Side Effects of Stress

It’s important to understand how stress can impact your day-to-day life as well as your long-term health. Here are some ways that chronic stress may affect your physical and mental health.

Brain
Stress can impede your thought processes and hamper your thinking. You may find making simple decisions like what to have for dinner or remembering directions to a restaurant are more difficult than in a non-stressed state.

Emotions
People dealing with chronic stress may be easily frustrated and quick to lose their temper. They may cry more often and spend considerably more time worrying about things than they would without being stressed.

Teeth and Gums
Strange as it may seem, stress can take a toll on your oral health. Stress may cause you to clench or grind your teeth. It’s often done unconsciously or during your sleep, but if it’s not treated, it may lead to problems with your temporomandibular joints. Stress may also lead to gum disease, perhaps because of teeth grinding, less attention to oral hygiene, salivary changes, and impaired immunity.


Heart
In terms of its effect on the body, stress is dangerous to your heart. Stress hormones speed up your heart rate, constrict blood vessels, and make the heart and blood vessels more likely to overreact in the event of a future stressful event. Stress is also linked to high blood pressure, blood clots, and in some cases, even stroke.


Lungs
People with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often have worsening symptoms during times of chronic stress.


Stomach
Stress may make your stomach uneasy, and you may have increased incidence of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. In people with gastrointestinal disorders and diseases like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis, and peptic ulcer disease, symptoms may be worsened by stress.


Skin
Stress may make skin problems such as psoriasis, eczema, acne, and rosacea worse. It is also known to bring on cold sores and fever blisters.


Hair
Your hair may fall victim to your stress. When a person is under a great deal of stress, his or her hair may enter the falling-out stage of the hair life cycle. It can occur up to three months after the stressful event, but hair usually grows back within a year.


Muscles
Stress-related tension in your back, neck, and shoulders can lead to muscle pain throughout your body.


Immune System
If it seems you always get sick when you can least afford it, it may be because your stress is suppressing your immune system, making you more susceptible to infection. Stress can worsen symptoms of chronic illness such as rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.