The Alternative Health Gazette

Other physical consequences of stress

Did you know that stress can even cause bad breath, and dry mouth? Because you take shorter, shallower breaths when you’re feeling anxious, you also discover that it’s harder to swallow. You might even react to stress by clenching your jaws or grinding your teeth. This even occurs during the middle of the night, even when the stress shouldn’t be present.

The hormonal rush of adrenaline also causes your eyes to dilate. While this improves your vision, a trait that would have helped our primitive ancestors in dealing with dangerous situations. But, as with our hearing, this reaction also has a down side. It triggers eye ticks. Your muscles just can’t sustain this level of alertness for very long. They soon grow tired. Some individuals even find that their eyes bulge from the stress that over-stimulates the thyroid gland.

Our brain under perceived anxiety instructs your muscles to constrict, tightening them in preparation for either a literal fight with the threat or for the run away from the danger. In addition to causing sore muscles, chronic stress has been known to put the body at a greater risk of sprain. Stress over long periods also aggravates existing cases of rheumatoid arthritis.

The skin is your body’s largest organ, so it should come as no surprise that even the skin isn’t immune from the adverse affects of chronic tension. Symptoms such as increased acne, rashes and itchy patches are made worse by the continued presence of nervous tension.

Have you noticed that when some people are embarrassed they blush? This too is a reaction to stress. Yet the same stressor can cause others to go pale. Hives is way the skin reacts physically to stress. In fact, just about any skin condition will worsen when it’s subjected to stress.

The disease which many refer to as shingles is very often triggered by stress. Shingles caused by the virus herpes zoster is related to the same virus that causes chicken pox.

Constipation. Diarrhea. Even spastic colon. These are only a few of the ways your digestive system may react to daily, chronic stress. The brain when laboring under the threat of constant tension actually diverts blood from the digestive tract, which effectively slows your digestion. Stress additionally increases acid production, which only increases any existing ulcers. Exposing your system to prolonged stress also increases your chances of developing colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

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