The effect of stress on the human body: how stress affects human health
The constant accompanying feeling of anxiety, irritability, inability to relax, forget about problems provokes fluctuations in blood pressure, excessive sweating, problems with the gastrointestinal tract.
How stress affects the human body: premature aging
How does stress affect a person, and why does premature aging of the body occur under its influence?
Premature (pathological) aging of the body is a process associated with the acceleration and qualitative distortion of the natural mechanisms of aging, which occurs as a result of exposure to the body of negative stress factors, both physiological and emotional.
Even in young people under the influence of stress on the body, a clinical picture of psychovegetative exhaustion can be observed, similar to similar changes in the elderly.
In this case, the body's energy reserves are depleted, the neurons of the nervous system change, and antioxidant protection and immunity are suppressed. It can manifest itself both at the level of the whole organism and individual organs and systems.
How exactly does stress affect the body, causing aging? In most cases, the processes of accelerated (or premature) aging depend on disturbances in the activity of the central nervous system, which is responsible for maintaining all organs and systems of the body in working order. The CNS regulates and controls functions both directly, through the autonomic nervous system (by sending certain signals), and indirectly, primarily through the endocrine system, the central organ of which is located in the brain.
For normal functioning, the brain needs calm, that is, it should not experience constant overvoltage, which is primarily expressed in overexcitation of brain cells (neurons), leading to inadequate, excessive activation of lower structures, both the brain itself and all systems and organs.
How does stress affect the human body from a psychological point of view? Psychologically, this is most often felt as a state of constant anxiety, restlessness, irritability, and the inability to relax internally.
At the body level, the effect of stress on the human body is expressed in various autonomic dysfunctions (blood pressure fluctuations, sweating, heart palpitations, sudden nausea, constipation, diarrhea, skin problems).
Also, the necessary amount of oxygen and nutrients must be continuously supplied to the brain. And this, in turn, depends on the health of the vascular (arterial) system and a sufficient amount of nutrients in the blood, which, moreover, must be properly absorbed.
How does stress affect human health, and what diseases can it cause? Due to the unusually long and intense exposure to high concentrations of catecholamines and other stress hormones, various stress damages are formed, which form the basis of the so-called stress diseases that have a stimulating effect on the development of the aging process. For example, hypersecretion of a number of hormones (catecholamines, cortisol, testosterone) is associated with the progression of atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary arteries, leading to early aging of the body. The impact of chronic psychological stress causes an increase in vascular tone (their narrowing), muscle tension, especially in the cervical-shoulder region and temples, which impedes blood circulation. Hormones are released that reduce the excretion of fluid from the body (swelling,
How else does stress affect health and what happens to the body under its influence? With prolonged stress, a process is launched that leads to metabolic and tissue damage, which is fraught with the development of psychosomatic pathologies and the accumulation of toxins, which play a major role in the development of further negative processes.
The active production of stress hormones can be fraught with the death of nerve cells. After all, the body believes that we are talking about a threat to physical existence, and in order to survive, it tries to mobilize, sacrificing something less important to it.
Thus, the pathophysiological mechanisms of the stress response are similar to those in diseases of the elderly and lead to the triggering of premature aging processes.