If you have ever been under pressure (and who has not?), then you also know that stress can impact your body through headaches, muscle tightness or palpitation in the chest making you feel blue or craving simply chocolate or killing appetite.

Stress is a long-standing condition that profoundly damages every organ and system within the body such as the nervous and circulatory systems including the digestive and immune systems. Stress symptoms are pointers to its root effects.

Let’s Start With What Considered As Good

Not all stress is bad, neither are the hormones that your body produces in response to it. Their levels usually change throughout the day while adjusting to different challenges such as waking up (yes, this is also a type of stress), getting stuck in traffic and being surprised on your birthday.

Simple activities such as deep breathing, walking, listening to a meditation app and even using your child’s fidget spinner can be used to manage stress. Such approaches will interrupt fight-or-flight response by preventing release of stress hormones into bloodstream which may cause blood pressure rise and make heart rate increase.

First stresse’s Target: The Heart

When you are stressed, your heartbeats gets faster which increase your blood pressure . These changes can be handled by many people without too much difficulty. Imagine yourself in a traffic jam when tensions start to rise; however, the cortisol hormone is released into your body in response to stress. Conversely, once the stressful event has passed, as Dr Jennifer Haythe, a cardiologist at New York City’s Columbia University Irving Medical Center explains, cortisol levels within your system should return to normal. Therefore, as soon as the jam clears and you start driving again, your body will begin to relax; heartbeat rate starts slowly before blood pressure returns to its normal relaxed state.

Not only does long-term stress have an effect on the heart but short-term stress also has a significant impact on it particularly if this stress is that intense. Imagine yourself going through such hard times due to a break-up with someone dear losing somebody close or some major disruption in life. Some individuals experience what is known as “broken heart syndrome”, which is a type of cardiomyopathy caused by a severe emotional or physical stress like this.

Cardiomyopathy of this kind is seen as the heart’s left ventricle, which is its principal pumping chamber getting weak. While it occurs uncommonly in general, women are mostly affected constituting about 90% of cases.

Dr. Jennifer Haythe explains, “There are times when Cardiomyopathy can develop in severely stressful conditions like after a big fight or loss of a child.” Patients frequently present to the emergency room with acute chest pain and symptoms consistent with acute heart failure syndrome despite normal coronary arteries. They may be seriously ill, but most people get better with proper treatment. The response of the body to extreme stress can be overwhelming; however, the heart can recover and become strong again through medical care.

Stress Test! Is It Effective?

Since the test is aimed at determining the stress that inhabits your life, however, it tells about cardiovascular and physical burdens on your heart. It is able to measure how much work your heart does when you climb a hill on a treadmill while walking fast.

According to Dr. Haythe, “People usually go through a stress test if they have many risk factors for heart disease or if they have symptoms such as chest pain or palpitation.” We want to see how the heart behaves under conditions of increased oxygen demand which happens due to rising blood pressure and flow. This is essential in detecting any arterial occlusions that can obstruct blood circulation and may need therapy.”

In sum, the stress test gives doctors an idea of how well your heart handles physical tension by exposing any underlying conditions that need attention.

How Can Stress Affect Your Body On The Long Run?

If not checked, chronic stress for months or years is more likely to cause serious health problems than short-term stressors.

Dr. Alka Gupta, a certified medical professional at Bluerock Care in Washington DC said – “Sleep deprivation and other complications of dysregulation of hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol and epinephrine by its effect on almost all parts of the system can lead to stroke, hypertension, heart diseases as well as depression and anxiety.”

The following are some main ways through which chronic stress may affect the body:

First Damage is Inflammation

There have been studies showing that persistent stress has been associated with raised inflammation. One of the supposed effects of stress is that it induces inflammation, commonly assumed to be the root cause of many diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis and even chronic pain.

One major player in this process seems to be pro-inflammatory cytokines which are type of immune cells that usually help in defending the body against infections. However, they can damage a person’s heart if these cytokines get activated all the time because of chronic stress as disclosed by a study carried out in 2021.

“People with autoimmune conditions where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body tend to have higher levels of these cytokines,” says Dr. Michelle Dossett who is an assistant professor and integrative medicine specialist at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California.

The good news here is that stress management techniques such as meditation have anti-inflammatory effects and are able to bring down cytokine levels in the body.

The second Damage is the Digestive Tract

Dr Dosset points out, “The gut basically contains multifaceted neural systems and immune cells responding to stress hormones.” This means that anxiety can cause acid reflux, worsens symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), or even gives you butterflies in your stomach.

The Third is The Immune system

For example, it has been proven that a lot of tension can cause the weakening of your immunity; hence explaining why people often come down with a cold right after finishing school or work or even on their first day during holidays. Dr. Dossett says, “Sometimes patients with autoimmune disorders will tell me they had flare-ups during or after stressful episodes; others say that their condition began following an exceptionally stressful event.”

The Fourth is Muddling Your Brain

Dr. Haythe claims that “Brain scans of individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) show increased activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain associated with fear and other emotions.” Nevertheless, normal stress can also shape how the brain handles information.

Additionally, Dr Gupta says that “We see actual changes in structure, function and connectivity in people’s brains who are under long-term stress. These changes may impair cognition and attention therefore making it harder for you to concentrate or learn new things when you are stressed”.

The Fifth is Pain Sensitivity

When we are stressed, it heightens our pain perception while at the same time causes pain by tensing our muscles. Dr. Gupta adds that “People under strain often have different experiences of pain.”

Moreover, sleep can get disrupted due to stress thereby compounding the problem. According to Dr. Haythe, “Sleep is so important because it prevents many diseases; it rejuvenates the immune system and protects against depression irritability exhaustion.”

Finally, Can You Get Cancer Because of Stress

Stress does not directly cause any specific illness, but according to Dr. Dossett, “we can say that stress is a contributing factor to serious illnesses.” One of the ways of preventing cancer among people is by changing their lifestyle habits. Since stress makes a person more prone to smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and unhealthy eating leading to obesity, it is safe to argue that stress causes diseases.

Monday has the highest number of heart attacks as it coincidentally happens to be the most stressful day of the week.