The Effect of Stress on Your Body and Health

Stress affects your health and is one of the causes of long term illness. For example, have you ever wondered why you may catch a cold after the exam period or some stressful deadline at work.

This is because stress can affect your immune system. However, the consequence of lowered immune functioning is not just a greater chance of catching a cold. Lower immune functioning can also reduce you ability to allow your body to heal and increase your chances of heart disease. Stress can also make your body more susceptible to tumor growth.

This raises the stakes of managing your stress, so that it does not damage your health or reduce your wellbeing. There are a number of ways that you can reduce stress. One great way is through exercise.

By exercising you can reduce your stress hormones and also distract yourself from the stress that you may be feeling.

Another way to combat stress is through relaxation and breathing exercises. The beauty of relaxation and breathing exercises is that they can be done just about anywhere and anytime.

When you are sitting at work and can feel the stress, and relaxing breath can activate the relaxation response and counter the stress response. Often when stressed we may not get enough sleep.

Stress can wake us up during the night and make it difficult to get back to sleep. This can create a vicious cycle as less sleep leads to more stress, which makes a good night sleep seem more impossible.

A lack of sleep can leave you feeling agitated and restless, not a great combination for work productivity or enhanced wellbeing. There may be many reasons for sleep problems, but if stress is the cause, then going to the root of the problem and reducing stress will have a beneficial impact.

A healthy living plan, with adequate exercise, proper diet, good sleep and daily relaxation exercises is a good start to beat stress in your life. Proper stress management can add years onto your life and increase your wellbeing.