Stress is often described as a silent killer, and studies have suggested that it can be the root cause of many illnesses. With stress costing the United States billions of dollars each year, it is vital that there is greater public understanding of stress and the negative effects it has on the body.
The Negative Effects of Stress
The human body can weather a lot of pressure, but too much can be dangerous. When stress begins to negatively affect the body, it is considered chronic. This type of stress can cause a variety of symptoms that can have a serious impact on day-to-day living. The symptoms of chronic stress include irritability, depression, headaches, insomnia, and anxiety.
While many see stress as a psychological condition, it can have an impact on the body’s organs. Under stress, your liver produces extra blood sugar to give you a boost of energy. If the body is experiencing chronic stress, it may not be able to process the surge of sugar, which can increase the risk of developing diabetes.
Stress hormones also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. To cope with chronic stress, the body increases the distribution of oxygen. If a person already has breathing problems, it may make their asthma or emphysema worse. The heart is also at risk under stress. When the heart is under stress and beating faster, stress hormones can cause the blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to elevate. As a result, chronic stress will make the heart work harder and longer, and in the worst-case scenario, this can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
The Link between Anxiety and Stress
Medical professionals call stress “the silent killer” because it slowly builds up without people noticing it and can develop into serious conditions. Here at HealthComU, we covered the difference between normal stress and anxiety disorder in a previous article. We explained how “anxiety is when your feelings of stress continue after the stressful situation is over with.” With more than 40 million people older than age 18 in the United States affected by anxiety disorders at some point in their life, it shows the far reaching and damaging implications of stress.
Stress and Learning
Just as worrisome is the emerging evidence that shows how stress can adversely affect learning depending on the severity. Maryville University explains how this connection between mental health and learning has been established by various studies, leading to an uptick in demand for professionals who understand the connections between psychology and education. For instance, the 2008 ‘Short-term Stress Can Affect Learning and Memory’ study, concluded that “short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory.” In other words, even fleeting moments of stress impairs your ability to learn.
Another study published by Edudemic explains that stress stimulates the production of more cortisol, a hormone that causes the rapid disintegration of the hippocampus’s dendritic spines, thus inhibiting its ability to identify and store information.
Worse still is when prolonged stress occurs. In cases such as this, the brain gets used to being in a stressed state, causing it to reflexively escalate the stress response quickly. This means more cortisol is again produced, which leads to more dendritic spines disintegrating. As if that isn’t enough, stress also short-circuits the other neural pathways in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which impairs critical functions such as self-control, impulse control, memory, and reasoning. These same functions, of course, are essential to successful learning.
Because stress is now considered an epidemic, health experts are trying to increase public awareness. It is not just adults in the workforce who experience chronic stress. In a recent report, teenagers reported that their stress levels were an average of 5.8 on a 10-point scale, which was higher than adults who scored 5.1 on average. The most common reported source of stress for teens was school work (78%), getting into a good college (69%), and financial concerns for the family (65%).
Yes, stress is an epidemic that affects all ages, and if you’re experiencing stress, do not hesitate to seek professional help. Doing so will go a long ways towards ensuring a healthier, happier, and even smarter you.
FreyaLuna is a practitioner with more than 16 years’ experience in the health industry. She has studied and worked across the globe, and now acts as a health consultant in California. She has conducted a number of studies on anxiety, depression, and stress. In her free time she runs triathlons.