8 ways stress can affect you

We live in a fast-paced world that is causing a rapidly growing stress epidemic. How could the everyday stresses be affecting your health? By JACQUELINE MAHUGU

1.       Memory loss

If you have been having trouble recalling things lately, stress could be the reason. When you are stressed, your body secretes cortisol, which is a stress hormone, into your bloodstream. Prolonged exposure to excessive amounts of cortisol can physically damage the brain and cause the hippocampus (which deals with storage of information) to shrink and malfunction. With this, you will have problems with attention and focus, forget things easily and struggle to recall information.

2.      Fertility issues

Studies have shown that stress can reduce the production of sperm and testosterone in men and double the chance of infertility in women.

3.       Compromises the immune system

If you have always been one of those people who hardly ever get a cold, and suddenly you are sick all the time, check your stress levels. Stress reduces your body’s ability to fight toxins and foreign substances, making you more susceptible to frequent illness and infections. This can be in form of increased headaches, the flu, hypertension, gastric ulcers, shingles and many more.

4.     Digestive system problems

If you have ever been extremely nervous about a situation, like a job interview or giving a speech, you may probably feel your stomach churn or get the runs at that most inconvenient of times.

Stress can cause stomach upsets, bloating, constipation and diarrhoea. Health experts say that stress can cause your oesophagus to go into spasms. It can also lead to increase in stomach  acid causing indigestion. Under stress, the mill in your stomach can shut down and make you feel nauseous. Stress can cause your colon to react in a way that gives you diarrhoea or constipation.

5. Brittle nails and breaking hair

Have you been seeing more white lines on your nails than usual? Are they breaking and peeling more easily? Is your hair falling off or breaking more easily? Those could be signs of an increased amount of the stress hormone, cortisol. This is because cortisol prevents the nutrients and fuel required for healthy growth of nails from reaching them adequately, as they are no longer a priority for your body’s survival. Your body saves those nutrients for other functions crucial to your survival, which does not include nails and hair. It can cause your nails to just stop growing.

6.    Osteoporosis and arthritis

If you are under prolonged stress, cortisol can cause inflammation, which in turn makes your body less capable of absorbing calcium. It also causes the body to lose the calcium it has already stored. It often reaches a point where even calcium from diets cannot replace the calcium being depleted, and the bones become weaker and brittle, meaning they can break easily. The bones can also become more porous, which is osteoporosis and that is irreversible. It can also cause arthritis, pain in the joints, as the body’s repair functions are weakened.

7.       It can make you fat

Your body has a fight or flight response to stress, meaning it will make you do what you need to in order to survive – fight, or escape the issue. This translates to an elevated feeling of hunger.  “Your body thinks you’ve used calories to deal with your stress, even though you haven’t. As a result, it thinks you need to replenish those calories, even though you don’t,” says Pamela Peeke,  a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland. Cortisol also causes the body to retain fat rather than burn it. This is because raised levels of cortisol also causes raised levels of insulin, which causes you to crave sugary and fatty foods.

8.       Irregular periods

So your cycle is usually like clockwork, but you have missed your period, and you are absolutely sure that you are not pregnant, stress could be the culprit. You’re mystified, wondering what on earth is going on with you. If you have been undergoing an unusual level of stress, that is probably the reason your cycle is out of whack. That is secondary amenorrhea, where your periods temporarily stop, as stress can cause a disruption in the systems that regulate your reproductive hormones.