Stress is the body's reaction to harmful situations -- whether they’re real or perceived. When you feel threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in your body that allows you to act in a way to prevent injury. This reaction is known as "fight-or-flight” or the stress response. During the stress response, your heart rate increases, breathing quickens, muscles tighten, and blood pressure rises. You’ve gotten ready to act.
It is how you protect yourself. Stress means different things to different people. What causes stress in one person may be of little concern to another. Some people are better able to handle stress than others.
Stress is your body's way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you sense danger—whether it's real or imagined—the body's defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction or the “stress response. ”the stress response is the body's way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life—giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid a car accident. Stress can have other positive aspects, sometimes referred to as “eustress.
Musculoskeletal system when the body is stressed, muscles tense up. Muscle tension is almost a reflex reaction to stress—the body’s way of guarding against injury and pain. With sudden onset stress, the muscles tense up all at once, and then release their tension when the stress passes. Chronic stress causes the muscles in the body to be in a more or less constant state of guardedness. When muscles are taut and tense for long periods of time, this may trigger other reactions of the body and even promote stress-related disorders. For example, both tension-type headache and migraine headache are associated with chronic muscle tension in the area of the shoulders, neck and head.
How is stress diagnosed?
The relationship between stressful life events and the onset of graves′ disease (gd) was initially documented by parry in 1825. There is data available on the high incidence of thyrotoxicosis among refugees from nazi prison camps. Psychological distress has been reported in up to 65% of younger patients with hyperthyroidism and physical stress in many older patients.
[ 14 ] the term ′kriegsbasedow′ was coined following the observation of increased incidence of gd during major wars. Many epidemiological studies have demonstrated that patients with gd had more stressful life events than control subjects prior to the onset or diagnosis of graves′ hyperthyroidism and that stress had an unfavorable effect on the prognosis of gd.
Diabetes is often a cause of stress, particularly in the early days when you’ve just been diagnosed. Having to pay close to attention to what you eat and having lots of new things to learn and remember can feel tough. It may mean you now have to check your blood sugar levels a lot or inject yourself every day. Worrying about what the results will say or feeling anxious about needles can be really stressful. Some people with diabetes worry about having hypos too – when your blood sugar level goes too low. It can be stressful wondering when they might happen and managing them when they do.
Stress can have lasting effects on your health and well-being. These health effects impact some groups disproportionately – women, for example, are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to men. Lower stress.
What are some ways to prevent stress?
Fortunately, there are many ways to prevent stress from pushing you over that proverbial edge and jangling your nervous system. While it’s important to focus on the basics of good health — getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night, sticking to a healthy, mediterranean-style diet (fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein), and getting about 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every week, gupta recommends using any technique that “feels natural and enjoyable, and makes sense in your life. ”that can include healthy, evidence-based calming experiences like listening to music or simply closing your eyes, doing a few easy yoga poses , and focusing on your breathing.
When children are feeling stressed, parents can play an important role in helping them find ways to cope. Like adults, children sometimes need to be reminded to be kind to themselves. Spot the triggers: help your child recognize and begin to track the times they felt stressed and look for patterns in how they reacted. What was happening at the time? what were they thinking, feeling or doing just before they felt stressed? once they identify difficulties that are likely to make them feel stressed you can explore together ways to prevent stress or deal with it quickly. Respond with love: give your child extra love, time and attention.
Stress is not an illness itself, but can lead to serious illness if it is not addressed. It is important to recognise the symptoms of stress early as this can help you to figure out ways of coping and to avoid unhealthy coping methods, such as drinking or smoking. Spotting the early signs of stress will also help prevent developing potentially serious complications, such as high blood pressure (hypertension), anxiety and depression.
When you have high-stress levels for an extended period of time, you have chronic stress. Long-term stress like this can have a negative impact on your health. It may contribute to: a weakened immune system work can be a source of great stress for any number of reasons. This kind of stress can be occasional or chronic. Stress at work can come in the form of: feeling you lack power or control over what happens feeling stuck in a job you dislike and seeing no alternatives being made to do things you don’t think you should do experiencing a conflict with a co-worker having too much asked of you, or being overworked.
Headaches and migraines. When you are stressed, your muscles tense up. Long-term tension can lead to headache, migraine, and general body aches and pains. Tension-type headaches are common in women. 10 depression and anxiety. In the past year, women were almost twice as likely as men to have symptoms of depression. 11 women are more likely than men to have an anxiety disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. 12 research suggests that women may feel the symptoms of stress more or get more of the symptoms of stress than men. This can raise their risk of depression and anxiety.
Over the years, researchers have learned not only how and why these reactions occur, but have also gained insight into the long-term effects chronic stress has on physical and psychological health. Over time, repeated activation of the stress response takes a toll on the body. Research suggests that chronic stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and addiction. More preliminary research suggests that chronic stress may also contribute to obesity, both through direct mechanisms (causing people to eat more) or indirectly (decreasing sleep and exercise).