They are many times the ones we mentioned stress as a means to refer to a situation that worries us or makes us nervous. However, stress is something more serious than all that and its symptoms affect us in various ways, and can lead to some diseases. And what diseases can stress cause?
Stress affects us both physically and mentally, and can contribute to the appearance or worsening of many health problems. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes or asthma are just some of them. Discover them all below!
When a person is stressed, the body responds to what it considers a threat with a response that can cause physical damage to our bodies, but also confuse our minds and alter our behavior. So it is not strange that certain diseases such as the following, appear or worsen with stress.
Muscle problems
The stressful situations the muscles of our body tenses to protect yourself from possible injury. And what happens if we suffer from such situations continuously? Headaches and other muscular pains in the neck and shoulders begin to appear. And these are aggravated by chronic stress extending to the back, being able to limit the movement of the neck and shoulders and increasing the pain suffered.
Gastrointestinal disorders
stress can aggravate digestive problems, especially in those people with common gastrointestinal problems, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease or irritable bowel syndrome. And it has been shown that in addition to biological factors, psychological ones also contribute to these disorders.
I think who more who less, we have all suffered specific digestive problems in nervous situations. So it is not difficult to imagine the consequences of a long period under stress.
Heart disease
When suffering from acute stress it is not uncommon for both heart rate as blood flow increases. Some consequences that in turn could cause high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in the bloodstream, risk factors for heart disease.
But there are other reasons why your risk of heart disease might increase with stress. And it is many people when they suffer stress tend to Eat excessively, which together with the exercise skirt due to lack of encouragement, becomes another risk factor.
Asthma
Many studies have tested the relationship between stress and asthma. And it is that the first can be a trigger in the symptoms of asthma -inflammation of the respiratory tract- and cause a worsening of this disease.
Weak immune system
Stress puts our body on alert and when that happens, it generally works to defend itself against infections. But this is only the case when the stress situation is punctual. When, on the contrary, it becomes a continuous or chronic situation, the immune system tends to weaken in the long run. And as a consequence we become more vulnerable to external attacks like infections.
worsening of diabetes
We have mentioned it before, people who suffer from stress have to abandon healthy habits They eat poorly, eat more sugar, tend to increase their consumption of tobacco and alcohol, and also give up their exercise routines.
These changes in habits not only make people predisposed to diabetes, due to family history or lifestyle, more likely to suffer from the disease, but also glucose levels of people with type 2 diabetes skyrocket.
It is very important that people with diabetes but not only these take care of your mental health. Trying to take a short break from the factor that triggered the stress would undoubtedly be an ideal and effective measure, but not always possible. And faced with this impossibility, the best tool is to seek the support of friends, family and health professionals in order to learn how to better manage the situation and avoid those diseases that stress can cause.