11 Dangerous Effects Of Stress On Health

Saturday, July 25, 2015, 13:53 [IST]

We always advice our near and dear ones to stop worrying and avoid taking stress. Well, it has a medical logic behind. We know that it is sometimes not easy to avoid stress as we live in stressful conditions especially due to our work. We are exposed to various stress triggers that compel us to suffer from stress and anxiety.

10 Unhealthy Habits Due To Stress

Stress can take a toll on your health both mentally and physically. If stress is not managed on time, it can lead to a mental illness called depression. Depression is treatable only by medications and that too for life long. The chemicals in the brain such as serotonin are decreased during depression.

There are many negative effects of stress on your body. Have a look at some side effects of worrying and stress.

7 Simple Things That Cause Stress

Weight Gain

Stress releases a hormone in your body called cortisol. It decreases the rate of metabolism and thus causes weight gain. Stress will also involve you in eating more food which is rich in calories to get comfort from stress. This will also contribute to weight gain.

Weak Memory

Worrying and long term stress can decrease the ability of the brain to remember things and to retain information. Stress can affect both longterm and short term memory. This is one of the worst side effects of stress and tension.

You Will Get Old Early!

You can see the unhealthy effects of stress on children too. Children can be under stress due to reasons such as pressure of exams, violence at home and many other reasons. This causes their body cells to age quickly causing greying of hair, wrinkled skin, weak eyesight etc.

Tiredness and Body Pain

Many people experience physical pain due to anxiety such as headache, chest pain and body ache. This is due to secretion of stress hormone, cortisol, which makes you feel tired and restless.

Makes Your Brain Small

A study has shown that people who live under high stress have a smaller prefrontal cortex of the brain. This is the area of the brain which controls emotions. This long term stress causes gradual reduction in brain size. People with stress are therefore, not able to control their emotions.

Increases The Risk OF Heart Attack

Stress and worrying have a devastating effect on your heart. A study has shown that it increases the risk of heart attack by 30 percent. Stress also decreases the chances of survival after a heart attack.

Infertility And Loss Of Libido

It reduces the sex drive and causes emotional detachment from your spouse. The fertility of both men and women can also be affected.

Low Immunity

It you are under stress, you will be targeted by many diseases because stress decreases your body's ability to fight with infectious diseases. This means stress weakens your immunity and you will frequently suffer from common cold or any other diseases.

Mental Illness

Stress makes you mentally ill and long term stress will lead to depression. Depression is a mental illness in which many chemicals that are produced in the brain to make a person happy are not secreted. Long term stress can lead to depression as stress destroys nerve cells in the brain.

Hair Loss

You will start to lose hair after a stressful event. However, this hair loss is not permanent. Once you are back in your normal mental condition and are relaxed, your hair will grow back and hair loss will stop.

Pimples

Stress causes the body to releases a hormone called glucocorticoid. This hormone causes acne, pimples, wrinkles and even eczema. If you want to have a beautiful skin then stay away from stress.

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