Know what the body’s reactions are when you are stressed and how it can affect your overall health. We all know that stress can be harmful, but below we can better understand how our body is able to react to a moment of emotional tension such as stress.
What happens in the body when we are stressed
When we are faced with a situation of great tension, such as a survival test or extreme and extreme situations, stress can become a necessary mechanism to help us survive, since in this way certain mechanisms can be put into operation that They allow us to face the most adverse situations, for example, there may be the situation of having to escape from an animal, take refuge from a storm, suffer very strong pain and be alone in the middle of the forest, seek protection in moments of an earthquake and other situations .
For example, if a dog bequeaths you to bite, stress causes the body to fire reagents to accelerate the heart rate, which will help us run faster; the pupils dilate to widen the visual field; changes blood circulation to prevent bleeding from the wound; etc”. All of this is a mere defense mechanism and stress is its driver.
Common reactions to acute stress
- Excessive sweating .
- Dry mouth
- Feeling of tightness in the chest.
- Stoppage of the digestive system, because the blood goes to the viscera.
- Sudden and severe headaches.
- Tremors in the extremities.
- Increased blood pressure and heart rate.
- Urgency to urinate or evacuate. These gastrointestinal problems are often one of the main problems that stress causes in the body .
The other type of stress is chronic stress , which also generates a hormonal reaction, but it is not acute, that is, the secretion of hormones remains constant.
However, this does not mean that the risks are lower, on the contrary, the constant tension leads to the constant emission of negative hormones, such as cortisol (hydrocortisone) which alters all the metabolism of fats and predisposes them to be raise the cholesterol in the veins, thus increasing the risk of heart attack.
In addition, the emission of negative hormones affects the immune, digestive and other systems, making it more prone to infectious or chronic diseases, such as gastritis and colitis.
How the body reacts to chronic stress
Symptoms of chronic stress include:
- Back and neck pain.
- Stiff jaw.
- Insomnia problems.
- High pressure
- Excessive sweating
We present here the following series of solutions to relieve or reduce stress that you can apply at home to avoid the damage that this problem, when it is chronic, can cause the body.