If you let your life get out of hand and don’t practice self-care, the stress of this world can cut your life expectancy down. Having chronic stress where you feel anxiety or stress for long periods of time can have an impact on your mental and physical health. This is the type of damage your body takes that can be avoided, all you need is a good doctor, a good attitude, and possibly some CBD oil.
Eustress Vs. Distress
Not all stress is bad. The stress and excitement you feel before a job interview is different from the stress you feel of being overworked. Eustress is the good stress while distress is the bad stress. Eustress can motivate you, help you focus, improve your performance, feels exciting, and doesn’t last for long. Distress can cause anxiety, be overwhelming, feel unpleasant, decrease your performance, and can continue for a long time if it goes untreated leading to physical and mental problems. Knowing the physical problems may be able to encourage you to take control of your life, practice self-care, and reduce your stressors.
How Stress Works
Your central nervous system is in charge of your fight or flight response, which is what stress is. In a healthy brain, the amygdala sends the panic signal to the hypothalamus, which then gets your adrenal glands to produce stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. After the threat is gone, the hypothalamus tells the adrenal glands to stop producing these hormones and return to normal. But if this stressor doesn’t go away, the response will continue, and the adrenal glands will keep pumping hormones in your body.
During this time where your body perceives threats, also known as perceived stress, your body is taking action to protect itself. If you continue to put yourself in stressful situations without a break or practicing self-care, bad stress can start to wreak havoc on your body.
Stress And Your Heart
These stress hormones can affect parts of your body like the cardiovascular system. Scientists believe that stress may cause inflammation in the heart causing damage. Many coping mechanisms that people use for their stress like comfort eating, smoking cigarettes, or turning to alcohol can also put the individual at risk for developing heart issues.
Stress And Your Lungs
Stress may also worsen symptoms of lung diseases like asthma and COPD. During your body’s reaction to stress, it needs more oxygen to go to parts of the body overworking your lungs. Stress can also cause hyperventilation, which is when you aren’t breathing correctly and can have higher CO2 scores which can result in damage.
Stress And Your Blood Sugar
People who are chronically stressed produce more blood sugar when their body is reacting to the fear response because your body believes it needs more energy to protect itself. When the two hormones associated with stress rise, so do glucose levels. Having high blood sugar levels on a regular basis due to stress could cause you to develop diabetes and can be harmful to those who already have type 1 diabetes.
Stress And Your Immune System
Research suggests that people who experience chronic stress are susceptible to developing a dysregulation in their immune system. When your body is in fight or flight mode, it suppresses the immune system by lowering the number of proteins needed to signal immune cells. The chemical cortisol may also cause inflammation, which over time can cause damage and cause the immune system to weaken.
Relax!
If you are constantly stressed, you could be harming your body. Take a day off of work, go on vacation, and talk to a therapist about your worries. Taking CBD oil may also be able to help because it has shown in studies to reduce the overactivity of the amygdala, which may make the fight or flight response less severe. If you need a little help fighting stress, stop by our shop and get some CBD hemp oil to help make your stress more bearable as you learn to cope with it.
What are ways that you pump the breaks on your fight or flight response? How do you unwind and calm your body down to prevent the damage that comes with stress? We would love to hear about it in the comment section!
