What
are some of the most significant health problems related to stress? Here's a
sampling.
1. Heart disease. Researchers have
long suspected that the stressed-out, type A personality has a higher risk
of high blood
pressure and heart problems.
We don't know why, exactly. Stress can directly increase heart rate and blood flow,
and causes the release of cholesterol and triglycerides into
the blood stream.
It's also possible that stress is related to other problems -- an increased
likelihood of smoking or obesity --
that indirectly increase the heart risks.
Doctors do know that sudden emotional stress can be a trigger for serious cardiac problems, including heart attacks. People who have chronic heart problems need to avoid acute stress -- and learn how to successfully manage life's unavoidable stresses -- as much as they can.
Doctors do know that sudden emotional stress can be a trigger for serious cardiac problems, including heart attacks. People who have chronic heart problems need to avoid acute stress -- and learn how to successfully manage life's unavoidable stresses -- as much as they can.
2. Asthma. Many studies have
shown that stress can worsen asthma.
Some evidence suggests that a parent's chronic stress might even increase the
risk of developing asthma in their children. One study looked at how parental
stress affected the asthma rates of young children who were also exposed to air
pollution or whose mothers smoked during pregnancy. The kids with
stressed out parents had a substantially higher risk of developing asthma.
3. Obesity. Excess fat in the
belly seems to pose greater health risks than fat on the legs or hips and unfortunately, that's just where people
with high stress seem to store it. "Stress causes higher
levels of the hormone cortisol," says Winner, "and that seems to
increase the amount of fat that's deposited in the abdomen."
4. Diabetes. Stress can worsen
diabetes in two ways. First, it increases the likelihood of bad behaviors, such
as unhealthy eating and excessive drinking. Second, stress seems to raise
the glucose levels of
people with type 2 diabetes directly.
5. Headaches. Stress is considered one
of the most common triggers for headaches --
not just tension headaches,
but migraines as
well.
6. Depression and anxiety. It's probably no surprise
that chronic stress is connected with higher rates of depression and anxiety.
One survey of recent studies found that people who had stress related to their
jobs -- like demanding work with few rewards -- had an 80% higher risk of
developing depression within
a few years than people with lower stress.
7. Gastrointestinal
problems. Here's
one thing that stress doesn't do -- it doesn't cause ulcers. However, it can
make them worse. Stress is also a common factor in many other GI conditions,
such as chronic heartburn(or
gastroesophageal reflux disease, GERD)
and irritable bowel
syndrome (IBS),
Winner says.
8. Alzheimer's
disease. One
animal study found that stress might worsen Alzheimer's
disease, causing its brain lesions to
form more quickly. Some researchers speculate that reducing stress has the
potential to slow down the progression of the disease.
9. Accelerated aging. There's actually evidence
that stress can affect how you age. One study compared the DNA of mothers who
were under high stress -- they were caring for a chronically ill child -- with
women who were not. Researchers found that a particular region of the
chromosomes showed the effects of accelerated aging. Stress seemed to
accelerate aging about 9 to 17 additional years.
10.
Premature death. A study looked at the health effects of
stress by studying elderly caregivers looking after their spouses -- people who
are naturally under a great deal of stress. It found that caregivers had a 63%
higher rate of death than people their age who were not caregivers.
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