Stress triggers physiological changes in your body that cause healthy short-term weight loss and increase the chances that you could experience unhealthy long-term weight loss or gain. Losing weight because of constant stress could be a signal that your body is having more serious problems, and you should explore stress-reduction techniques such as meditation before you become very ill, according to the "An Invitation to Health" textbook.
Acute Stress
Your body is programmed to have a fight-or-flight response to acute stress, which is caused by sudden events like a criminal chasing you or a loved one's death. The physiological changes include your metabolism speeding up so you have more energy and a faster heart rate and your digestive system slowing down so more blood and energy goes to your muscles, according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease." You could lose a lot of weight via acute stress if, for example, you regularly are stressed out by athletic events.
Chronic Stress
Your body is not programmed to respond positively to chronic stress, and most stress in "modern times" is chronic, Ornish wrote. When the level of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol that are produced during acute stress remain high due to chronic stress, your blood pressure and heart rate could remain high for so long that you are at increased risk of blood clotting, a heart attack and a stroke. Consequently, the death of a loved one could be physiologically harmful if it affects you for a long time.
Symptoms
Chronic stress also reduces your level of immune cells that "deplete the body's resources so we function at less than normal" and protect you against disease, "An Invitation to Health" states. Different individuals experience different symptoms that a lack of immune cells is increasing their risk of disease. A common symptom is a loss of appetite that causes weight loss. Another common symptom, depression, can indirectly cause weight loss by making everyday activities like eating less pleasurable. Chronic stress can also cause fatigue and increase your appetite.
Eating Disorders
The eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are also partly caused by chronic stress, according to "An Invitation to Health." Anorexics refuse to eat. Bulimics binge eat and then vomit. They both lose so much weight that they are at risk of sudden death. Anorexics have abnormally high levels of cortisol, which affects their feelings of fullness as well as their appetite. Bulimics often are stressed by family conflicts, problems at school and the transition to adulthood.
Significance
A loss of weight through stress can be a precursor of more serious problems because "hundreds of studies" have shown that stress plays a role in about 80 percent of serious illnesses and 75 to 90 percent of doctors' visits, according to "An Invitation to Health." Stress-related major illnesses include breast cysts, cancer, emotional disorders, heart disease, hypertension, infections, menstrual disorders, skin rashes, strokes and ulcers.
References
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2003
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease"; 1996
- "The Well Adult"; Mike Samuels and Nancy Samuels; 1988
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