Fast heart rate that makes you feel like you are on the verge of a heart attack. Breathing problems, joint pain – and even blurred vision.
These may seem like the symptoms of a fatal disease. In fact, they're just a selection of the things that go wrong in your body when you experience an emotion that 84 percent of Americans experience on a weekly basis.
Many will undoubtedly have suffered from stress over the past two weeks. According to surveys, the majority of Americans consider the season of cheer to be the most stressful time of the year.
Experts have long noted that stress affects almost every part of the body – with the feeling linked to a host of conditions, including heart disease and intestinal problems.
And it's no wonder, considering the flood of damage that occurs throughout the body when we start to feel overwhelmed.
Fleeting feelings of stress are normal and healthy. But if the emotion lasts longer than a week or two, a cascade of bodily processes can lead to serious damage
'We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of the effects of stress on the human body,' psychiatrist Dr Peter Zafirides told DailyMail.com.
“It's a topic that highlights the complicated relationship between our mental state and physical health.”
In 2018, a major study by researchers at the University of California found that people with emotional problems such as anxiety and depression were as likely to have a stroke or heart disease as people who smoked or were obese.
Here, DailyMail.com reveals the fascinating chain reaction of events that occur in the body when stress arises.
It should come as no surprise that it all starts in the brain. The amygdala in the middle of the organ in particular is involved in emotions. When a trigger occurs, this area sends signals to the adrenal glands, telling them to release hormones called cortisol and adrenaline.
These are the 'fight or flight' hormones that tell the rest of the body that it is in danger.
Scientists don't know exactly why, but these substances send a signal to the apocrine glands in the armpits and groin telling them to release water; or sweat.
The hormones also increase the flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, making you feel more alert as your heart beats faster and your breathing increases.
In small doses, this reaction is not harmful. Initially, stress was intended to protect our ancestors from hunting or pain as they tried to survive.
But the health complications come when the stress is chronic, meaning the feeling lasts for more than a week.
Lauren Thayer, a registered nurse at an online health blog Health Channeltold DailyMail.com: 'Stress isn't always a bad thing because it helps our bodies respond to things that are just that: stressful and unusual.'
However, at higher doses, stress can cause the entire body to react, leading to lasting health problems such as high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, headaches and hormonal problems.
“Chronic stress that doesn't go away is incredibly damaging to health and needs to be addressed,” Ms. Thayer said.
When you're stressed, those spikes of cortisol and adrenaline cause the heart to pump faster to accommodate the extra blood flow.
The blood vessels also begin to narrow, raising blood pressure and making it more difficult for blood to reach the heart muscle.
'Both of these will make your heart work harder. The increased work on your heart, combined with chronic high blood pressure, increases your risk of heart attack or stroke,” Thayer said.
Your muscles are also more likely to tense up when you are stressed, to protect them from injury. However, that tension can lead to body pain, back and shoulder pain and headaches.
“If you're constantly stressed, your muscles may never fully relax,” Ms. Thayer said.
The increased breathing rate can also make asthma, which narrows the airways and leads to breathing difficulties, more severe.
Constantly elevated cortisol causes an inflammatory response in the body, which can affect the joints. Inflammation fuels joint conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, so stress can cause symptoms to become more apparent.
'Within the joints, the interplay of stress and inflammation can increase the sensation of pain and stiffness, which manifests as discomfort in response to increased stress levels,' says Dr Zafirides.
During times of stress, the liver produces increased levels of the sugar glucose to boost energy. This causes blood sugar levels to rise. In the short term, high blood sugar can make you feel hungry, thirsty, or need to urinate more often. It can also lead to headaches, blurred vision and fatigue.
Stress hormones interact with compounds that determine how hungry or full we are.
This can cause food to move faster or slower through the digestive system, leading to constipation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Stress also reduces prostaglandins – the fats that help heal damaged tissue and absorb stomach acid. Without them, you're more susceptible to acid reflux.
This can also worsen peptic ulcers, open sores that form on the lining of the stomach and upper part of the small intestine. Although it can worsen symptoms due to the lack of protection from stomach acid, stress cannot cause them, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In small doses, the immune system can benefit from stress. “Stress stimulates the immune system, making it ready to prevent infections and wounds,” Ms. Thayer said.
However, too much stress ultimately weakens the immune system, making it unable to fight invaders such as viruses or bacteria.
“If someone is chronically stressed, they will likely take longer to recover from a cold and will also be more susceptible,” Ms. Thayer said.
Meanwhile, the excessive sweating that is often associated with stress and anxiety can worsen conditions such as eczema or acne, Dr. Langham said.
Finally, if stress continues long enough, it can affect fertility. Brain imaging studies show that high levels of cortisol can disrupt the delicate balance of sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone and FH.
This means that women may notice that their periods stop, are irregular, and may have cycles where they do not ovulate.
Dr. Langham adds that the disruption of testosterone can also affect sperm production in men.