Is It Really The Case That Stress Detrimental To Our Health?

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Doctors have known for some time that stress can affect your health but we are only now starting to really understand precisely how stress can affect the body. A lot of the myths surrounding stress, such as the fact that stress could produce ulcers, are finally being exposed while others are now being confirmed.

Several of the obvious affects of stress such as, muscle tension, a rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, headaches and digestive problems are easy to recognize and well known, however there are also various long-term and potentially serious conditions which can be produced by chronic stress.

Studies which have been conducted at the National Institutes of Health and at other institutions for instance strongly suggest that stress affects the body's immune system. Interestingly enough these very studies have also shown that the affect can be both positive and negative.

As one definition of stress is that it is simply an individual's 'fight or flight' response to an apparent threat, it can have a good affect. For example, it can, set off the release of chemicals which help to heal infections arising from bites. This makes sense if you consider how evolution may have tailored the body's immune system to cope with these events.

However, when this response persists over a lengthy time period, the affects may be harmful and one result is that the body's immune system actually reduces in effectiveness leading to a higher susceptibility to infection and lower resistance to colds and other virus induced illnesses.

Yet another result is a general feeling of tiredness and sometimes depression. If an individual is stressed for long periods then a feedback loop develops between the cause of the stress (the clear belief that it is not possible to solve the problem which is causing the stress) and the affects. This gives rise to a cycle in which your belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Chronic stress may also have an influence on your health by compromising you circulatory system. If stress hormones released as a result of the 'fight or flight' trigger are not depleted by {some form of physical activity such as fighting off an infection|the physical activity of, for instance, fighting off an infection then they can result in actual physiological stress on the body.

Hypertension hightens the tension on the walls of blood vessels which can result in tiny tears arising in the blood vessels. If the body reacts to heal these micro-tears, scar tissue can be produced which restricts the flow of blood through the vessels.

If stress levels are very high or persist for a long enough period of time a heart attack may occur. The likelihood of heart attack is also heightened in older people or in people who are carrying specific genetic characteristics. As the blood vessels narrow, the heart might well be unable to deliver enough blood and oxygen at moments of high demand.

It has also been known for some time that stress can worsen the affects of rheumatoid arthritis and this is now also explained by the affect of stress on the immune system as there is a proven and well documented connection between rheumatoid arthritis and the body's immune system.

It is important for all of us to avoid stress if we are to maintain good health and, luckily, as we begin to gain a better understanding of stress we are also developing various extremely successful techniques for relieving stress.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

For more information about stress, including such things as stress symptoms and stress relief please visit Stress-Relief-And-Anxiety-Relievers.com

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