The Physical Dangers of Stress

Stress is the ultimate proof of the mind-body connection. Your mind perceives the stress; your body reacts to it in physically. In fact, there really isn't a part of your body that isn't affected by stress.

Stress, by its very nature, starts with the brain. Your body reacts like a roller coaster to the anxiety. It takes you up – fast, and then brings you crashing down – just as fast. Your perceived level of threat stimulates a surge of hormones which is the cause of the heightened state of alertness which accompanies the stress. That's why, very often, you find you can neither sleep nor relax while you're in this state.

But, since your body can't continue in this hyper-mode for a long time, you soon find that once the hormone level subsides, you are brought back down. This is when you experience the headaches, moodiness, memory loss, inability to concentrate and, at times, even aggressive behavior.

It's well known that stress suppresses and weakens your immune system, your first line of defense against colds and the flu, and other health issues. Your reaction to stress lowers your body's white blood cell count which reduces your system's ability to heal itself.

Without a doubt, the most widely researched effects of stress on the body deal with the heart. It has been widely publicized that more heart attacks occur at the beginning of the work week Monday (www.bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/health/612550.stm) than any other day of the week. As an interesting side note, many of those occur in the parking lot of the person's place of employment in the morning.

Some of the lesser known physical symptoms of stress reveal themselves in some of the most unlikely places, like the ears, the lungs and even in the hair. Those racing hormones which give us the ability to react more quickly to our perceived danger also heighten our sense of hearing.

While this may sound like a benefit, in reality, it can be a danger. Research conducted at Cornell University revealed that even a moderate amount of noise is capable of elevating the damaging stress hormones.

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