title. I feel like you always hear stuff to the liking of “high stress leads to poor health,” but I am kind of wondering exactly why this occurs.
For instance, it’s said that stress can cause:
- Aches and pains.
- Chest pain or a feeling like your heart is racing.
- Exhaustion or trouble sleeping.
- Headaches, dizziness or shaking.
- High blood pressure.
- Muscle tension or jaw clenching.
- Stomach or digestive problems.
- Trouble having sex.
- Weak immune system.
Imagine, hypothetically, that I were to have a high stress life, but still had good sleep, low blood pressure, and a slow heart rate, while also staying away from unhealthy habits like drinking or addiction.
Would my health still be worse than a person who lives an equivalent, but less stressful life than me?
Yes. The main reason is that the stress response releases a bunch of hormones, specifically cortisol and adrenaline, which cause the fight-or-flight response. A side effect of this is that the body turns off (or at least, slows down) a lot of the functions it uses to take care of itself such as the immune system and digestive system. When this happens constantly over a long period, it can absolutely cause problems because your body is constantly trying to prepare to run away from some predator instead of taking care of itself.
In addition to fight or flight, cortisol is an anti-inflammatory. Which sounds good, but when the body is inflamed and keeps having its complaints obscured by cortisol when you really need rest… the result is more inflammation and possible further damage. So the body provides more cortisol…
Pre-existing unrelated conditions feel even worse from the elevated cortisol, which also elevates cortisol…
It’s a dangerous feedback loop, 0/10, do not recommend.
So, the negative effects of stress don’t come from stress itself, but from the fight-or-flight response it elicits. Could you not just switch to having a different response to stress?
For instance, from “The Upside of Stress” by Kelly McGonigal, it says there can be more stress responses than fight-or-flight. Would this then indicate as long as you don’t show symptoms of the fight-or-flight response (poor immune system, digestive system, etc), your stress doesn’t necessarily have to be harmful to you? :)
edit: Found a cool TedTalk from Kelly McGonigal as well