Stuck in high gear Is it possible to worry yourself sick? According to the Mayo Clinic, it is. Your body has a hard-wired self-defense system commonly known as the fight-or-flight response. The response is supposed to kick in when you encounter an immediate physical threat and turn off when the threat passes. However, your body can get stuck in fight-or flight-mode because of stress, and this can cause health problems. Your body’s fight-or-flight mechanism is a natural, life-saving system that’s highly efficient and effective when you have to use your muscles quickly. However, the stress of modern life can cause it to short circuit. If you’re under constant stress, rather than short-lived or occasional stress, the hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, triggers an alarm that stays on. The alarm from your hypothalamus starts a series of signals that cause your adrenal glands to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline and cortisol help your body take action during the fight-or-flight response. When prolonged stress inhibits your body to transition back to relaxation mode, your body becomes overexposed to cortisol and other stress hormones. Adrenaline and cortisol aren’t always bad, and you need them under the right circumstances. Adrenaline increases:
Cortisol increases glucose in the bloodstream, boosts the brain’s use of glucose, and increases the availability of substances necessary to repair tissues. Additionally, cortisol slows nonessential bodily functions so that the maximum amount of energy can be allocated to defending yourself against an immediate physical threat. When you encounter stressors, your body’s growth processes and your reproductive, digestive, and immune systems are temporarily suppressed. This surge and focus of energy is useful if a bear confronts you, for example. But when stress is derived from more common stressors such as a heavy workload and accumulating bills, a continued fight-or-flight response isn’t your body’s best defense. This is why stress management is important in modern life. If your body is handling stress properly, a relaxation response will follow the fight-or-flight response. This occurs due to a release of countering hormones. During the relaxation response of the parasympathetic nervous system, your body shifts back into equilibrium. It allows your heart rate and blood pressure to return to baseline levels and enables activities such as digestion and sleep to resume at their normal pace. Do the following to help manage your stress throughout the day and to avoid the potential for developing stress-related illnesses:
If work and life obligations are keeping you busy to the point of developing a stress-related illness, the thought of adding another event to your calendar might increase your stress rather than lower it. This may be the case even if the event is one that reduces stress. It’s unlikely that life will ever be entirely stress-free, so make a point to keep your stress under control and take time out when you need it to stay healthy, productive, and happy. Stress symptoms may be affecting your health, even though you might not realize it. You may think illness is to blame for that irritating headache, your frequent insomnia or your decreased productivity at work. But stress may actually be the cause. Common effects of stressIndeed, stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Being able to recognize common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Common effects of stress
Act to manage stressIf you have stress symptoms, taking steps to manage your stress can have many health benefits. Explore stress management strategies, such as:
Aim to find active ways to manage your stress. Inactive ways to manage stress — such as watching television, surfing the internet or playing video games — may seem relaxing, but they may increase your stress over the long term. And be sure to get plenty of sleep and eat a healthy, balanced diet. Avoid tobacco use, excess caffeine and alcohol, and the use of illegal substances. When to seek helpIf you're not sure if stress is the cause or if you've taken steps to control your stress but your symptoms continue, see your doctor. Your healthcare provider may want to check for other potential causes. Or consider seeing a professional counselor or therapist, who can help you identify sources of your stress and learn new coping tools. Also, get emergency help immediately if you have chest pain, especially if you also have shortness of breath, jaw or back pain, pain radiating into your shoulder and arm, sweating, dizziness, or nausea. These may be warning signs of a heart attack and not simply stress symptoms. Sign up for free, and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID-19, plus expertise on managing health. To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail. March 24, 2021
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