We hear a lot about how stress is bad for healthy living. But do you know exactly how it’s impacting your life? It goes deeper than an uncomfortable emotion, it can impact your sleep, your productivity, even your relationships. Here’s a look at how stress is affecting your body, so you can learn how important it is to manage better and more effectively.

Muscle Tension

Stress affects how we move, how we sit, and how we stand. It’s felt in the very muscles of our body and over time can lead to injury or stress-related disorders. Since muscle tension is like a reflex in response to stress, it can be difficult to avoid or mitigate. But those who suffer from chronic stress, who find their body to be in a near constant state of tension, can see more severe reactions as a result. For example, tension headaches and migraines are associated with chronic muscle tension in the shoulders, neck, and head – common muscle tension hot spots for those who manage high levels of stress on a regular basis.

Breathing Problems

Another common side effect of stress is difficulty breathing, or breathing harder or more rapidly. Stress impacts our normal body functions, and breathing is no exception. For those suffering from very stressful situations, it can be difficult to maintain a normal breathing rate. For those with asthma or emphysema, that’s a very bad thing. Getting the oxygen you need to function properly is critical to health both long-term and in difficult situations. Rapid breathing can even bring on a panic attack for those prone to this experience.

Impacts to Cardiovascular System

Stress can even directly affect the heart and blood vessels that make up the vital cardiovascular system. Your heart and blood work together to provide nutrients and oxygen to all the organs in the body. They also act differently in response to stress. Acute stress that is short-term in nature can increase heart rate and create stronger contractions of the heart. Hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol are additional byproducts of this stress response. Blood vessels dilate increasing the amount of blood moving within the body which results in elevated blood pressure in the commonly experienced fight or flight response. Once the stress episode has passed, the body returns to its normal state and life goes on as before.

But in the case of long-term stress experiences or a state of chronic stress, these normal responses can create long-term health effects of the heart and blood vessels. An ongoing increase in heart rate and elevated stress hormones can be very harmful to an individual. They increase the risk of hypertension, heart attack, and even stroke. In addition to these, repeated stress responses can contribute to inflammation in the circulatory system as well as cholesterol levels.

The important lesson to learn from all this is that while stress is often a daily concern of most professionals, it does have important and far-reaching impacts to your health and well-being. If you have not yet learned the necessary methods to manage your stress levels, you would do well to see how you could improve your health sooner rather than later.

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