How Does Stress Affect Health?"
A Complete Answer With A Twist

How does stress affect health? Here are some of the more immediate physical effects of stress:

  • Heart palpitations
  • Tension headache
  • Anxiety
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Irritability
  • Stiff neck and shoulders
  • Back and/or neck pain
  • Shallow breathing
  • Sweating and sweaty palms
  • Lack of energy
  • Premenstrual symptoms
  • Upset stomach, nausea, or diarrhea

Many people endure chronic stress on a continuous basis, without ever learning how to deal with stress. Studies show that these people experience even more severe health issues, rounding out the answer to the question "How Does Stress Affect Health?"

  • Compromised immune system (decreased ability to fight off disease)
  • Decreased blood circulation
  • High blood pressure
  • Rapid or abnormal heartbeat
  • Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis)
  • Heart attack or heart failure
  • Peptic ulcer disease
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Asthma
  • Digestive conditions
  • Diabetes
  • Cancer
  • Increased cholesterol levels
  • Lower levels of serotonin which can lead to depression, obesity and insomnia
  • Coronary artery disease and heart attack
  • Arthritis
  • Loss of sexual desire

    How Can That Be?

    Some of these physiological effects of stress may seem quite surprising, such as increased cholesterol levels.

    One possible explanation for increased cholesterol levels being a direct effect of stress is this: stressful situations can cause the body to attempt to produce more energy (fatty acids and glucose), requiring increased production of LDL, or "bad" cholesterol by the liver.

    Whatever the reason, this has been proven to be a direct physical effect of stress.

    One Thing Affects The Other

    When there is too much cholesterol in your blood, it builds up in the walls of your arteries, causing a process called atherosclerosis, a form of heart disease. So one thing leads to another and heart attack or heart failure are the natural result.

    Stress Kills

    There really isn’t a single condition that is not exacerbated by stress, and since all conditions are worsened by stress and to some degree or other, it is generally believed that stress kills.

    Cause or Effect?

    There are websites offering lists titled How Does Stress Affect Health, which include one particular effect of stress with which I completely disagree. The effect that I’m referring to is that of having stressful thoughts, like worrying, rehearsing, rehashing and the like. I strenuously disagree that stressful thoughts are an effect of stress.

    They Have It Backwards

    It is precisely the common behavioral manifestations like constant thinking, rehearsing, rehashing, and worrying which are the cause of stress, not the other way around!

    This may come as quite a shock to some of you, and to others it will make total sense. But let me be clear, we are too tolerant of an undisciplined mind, and we allow our thoughts to run wild without restraint.

    The truth is that most of us never realized that we had a choice about that before!

    You've Got The Power

    Let me reassure you, peace is within your reach, and it is within your power to attain it by reigning in thoughts.

    Stressful thoughts are not the result of stress, and you are not at the mercy of them in your life experience.

    If you have stressful thoughts it is because you are choosing to think them, and if you prefer not to have them, there is a simple practice that can force them to recede and diminish their effect in your life. Leave How Does Stress Affect Health to learn about this simple practice


    Mind Over Matter by Melody Haines
    All Rights Reserved Copyright 2011