Stress creates significant problems in our health systems. From the immune system to blood sugar and the cardiovascular system. In fact, the effects of stress are so pervasive that researchers and doctors are still not able to definitively produce an exhaustive list of everything that could go wrong in the human body. This means that stress can produce results that doctors still don’t know about.
Stress can be defined as those aggravating things that go wrong during the day or those irritating things that go bump in the night. Anything that interrupts your daily routine, or nightly sleep, can have a cumulative effects on the body and brain. Researchers have found that a chronic overreaction to stress will overload the brain with hormones intended for only short term use in emergency situations. This cumulative effect will damage and kill brain cells in the long run.
The powerful hormones which are released include corticosteroids, cortisol, and a multitude of others released from the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. The release of all of these hormones is triggered in such a fashion to keep the body in homeostasis. This means that there are hormones released to drive the body during stress and others to bring the body back to a normal state.
When these hormones, that control the ability of the body to react under stress, continue to run rampant in the body they cause mental and physical health issues.
Resources:
MedlinePlus: Stress
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/stress.html
Carnegie Mellon University: How Stress Influences Disease
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162546.htm
MayoClinic.com: Constant Stress Puts Your Health at Risk
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/SR00001
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