Chronic Illnesses Related To Stress
Being stressed out can make you feel cranky and not very fun to be around. But stress can do more than affect your mood and social life. In fact, too much stress can have serious consequences for your health, contributing to everything from GERD to death. Find out more about illnesses that could be triggered or made worse by your stress
7 Chronic Illnesses Related To Stress
- Heart disease: doctors speculate that stress contributes to heart disease by affecting blood pressure and blood vessels, as well as increasing the likelihood of other heart disease risk factors like smoking and obesity. People who have known heart problems are advised to avoid serious stress in order to prevent a heart attack.
- Asthma: stressed-out adults might worsen their own asthma symptoms and increase the risk of asthma in their children. One study showed that kids with stressed parents had even higher chances of developing asthma than children whose parents smoked during pregnancy.
- Obesity: excess stress has been linked to excess belly fat, which has been specifically linked to type 2 diabetes and other metabolic problems. Cortisol, often called the stress hormone, seems to affect the storage of belly fat.
- Diabetes: stress can affect diabetes patients by triggering overeating and poor food choices, as well as raising glucose levels. People who are obese—a potential side effect of stress—are also more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people of normal weight.
- Depression: research has shown that people with high levels of work related stress were 80% more likely to develop depression than people who experienced less job stress.
- Gastrointestinal problems: while stress doesn’t cause ulcers, it has been shown to increase the severity of ulcers and other digestive issues. Stress has been linked to GERD and IBS.
- Alzheimer’s disease: based on animal studies that have shown that stresses causes brain lesions to grow more quickly, some researchers speculate that high levels of stress may speed up the progression of Alzheimer’s.
To help prevent chronic illness, learn to keep stress levels under control. Practice stress management techniques like deep breathing or guided meditation and get plenty of exercise.