Why Mental Stress Causes a Cascade of Event in Your Body

Does it look like you are always tired, coming down with cold almost every week. Or maybe you are always having that backache, or shoulder blade pain that will never go even when you are not feeling sick, or do you have that troubled stomach every time, with pimple always showing up on your face, there there is a great chance that you are stressed. Stressed you would ask? But that's a high possibility. The World Health Organization refers to stress as a state of worry or mental tension was is triggered by difficult situation. But how stress that is a mental tension cause these things?

I remember a time when I was stressing over an exam in school. The course was a little difficult for me to comprehend and I didn't want to have a carryover because it would mean that I would have an extra year. In the course of thinking about the course and how I was going to pass the exam, I started to have stomach upset and until I saw the exam questions and realized that it was what I expected that I began to feel well back. Another thing that happens to me in recent times is when I work tirelessly for days because I have to meetup with a particular task or deadline, I realize that I begin to have pimples which is something I do not have normally.

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One thing that cannot be ruled out when discussing about stress is the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is released when the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA axis) is activated. For this to happen, the nervous system activates the flight or fight response which then leads to the release of the adrenal gland releasing adrenaline. if the stress is prolonged, the amygdala which is a part of the brain that is responsible for sensing danger triggers the hypothalamus to release a cascade of hormone that triggers the pituitary gland in the brain which then releases another hormone which goes down to the adrenal gland which releases cortisol.

Cortisol and Adrenaline is responsible for the stress feeling which can lead to a number of things including increased blood pressure so the body can get more oxygen from outside, It causes the release of more than normal amount of fat and glucose into the bloodstream so the muscles and brain can use it for energy. Cortisol doesn't only work for physical activities only. When a person is sick, it can boost the immune system in response to pathogens, as well as aid the healing of wounds.

Cortisol is very important for our daily activity, and that is why it is high in the morning and low at night so the body can rest. In the case of events that leads to the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA axis) being activated for a long time, such as in the case of worry over unemployment, loss of loved ones, and so on, the cortisol level in the body increases without regulation. This type of scenario can lead to the disruption of insulin activities in the body leading to an increased amount of blood sugar.

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If you think that stress makes people go slimmer or lean, then what about the researches that say stress can lead to people gaining weight? Correlating evidence are being brought up on how chronic stress influences the way the body stores fat. In a study in 2017 that looked at over 2500 men and women measuring hair cortisol levels and a correlation with obesity, and the study result correlated cortisol and obesity. We can say this happens because cortisol influence the way we eat since it controls insulin levels thereby increasing cravings for sugar, and its effect on the amygdala causes us to keep on doing it since we enjoy it

Studies have shown that stress affects the brain in the long run. It causes the brain to rewire itself so as to enable it handle such stress as they come, and in the same way, it affects the hippocampus causing it to shrink thereby making long time memory difficult. Asides from this, it affects the brain function leading to anxiety, addiction, and increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Let's be sincere, stress's impact extends far beyond mental strain, manifesting in an array of physical and cognitive symptoms. In other for us to overcome chronic stress, understanding its effects are importance, especially when it has to do with stress management for overall well-being.

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https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21459-pituitary-gland
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2020/report-october
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3341916/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32645916/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dev.20511
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21733
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https://bmcmedgenet.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12881-019-0764-4
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1130989/full