1. If an individual is under constant pressure, the release of stress hormones can reach toxic levels.
Stress hormones, like adrenaline, can definitely be too much of a good thing. Such hormones help the body defend itself when threatened, but too much adrenaline traveling through the bloodstream can make the heart more vulnerable to disease. When your blood pressure and heart rate are always up, circulatory illness and other forms of heart disease can result.
2. Too much stress weakens your immune system.
Stress-related illnesses do not always have to be a direct result of an excess of stress hormones, but when the immune system is compromised by stress, it becomes vulnerable. Suddenly, avenues for illness and contagions that lead to illness open up and nearly anything considered infectious can kick in without the immune system resisting.
3. One common stress-related illness is the stress-induced headache.
As our culture grows busier, stress headaches are becoming a more common complaint. Sometimes, the headaches are difficult to treat once they manifest; practice prevention by learning to identify the cause of stress and to figure out a way to avoid the cause. Keep track of solutions and put them into practice. Only stopping the stress will stop the headache.
4. Unfortunately, recovering from a stress-related illness takes longer than a non-stress-related illness.
Imagine being sick and worrying about it so much that you make yourself sicker. That seems to be exactly what happens when stress causes an individual to succumb to illness. The recovery time from the physical illness is longer due to the complications of navigating through stress or other related emotional difficulties.
5. Amazingly, three-quarters of all health problems are related to stress and emotions.
Indeed, 75 percent of all health problems brought to doctors is emotional stress-related, according to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Our work is cut out for us as we identify that source of stress and shun it to avoid increasing medical costs and other stressful situations.
