Oh gosh I’m so stressed.
Ugh it’s the worst.
I feel so sick.
Hey guys Julia here for DNews
Stress is really really awful for your body.
You know when you get scared, embarrassed or anxious - your face flushes and you get
hot and sweaty?
This is called psychogenic fever.
Well your body temperature actually increases when you’re stressed, it’s warming up
the muscles in case you need to get the hell out of dodge.
Most of the short term effects are the result of this flight or fight response.
The Adrenal gland in your brain releases the hormones in response to some stressor.
This in turn releases glucose into the bloodstream to power you up, ready to take on a threat.
It suppresses your digestion and your immune system to save energy for hightailing it away
from a bear.
But now a days we aren’t threatened so much by bears, but school, work, and family matters
stress us out just the same.
All those good things cortisol did to save us from the bear, does bad things us when
we’re faced with these chronic stressors we can’t run away from.
One of the hormones, cortisol, is called the stress hormone.This hormone does a lot of
things.
It affects things like blood pressure, metabolism, and immune reactions such as inflammation.
Basically chronic stress makes your body continually release cortisol.
Normally this hormone keeps inflammation in check, but after a while your cells get burnt
out and become less receptive to the hormone.
Inflammation then kind of runs amok.
And causes its own host of problems.
Inflammation can lead to heart disease and obesity and is now being implicated in some
mental health disorders like depression and anxiety.
Inflammation can also damage your DNA.
A recent study linked stress and DNA damage.
The study, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that stress damages your
telomeres.
Telomeres are often compared to that plastic tip on your shoelaces.
They sit on the ends of your chromosomes to keep them from unraveling.
As cells divide and DNA replicates, these telomeres shorten throughout your life.
Eventually leading to cell death.
The erosion of telomeres is a pretty good indicator of someone’s health.
Smokers often have shorter telomeres than nonsmokers, for example.
In this study the researchers found that displaced Indian villagers had shorter telomeres than
other villagers who didn’t go through the stress of relocating.
Which is similar to other studies on the effects of stress on telomeres.
But it’s not just having your entire village moved.
The American Psychological Association found that Americans are most stressed about work,
money and the economy.
Does this sound like you?
If you are chronically stressed there is some hope.
Being socially connected helps.
One study published Social & Personality Psychology Compass in 2011 found that “People who have
supportive, close relationships have lower levels of systemic inflammation compared to
people who have cold, unsupportive and conflict-ridden relationships.”
Some studies show that mindfulness based practices, like yoga and meditation, can reduce stress.
Being mindful means you accept each moment as it is without judgment.
Seeing something as neither good or bad, it just IS.
And it’s really hard to do.
It definitely takes some training, but it’s worth it.
One study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine reaffirmed previous studies that
mindfulness decreases distress and increases quality of life.
So go get your yoga on so you don’t die!
What are you most stressed about?
How do you deal with it?
Let us know in the comments below! …