Knowing these stress facts is going to help you. How? At least you will know what stress can do to you.
And…once you know the ill-doings of stress, you can identify whether you are under stress or not. Once identified, you can deploy necessary stress management techniques to make your life better.
Go through this article on stress facts carefully because stress can affect every aspect of your life. Act before it is too late.
Stress Facts: 1-5
1. Stress is often dubbed as a silent killer. It is responsible for various health conditions. For example, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, cardiac diseases – all can be caused by stress.
2. Stress never turns your hair grey. However, hair loss is attributed to stress. Weird thing, hair loss due to stress may not be immediate. Three months after the stressful event took place, hair loss can show up.
3. Body’s neurochemical makeup is altered by stress. In women, this may adversely affect maturation as well as release of eggs.
4. Implantation can also be affected by stress because it can lead to spasm of uterus and fallopian tubes.
5. In men stress can lead to motility, which in turn leads to erectile dysfunction. Stress also adversely affects sperm count.
Stress Facts: 6-10
6. If you have an acne problem, try not to get stressed or at least manage your stress properly. Researchers say that acne is caused more by stress than by rise in sebum level. Sebum is the oily substance that is present in the skin and usually is the cause for acne.
7. Of all the causes of death, there are six leading causes – suicide, cancer, liver cirrhosis, lung diseases, heart diseases and accidents. Weirdly, stress is directly linked to all of these causes.
8. Accumulation of abdominal fat is caused by cortisol – the stress hormone in our body. Apart from this stress is also responsible for enlargement of fat cells. Researchers call this condition ‘diseased fat’.
9. When a person’s spouse becomes disabled, the person’s stress levels increase because he or she needs to take care of the disabled spouse. This stress can then significantly increase the risk of stroke in the able-bodied person.
10. In children, developmental growth can be impaired because of chronic stress. This happens because the pituitary gland produces less growth hormones due to stress.
Stress Facts: 11-15
11. In a stressed person, a flesh wound may not lead to bleeding. This happens because stress is known for closing capillaries.
12. During stress, a condition called mydriasis happens. This is nothing but dilation of pupils. It is the same type of dilation which happens when a person gets attracted to some other person. Stress-induced dilation happens for gathering more information about a particular situation that causes the stress. This information gathering takes place visually.
13. In situations of chronic stress, our brain keeps getting flooded with very powerful hormones. These hormones are usually designed for emergency situations that last for a short term. When the brain is exposed to these hormones for a long term, brain cells can shrink, get damaged or even get killed.
14. According to scientists, stress is evolutionary and has aided humans with survival. Under temporary conditions, stress helps to improve physical performance and raise mental awareness.
15. Researchers have shown that dark chocolate, consumed moderately, helps to reduce cortisol – the stress hormone as well as other fight-flight hormones.
Stress Facts: 16-20
16. Under stress, the body preps up for some kind of injury (even though actual injury may not happen). That’s when stress leads to thickening of blood. Under such situations the possibility of blood clot development increases.
17. Cytokine production in the body increases under conditions of chronic stress. This leads to inflammation. Constant inflammation leads to organs and arteries damage.
18. Stress leads to mood swings because it alters the sugar levels in blood. It also causes metabolic syndrome, hyperglycemia and fatigue. Metabolic syndrome actually increases the risk of heart diseases and several other types of diseases including diabetes.
19. IBS or irritable bowel syndrome gets worsened because of stress. IBS is known for causing problems like bloating, cramping and constipation.
20. Stress is not the cause of peptic ulcers. Using NSAIDS can lead to peptic ulcer and so can the H. pylori bacteria. However, stress can worsen the condition of the peptic ulcer and prevent it from healing quickly.
Stress Facts: 21-25
21. Did you know that if a person is HIV-infected, high stress can only lead the progression to AIDS faster? People infected with HIV but having low stress will have slower progression to AIDS.
22. When stress increases, the blood-brain barrier starts allowing chemicals to pass through it. This is not a good thing. Blood-brain barrier is where every harmful chemical and foreign bodies are prevented from affecting the neurons. It is a protective shield for brain neurons. Once chemicals pass through it, the brain can be adversely affected. Anything like toxins and viruses and cross the blood-brain barrier under conditions of stress.
23. Intrauterine infections and preterm labor are two very common problems associated with stress.
24. Risk of stress-related disorders developing in the fetus increases significantly in women who suffer from chronic stress. Neurobehavioral development and temperament of the fetus can change under such conditions.
25. When stress level increases, more blood is pumped into other parts of the body. Since the blood gets rerouted from the head, it leads to severe headaches.
Stress Facts: 26-30
26. If the stress response system of the body gets hyper aroused, the end result is chronic insomnia.
27. Exposure to stress hormones makes the cells in the body shrink. As a result, the cells get disconnected from one another. This is a contributing factor to depression.
28. A child’s brain can physically change because of post-traumatic stress. Stress manages to shrink that part of the brain which is responsible for retrieving memories. That part is known as hippocampus.
29. Compared to women, men are more vulnerable to disorders related to stress. Aggressive behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, hypertension are some examples of such disorders.
30. Hormonal changes can take place because of stress. This can lead to decreased sex response and libido.
Stress Facts: 31-35
31. According BBC reports stress hormones are decreased by penetrative sex. Other forms of sex like oral or masturbation do not have the same effect.
32. Stress cardiomyopathy or Broken Heart Syndrome is usually found in women. The condition develops very rapidly after a sudden or extreme emotional trauma. BHS is nothing but severe weakness of heart muscles.
33. Loud noises can lead to acoustic stress. Acoustic stress leads to a condition known as LQTS or Long QT Syndrome. In simple English, it is a disorder related to the electrical system of the heart. It can lead to death.
34. Nearly 30% of infertility problems are all attributed to stress.
35. Stress can be relieved simply by thinking of stress relief. Things like affirmations, visual fantasies and even positive thinking can help to reduce stress levels.
Stress Facts: 36-40
36. Laughing helps to reduce stress by lowering the levels of various hormones like cortisol, epinephrine and adrenaline.
37. Premature aging is one of the outcomes of excessive stress.
38. Body’s immune system can significantly lose its response ability because of stress. Even a person’s response to various immunizations can be greatly reduced because of stress.
39. Women who are highly stressed have way more suicidal tendencies compared to women in less stress.
40. Baoding balls or the Chinese stress balls were invented during the Ming Dynasty in a place called Baoding. These were iron balls. When held in hand, the Baoding balls touched and massaged the acupuncture points present on palms, and thereby helped to relieve stress.
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