Your Health and Stress

Stressed
By bartmaguire on 2007-09-03 09:42:12

Stress and your health are closely related.

Any change that you experience in your normal day to day life can be described as stress. Getting that promotion at work is stress, just as much so as being made redundant from your job. Becoming pregnant can cause stress just as much as losing a family member to death. It doesn’t matter who you look at or where you look, inevitably you will observe stress.

Stress causes the body to change it’s internal state and this is most noticeable in the area of hormones.

Hormone imbalances can then result in added stress. This causes women a greater exposure to stress. Hormonal changes resulting from pregnancy, puberty, the menstrual cycle or even menopause can create stress on top of the stress from day to day life. All four of these situations can prove to be a difficult time in a woman’s life.

Many ailments people have are believed to be caused at least in some part by stress. It can be a contributing factor to anything from backaches to insomnia. Some people even believe that stress is related to the development of acne. Links between stress and acne have been suspected for many years and the relationship between hormones and stress goes a long way in explaining it.

Scientists are constantly studying how stress affects your health. It has been shown that the likelihood of catching colds increases with the level of stress being experienced due to a reduction in the performance of the immune system.

Basically, stress can be linked to a lot of things, but all that you hear (like it being a total acne cure in itself) aren’t necessarily true. Simply put, stress may be linked to many things.

To completely eradicate stress from your life would be impossible but there steps you can take to control stress.

In the long run your health can be improved by good stress management. For example, develop a healthy lifestyle. Eat well and get some exercise. Unbelievably, this does help. You also can take a “time out” for yourself. Its called: Relaxation! Stop, sit down or take that long, hot bath and enjoy yourself for a change. Relaxation as an activity in itself can improve your health by reducing stress. When you relax, your heart rate slows down. So, those of you with high blood pressure – stop and relax for a change.

How do I relieve stress?

There are lots of simple things you can do to reduce stress, even if only for a little while. Rediscover an old pastime. Choose any activity that you enjoy participating in. It could be anything from basket weaving to painting or even sculpture. Your stress levels will drop noticeably because it is something that brings you pleasure. When people enjoy doing something they don’t think about all the stressful issues in their lives. Their stress levels reduce noticeably because their mind is firmly on the pleasurable task at hand.

Stress can prove to be a pain to your health and to your lifestyle. Take time out from the world, even if it is for only an hour.You will reduce your stress levels and improve your overall health if you do this.