | Hypnotherapy & Mindset Coaching | 12-Week Transformation Program | Let's Get Your From Exhausted to Exhilarated
Stress, whether work-related, financial, or emotional can lead to ill health. A little stress is good for you as it motivates you to perform, too much stress can be detrimental to your health as you will discover in this article.
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What is stress?
Stress is essentially a hormonal response. When faced with something threatening, your body responds with what you may know as the ‘fight or flight’ response: a rapid change in heart rate caused by adrenaline coursing through your body preparing you to fight, or run, for your life.?
Stress is recognized by your brain and triggers a signal in your nervous system to encourage your body to make more white blood cells. Historically, this response prepared you to fight off infections in wounds from dangerous animals, when encounters in the wild were a part of everyday life. However, when it is caused by modern day stress, in the absence of that lion or bear, you simply increase the number of cells that make your body inflamed.
The white blood cells born of stress may also be more inflammatory than usual, and bad at receiving anti-inflammatory signals that naturally hold your white blood cells in check.
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Too many angry white blood cells circulating in your blood vessels can contribute to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attack as well as an increase or decrease in appetite.
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Stress can also cause you to lose?sleep, which in turn can make you less focused and may lead to accidents or injury due to fatigue. It can affect your mood, with possible knock-on effects to your diet, relationships and work performance.
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The stress hormone
Cortisol is known as the ‘stress hormone’ regulating your body’s stress response. During times of stress your body releases cortisol, releasing its ‘fight or flight’ hormones such as adrenaline, keeping you on high alert. Cortisol also?triggers the release of glucose (sugar) from your liver for fast energy during stress. In short spurts cortisol can boost your energy. However, if you have consistently high levels of cortisol in your blood, it can lead to inflammation and a weakened immune system as well as the conditions mentioned earlier.
You can combat this with the hormone, oxytocin. Oxytocin is the feel-good hormone that you get from hugs and human contact. It's the one that makes you more compassionate. It helps you notice if someone is struggling and makes you want to help, and it helps you recognise who to be around when you are in need of help. This hormone is released after delivery of a baby and is supposed to help with the bonding of a mother and her baby.
Oxytocin is also a natural anti-inflammatory. The heart has receptors for oxytocin, which can help it heal itself from damaging stress. Your body has its own built-in mechanism for stress resilience – when you reach out under stress, you release more oxytocin and your stress response becomes better.
We are all affected differently by stress. Resilience, life experience, your own internal genetic make-up and your individual mental health are contributing factors. Each person has different ways to cope with stress, emotionally and psychologically.
But where there is stress there is hope. The other side of stress is that it can give you the strength to be, and do, things that you never thought imaginable. When you experience positive stress, your blood vessels remain open, similar to when you feel joy or courage.
Managing stress
Here are some ways of reducing stress:
Prioritize your well-being before life forces you to change.
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Yocheved Levin is a Sleep, Trauma, Anxiety and Bereavement Specialist, fully qualified and experienced Hypnotherapist and Mindset Coach working locally and internationally changing lives. Yocheved can be contacted on +447855 940 741 or [email protected] and for client testimonials visit www.trancework.co.uk/testimonials or book a free consultation on the contacts page. If you would like help changing from a worrier to a warrior contact Yocheved.
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Owner at Bend Spin and Yoga studio - yoga teacher, spin instructor, HIIT and Kettlebell instructor and Anxiety Expert.
9 个月While I completely agree that stress can be harmful - there was a study that found that it is all about the perception of it being harmful, that makes it that way. If you instead looked at your elevated heart rate and the stress hormones in your body as the fuel you need to complete a task, or the extra jolt of adrenaline needed to move faster and welcomed the stress response in, it can have the opposite effect on your body and be GOOD for you. I've started asking my clients with anxiety to start looking at their stress differently and when it arises and they feel it, to remind themselves that is there to support them and make their stress-response their super-power. The study is from 2012 by scientists at the university of Wisconsin-Madison and called "Does the perception that stress affects health matter?”
Supporting Business & Directors to Be Bulletproof Leaders | 25-Years Army to Lt Col | Transforming Boardroom Dynamics with Resilience Confidence & Authenticity - no body armour required!
9 个月Yes yes yes Yocheved Levin - so sad that stress is so real and we must do all we can to combat it.
Helping Tech CEOs Seamlessly Elevate Team Performance Through Wellness Resilience Program - Ignite Peak Productivity in 3 Months or Less, Naturally!
9 个月Yocheved Levin, Stress is the number killer nowadays and will definitely effects our hearts, sleep and more!
children's book author and audiobook narrator
9 个月I work out nightly for approximately 90 minutes. It is always a huge gamechanger for me. I do not eat a lot of sugar. I try to get out for walks when I can. As for my professional stress: Let go and let G-d. He knows what I need and when I need it. Wishing you a good Shabbas.
Red Square Bakery Owner
9 个月psychosomatic syndrome can destroy health!