{"id":150037,"date":"2022-07-16T00:29:49","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T04:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/?p=150037"},"modified":"2022-07-15T13:16:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T17:16:36","slug":"how-stress-affects-your-body-sharon-horesh-bergquist-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/150037","title":{"rendered":"How stress affects your body – Sharon Horesh Bergquist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How stress affects your body - Sharon Horesh Bergquist\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v-t1Z5-oPtU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nCramming for a test? Trying to get more done\r\nthan you have time to do? Stress is a feeling we all experience\r\nwhen we are challenged or overwhelmed. But more than just an emotion, stress is a hardwired physical response\r\nthat travels throughout your entire body. In the short term,\r\nstress can be advantageous, but when activated too often or too long, your primitive fight or flight\r\nstress response not only changes your brain but also damages many of the other\r\norgans and cells throughout your body.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nYour adrenal gland releases\r\nthe stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine,\r\nalso known as adrenaline, and norepinephrine. As these hormones\r\ntravel through your bloodstream, they easily reach\r\nyour blood vessels and heart. Adrenaline causes\r\nyour heart to beat faster and raises your blood pressure,\r\nover time causing hypertension. Cortisol can also cause the endothelium,\r\nor inner lining of blood vessels, to not function normally. Scientists now know\r\nthat this is an early step in triggering the process\r\nof atherosclerosis or cholesterol plaque\r\nbuild-up in your arteries. Together, these changes increase\r\nyour chances of a heart attack or stroke.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWhen your brain senses stress, it activates your\r\nautonomic nervous system. Through this network\r\nof nerve connections, your big brain communicates\r\nstress to your enteric, or intestinal nervous system. Besides causing butterflies\r\nin your stomach, this brain-gut connection can disturb\r\nthe natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut, leading to irritable bowel syndrome, and can increase your\r\ngut sensitivity to acid, making you more likely to feel heartburn. Via the gut’s nervous system, stress can also change the composition\r\nand function of your gut bacteria, which may affect your digestive\r\nand overall health. Speaking of digestion, does chronic\r\nstress affect your waistline? Well, yes. Cortisol can increase your appetite. It tells your body to replenish\r\nyour energy stores with energy-dense foods and carbs,\r\ncausing you to crave comfort foods. High levels of cortisol can also cause you\r\nto put on those extra calories as visceral or deep belly fat. This type of fat doesn’t just make\r\nit harder to button your pants.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.pexels.com\/photos\/6024580\/pexels-photo-6024580.jpeg?auto=compress&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;h=650&amp;w=940\" \/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIt is an organ\r\nthat actively releases hormones and immune system chemicals\r\ncalled cytokines that can increase your risk\r\nof developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease\r\nand insulin resistance. Meanwhile, stress hormones\r\naffect immune cells in a variety of ways. Initially, they help prepare\r\nto fight invaders and heal after injury, but chronic stress can dampen function\r\nof some immune cells, make you more susceptible to infections,\r\nand slow the rate you heal.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWant to live a long life? You may have to curb your chronic stress. That’s because it has even been\r\nassociated with shortened telomeres, the shoelace tip ends of chromosomes\r\nthat measure a cell’s age. Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied\r\nevery time a cell divides without damaging\r\nthe cell’s genetic code, and they shorten with each cell division. When telomeres become too short,\r\na cell can no longer divide and it dies. As if all that weren’t enough, chronic stress has even more ways\r\nit can sabotage your health, including acne, hair loss, sexual dysfunction, headaches, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and irritability. So, what does all this mean for you? Your life will always be filled\r\nwith stressful situations. But what matters to your brain\r\nand entire body is how you respond to that stress. If you can view those situations\r\nas challenges you can control and master, rather than as insurmountable threats, you will perform better in the short run\r\nand stay healthy in the long run.\r\n\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=v-t1Z5-oPtU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">As found on YouTube<\/a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/jvz4.com\/c\/335985\/306988\">AnimationStudio \ua19b☣\ua415 Be The “Middle Man” And Profit With AnimationStudio Agency License. Here’s How You Can Earn $100, $200, or even $300 For Every Video You Create With AnimationStudio… Activate Your Profit Machine With The Agency License … $197\/month For Just $67 One Time Payment<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Cramming for a test? Trying to get more done than you have time to do? Stress is a feeling we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed. But more than just an emotion, stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body. In the short term, stress can be advantageous, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/150037\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How stress affects your body – Sharon Horesh Bergquist<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3672,532,138,3328,3355,3665,446,6,4792],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","category-climate-change","category-community","category-golf","category-ice-hockey","category-natural-phenomena","category-parents","category-reducing-triggers","category-sports-recreation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/htmlF_IMG_62d1734815ff8.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150045,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150037\/revisions\/150045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}