"Stress doesn't only
make us feel awful emotionally," says Jay Winner, MD, author of Take the
Stress Out of Your Life and director of the Stress Management Program for
Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara, Calif. "It can also exacerbate just about
any health condition you can think of."
Studies have found many
health problems related to stress. Stress seems to worsen or increase the risk
of conditions like obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes,
depression, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma.
Before you get too stressed
out about being stressed out, there is some good news. Following some simple
stress relief tips could both lower your stress and lower your health risks.
10 Health Problems Related
to Stress
What are some of the most
significant health problems related to stress? Here's a sampling.
Heart disease. Researchers
have long suspected that the stressed-out, type A personality has a higher risk
of high blood pressure and heart problems. We don't know why, exactly. Stress
can directly increase heart rate and blood flow, and causes the release of
cholesterol and triglycerides into the blood stream. It's also possible that
stress is related to other problems -- an increased likelihood of smoking or
obesity -- that indirectly increase the heart risks.
Doctors do know that sudden
emotional stress can be a trigger for serious cardiac problems, including heart
attacks. People who have chronic heart problems need to avoid acute stress --
and learn how to successfully manage life's unavoidable stresses -- as much as
they can.
Asthma. Many studies have
shown that stress can worsen asthma. Some evidence suggests that a parent's
chronic stress might even increase the risk of developing asthma in their children.
One study looked at how parental stress affected the asthma rates of young
children who were also exposed to air pollution or whose mothers smoked during
pregnancy. The kids with stressed out parents had a substantially higher risk
of developing asthma.
Obesity. Excess fat in the
belly seems to pose greater health risks than fat on the legs or hips -- and
unfortunately, that's just where people with high stress seem to store it.
"Stress causes higher levels of the hormone cortisol," says Winner,
"and that seems to increase the amount of fat that's deposited in the
abdomen."
Diabetes. Stress can worsen
diabetes in two ways. First, it increases the likelihood of bad behaviors, such
as unhealthy eating and excessive drinking. Second, stress seems to raise the
glucose levels of people with type 2 diabetes directly.
Headaches. Stress is
considered one of the most common triggers for headaches -- not just tension
headaches, but migraines as well.
Depression and anxiety.
It's probably no surprise that chronic stress is connected with higher rates of
depression and anxiety. One survey of recent studies found that people who had
stress related to their jobs -- like demanding work with few rewards -- had an
80% higher risk of developing depression within a few years than people with
lower stress.
Gastrointestinal problems.
Here's one thing that stress doesn't do -- it doesn't cause ulcers. However, it
can make them worse. Stress is also a common factor in many other GI
conditions, such as chronic heartburn (or gastroesophageal reflux disease,
GERD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Winner says.
Alzheimer's disease. One
animal study found that stress might worsen Alzheimer's disease, causing its
brain lesions to form more quickly. Some researchers speculate that reducing
stress has the potential to slow down the progression of the disease.
Accelerated aging. There's
actually evidence that stress can affect how you age. One study compared the
DNA of mothers who were under high stress -- they were caring for a chronically
ill child -- with women who were not. Researchers found that a particular
region of the chromosomes showed the effects of accelerated aging. Stress
seemed to accelerate aging about 9 to 17 additional years.
Premature death. A study
looked at the health effects of stress by studying elderly caregivers looking
after their spouses -- people who are naturally under a great deal of stress.
It found that caregivers had a 63% higher rate of death than people their age
who were not caregivers.
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