Stress is everywhere these days. Macro dose, micro doses, long term, short term stress. The word is everywhere and just saying it makes people more stressed. STRESSSSSSSSED. I can sense your cortisol is rising and you might want to run and hide! Knowledge is Power, even knowing about the bad stuff.
So what does it mean? Why is bad for us? What is it doing to our bodies?
Stress causes a hormonal response in our body which unfortunately isn’t maintainable. In primitive times these responses were accessed when we were fighting for food, running from predators and generally fighting for survival. When we weren’t doing these things our bodies were able to come back to “base level” and our hormones returned to a balance point and we were calm.
These days we are around stress all the time. Constantly increased stimulus and sensory overload. It keeps our tolerance to stress going down so we then feel it in full force.
“We are now surrounded by triggers but we haven’t evolved to cope with” Dr R. Chatterjee
Here is what happens to our body during a stress response:
High levels or cortisol & fight + flight in the long term causes:
- Chronic HBP- Heart disease/Stroke
- Increased risks of blood clots
- Long term insulin resistance- type 2 diabetes, increased cholesterol, possible other hormonal imbalances.
- Digestion re-diverted- IBS, indigestion, constipation, bloating.
- Kills nerve cells
- Decreased libido
- Brain is heightened to all stress and threat levels = anxiety, overthinking, over analysing.
- Increased inflammation- chronic diseases, depression and many others.
- Anhedonia: inability to experience pleasure.
All of these in any order and/or combination lead to mental and physical health processes we haven’t updated or evolved to yet!
So there’s more to be done!
Check out my TIPS TO REDUCE ANXIETY TRIGGERS!
