by Dr Deborah Lee, Dr Fox Online Pharmacy
Photo by ahmad gunnaivi on Unsplash
People often say stress is a killer, although I don’t think they often really believe it. But they should – because it’s true. When you read the following, you will see what I mean. Stress is something we should be afraid of and take very seriously.
- What do we mean by stress?
- Does it matter?
- How does stress affect our bodies?
Read on and find out
What is stress?
Stress is a word we use a lot, very loosely. It means anything unpleasant we don’t want to deal with. We all experience some stress, to a greater or lesser degree. It might be the stress of doing exams, or being bullied, or perhaps due to relationship breakdown, work pressures, bereavement or financial issues – or any combination. At the moment we have a new stress – covid stress – that has insinuated itself into our lives. All these situations have the same effect – they set off the body’s ‘fight, fright and flight’ stress reaction. Keep reading.
Acute stress occurs if you are suddenly confronted with sudden danger, for example, being attacked by a vicious dog. Imagine the scenario – you would jump out of your skin, your heart pounding, breathing faster, sweating, and perhaps even feel dizzy, or faint. This is because acute stress has switched on your sympathetic nervous system (SMS).
The SNS is a fine, nerve pathway in your body you don’t know anything about, but it leaps into action in a crisis. The idea is that by activation of the SNS, your heart and lungs turn up the volume, so you are instantly ready to run away from the danger.
Now, this is all very well, because after the owner has called off the dog, the SNS quietens, and your body settles down again. This is because the opposite system – the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) has now been activated. This does the reverse – it slows down the heart rate, and the breathing rate, and induces feelings of calmness.
So, when we are under chronic stress, guess what happens? The SNS is switched on, and stays on, although to a milder degree, for a very long time. This is bad for our health as it means we are living life in overdrive. This has many serious, negative consequences for our health.
Does it matter?
In a recent 2020 Finnish study, severe stress was shown to reduce life expectancy by around 2.3 years. In comparison, smoking shortened life expectancy by 5.5 years, and diabetes by 5.3 years. You can see that the effects of stress are significant, and what’s more, stress is something modifiable. You can choose to do something about it.
In another 2008 study, researchers followed 1,600 men, aged 43 to 91 for 12 years. At the end of the study, 50% of those who had been classified as neurotic were still live, compared to 75 – 85% of the other group. You can see that if you have a worrisome personality, it seems you are more likely to die earlier than those who have not.
A recent study from Harvard Business school calculated that for more educated people, a stressful workplace accounted for 5-10 % of excess mortality, but for less educated people, the effect was more pronounced at 12-19%.
How does stress affect our bodies?
So, stress kills us off before our time on the planet should be naturally up. But how does it do this?
Stress affects every organ of the body in some way, shape or form. It is known to trigger or exacerbate risk factors for many different diseases. Let’s take a look.
Stress and the brain
We know that people under chronic stress are more likely to have brain atrophy – brain shrinkage. They also have fewer new dendritic connections – special connections between nerve cells that transmit impulses. This may explain why stress is associated with memory disorders.
The hippocampus is a key area of the brain, involved in the formation and storage of memories. MRI studies have shown, for example, that people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a reduced hippocampal volume.
In fact, when we are stressed, this leads to higher levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. High cortisol levels are linked to reduced memory function, but the reverse is also true, in that lowering cortisol levels improves memory function.
Stress also negatively affects our thinking processes – our cognition – such as our ability to learn, make decisions, pay attention and form judgements. Lowering stress improves these cognitive skills. However, when stress is increased, this makes them worse.
Cognitive decline is inexorably linked with a decline in physical health.
Stress and the immune system
It is now widely accepted that chronic stress weakens the immune response. Stress leads to an increase in cortisol levels, which alters the neural and hormonal responses. This has a negative influence on chemical mediators involved in the activation of the immune system. As an extreme example, stress can increase the risk of cancer by reducing the output of cytotoxic T cells and Natural Killer cells. This means malignant cells, when they arise in a tissue, are not destroyed, but instead are left to grow.
Stress and the heart
When the SNS is switched on, this affects the heart by increasing the heart rate, increasing the strength of each heartbeat, causing arteries to dilate in the spleen and kidneys, reducing sodium and water removal by the kidneys, and causing high blood pressure. In some situations, stress can activate the PSNS and cause a slow heartbeat, low blood pressure, and even cardiac arrest. Stress also increases the coagulability of the blood – making it more sticky and more likely to clot.
Stress and the gastrointestinal system
Many of the gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms attributable to stress are explained by the physiological effects of stress. It causes either an increase or a decrease in appetite, affects the rate of absorption from the stomach and through the intestinal walls, and affects the permeability of the gut, affecting the ease by which toxins and byproducts can pass into the bloodstream. Stress causes an increase in GI inflammation and affects sodium and water retention in the gut walls. Many GI conditions have a direct link with stress, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.
Stress and the endocrine system
Stress is so closely linked to the secretion of hormones, that it is impossible to separate it from the equation. When we are under stress this affects all our endocrine organs (glands) – hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal, thyroid, ovaries, testes and pancreas.
Stress and unexplained symptoms
When we visit the GP, so often, our symptoms are actually due to stress. This could be anything, from headaches, to stomach pains, dizzy spells, feeling tired all the time, or even insomnia and getting up at night to pee. The list is endless. Many patients have medically unexplained symptoms, and in fact, it’s very common for these to be caused by, or exacerbated by, stress.
Final thoughts
So now you know that stress really is a dangerous phenomenon. April is Stress Awareness Month. Hopefully, I’ve made you stop and think. It’s easy to laugh it off as ‘only stress’ – but in fact – stress is real and needs urgently addressing. I’m stressed even writing this blog post!
- What could you do to reduce your stress?
- Why not read my next blog post on how to lower stress?
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