16/06/2023
The human body reacts to stress by first pumping adrenaline and then cortisol into the bloodstream to focus the mind and body for immediate action — a response that has ensured our survival over the millennia. The adrenaline rush from the initial stress response can occasionally pose health risks, according to Cohen, but the more significant hazard is the subsequent release of cortisol. Generally considered a bad stress hormone, cortisol does serve many important functions — one of which is turning off inflammation. But when chronic stress exposes the body to a relentless stream of cortisol, as happens when stress is constant, cells become desensitized to the hormone, "causing inflammation to go wild," Cohen says. Long-term chronic inflammation damages blood vessels and brain cells, leads to insulin resistance (a precursor to diabetes) and promotes painful joint diseases.
Here are eight other conditions that may be caused by stress:
1. The common COLD
In one groundbreaking 2012 study, Cohen and his colleagues interviewed 276 healthy adults about stressful events in their lives and then exposed them to a cold virus. Those experiencing chronic stress were cortisol resistant — and were more likely to get sick. "The immune system's ability to regulate inflammation predicts who will develop a cold, but more importantly it provides an explanation of how stress can promote disease," Cohen says. "When under continuous stress, cells of the immune system are unable to respond properly, and consequently produce levels of inflammation that lead to disease."
2. Weight gain
We've long known that stress hormones stimulate a preference for foods that are full of sugar, starch and fat — that's why we're more likely to reach for a candy bar to get through a stressful day at the office. But new research shows that the link between stress and weight gain is far more complex than simply poor food choices. In a study published in July in Biological Psychiatry, women who had one or more stressful events during the previous 24 hours burned 104 fewer calories in the seven hours following a fast-food meal than women who ate a similar meal but were stress-free. Although 104 calories may sound negligible, that can add up to 11 extra pounds a year. In addition to triggering these apparent changes in metabolism, the stress response produces a rise in insulin levels and a fall in fat oxidation, a dual process that promotes fat storage, says stress researcher Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry at Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus and the study's lead author. Other research has revealed a correlation between excess cortisol and abdominal fat.
3. Slower Healing
Excess cortisol slows wound healing and lowers vaccines' effectiveness in older people who are caring for sick family members, new research shows. In another of Kiecolt-Glaser's studies, older women caring for relatives with dementia took about 10 days longer to heal from a biopsy wound than a noncaregiver control group. And, she says, "the longer the stress goes on, the longer the immune response is disrupted." Significantly, the caregivers in the study who had a strong network of friends and family healed faster than those who lacked such support.
4. Sleep dysfunction
Older adults already experience a natural decrease in their amount of deep sleep and an increase in nighttime wakefulness, says sleep researcher Martica Hall, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Stress may aggravate these sleep deficits, making it especially hard for older people to get back to sleep when they wake up at night. Because sleep deprivation impairs memory and emotional control, people with troubled sleep may then find it harder to handle the stress in their lives. In other words, "cortisol levels may contribute to nighttime wakefulness and then our brains respond by reminding us of our problems," Hall says.
5. Heart Disease
Scientists have known for years that there's a connection between long-term stress and heart attacks, but until recently the reasons were imperfectly understood. A study in the June issue of Nature Medicine sheds light on the phenomenon. Matthias Nahrendorf, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, discovered that blood samples taken from medical residents enduring high levels of stress contained a surplus of disease-fighting white blood cells. Previous research had suggested that cortisol actually changes the texture of white blood cells, encouraging the cells to attach themselves to blood vessel walls. The result is plaque, a key marker of heart disease. Nahrendorf's team confirmed this hypothesis when they found that a surplus of white blood cells caused hardening of the arteries in stressed but otherwise healthy mice.
6. Depression
Over the past decade, researchers have reevaluated stress's role in depression and brain health, says Huda Akil, professor of neuroscience at the University of Michigan. While it is often triggered by a stress-inducing episode, depression eventually "takes on a life of its own," she says. Stress throws several brain neurotransmitter systems — such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine — out of balance, negatively affecting mood, appetite, sleep and libido. Some severely depressed people have permanently elevated cortisol levels, which can eventually alter the hippocampus and permanently damage brain cells. "Depression truly is an illness that changes the brain," Akil says.
7. Ulcers and other stomach problems
For 50 years, scientists attributed stomach ulcers to stress. Then in 1983, Australian researchers Robin Warren and Barry Marshall discovered that ulcers are actually caused by the bacteria H. pylori. So were the godfathers of stress research wrong? It turns out that around 15 percent of stomach ulcers occur in people not infected with the bacteria and only about 10 percent of infected people get ulcers, according to Robert Sapolsky, a stress researcher at Stanford University and author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. One theory holds that the effect of chronic stress on the immune system allows the H. pylori bacteria to thrive. Another is that exposure to stress can change the balance of bacteria in the gut, giving harmful ones the upper hand. "The bacteria are able to grow because the immune system is not functioning properly," neuroscientist Bruce McEwen says. "So ulcers ultimately do come down to a stress impairment." Scientists remain divided about this conclusion, but agree that stress can be a critical factor in irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion, heartburn, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, which is characterized by chronic inflammation.
8. Back, neck and shoulder pain
Millions of South Africans spend their days hunched over computer screens and mobile phones, so it's no surprise that neck, shoulder and back pain are among the most common — and costly — health complaints. The combination of physical inactivity and mental strain does not in itself create the disk tears, spinal stenosis and scoliosis that plague people as they age, but once the pain kicks in, stress can intensify both its severity and its duration. Musculoskeletal pain seems particularly sensitive to workplace stress. Researchers aren't sure why people with stressful jobs have more back, neck and shoulder pain, but have theorized that stress-induced inflammation prevents the full healing that would make the pain recede
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