4 Consequences of Chronic Stress and How to Solve it

Stress affects all of us. No, seriously. Everyone deals with a little stress in some form or another from time to time. It’s the coffee spilled on your keyboard; getting stuck in intense traffic; your in-laws are staying at your home for longer than you thought. Or it’s like Alanis Morissette sang: it’s like rain on your wedding day. (She thought that was irony, but honey, that’s STRESS.) We get it. That’s totally normal.

What is Stress?

Cortisol is the main stress hormone in the body. Short bursts of cortisol can be helpful by keeping you aware of dangerous situations. But if your stress starts to be ongoing and become chronic? You might actually need to consider your current methods of de-stressing and weigh additional options. And that’s because chronic stress is one of the biggest detriments to your long-term health. Here’s what we mean. 

1. Chronic Cortisol Stress is Hard on Your Heart

When it comes to chronic stress, the cardiovascular system feels its impact the most. The constant contraction, expansion, elevation, etc. of your cortisol or stress hormones, which in turn increases blood pressure, heart rate, and increased oxygen demand takes a huge toll on the body. The elevated cortisol levels increase your risk for hypertension, heart attack, or even stroke. 

In a recent study from Swedish researchers, they discovered that when testing siblings, one with chronic cortisol stress and one without, the one diagnosed with a chronic stress disorder, was at a “60 percent increased risk of having any cardiovascular events” within the first year after being diagnosed…Over the longer term, the increased risk was about 30 percent.” 

2. Your Gut Doesn’t Like Chronic Stress, Either

We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth mentioning again, The Institute of Stress released a study that says 34 percent of respondents who experience stress say it’s actually had a negative impact on their stomach and digestive system. This makes sense since the gut-brain connection is a very real thing. The GI tract is sensitive to emotion, and feelings like anxiety, sadness, or even happiness can manifest as digestive symptoms. 

The brain has a direct effect on the digestive tract and vice versa. For example, just thinking about food can prompt the release of stomach acid and other enzymes! On top of that, chronic stress and the associated hormones can actually cause damage to the integrity of the gut lining, leading to a condition called intestinal permeability (or leaky gut). Leaky gut has a role in a variety of chronic conditions.

3. Your Reproductive System Will Take a Hit

Stress has always been an evolutionary benefit for us. Its job was to tell us when a lion or cheetah was nearby, to fire off a warning signal to our bodies to act fast. That very response is our body releasing norepinephrine and cortisol, telling us to fight or flight. 

But nowadays, we don’t need it as much. 

However, we still feel it for smaller things every day. When these stress hormones, among others, are released, they tell our bodies that right now is not the right time to make a baby—it’s fight or flight time people, people! Make way!

How does that impact the reproductive cycle? Easy. The hormones will then actively work to block the ovulatory cycle, making your body incapable of reproduction. It’s super simple and super effective.

Now, of course, we’re not saying that this is always the case, but this is a very common, very natural physiological reaction to stress. Which, for many couples actively trying to have a baby, can only pile more stress onto the situation. It’s definitely something that can compound if left unchecked. 

4. The Nervous System Feels It

Oh, the nervous system. This is where it all meets up. This is the end of the line. Simply put, your brain and your spinal cord make up the nervous system, or command center, of your body. 

We’ve talked about this on a previous blog, but when stress impacts your nervous system, it impacts everything, down to your fitness goals. Why?

Well, stress leads to an overproduction of hormones associated with overeating. This study from Harvard Medical School tells us, “The nervous system sends messages to the adrenal glands atop the kidneys to pump out the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). Epinephrine helps trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response,” which means your digestion gets put on hold. Literally.

It’s also a hormone that tells your body to start craving things like sugar to get that short-term energy kick. Wild, huh?

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Chronic Cortisol Stress?

Of course, there’s no magic fix to solve your stress—it’s different for every person, and for many, it’s a chemical problem that can’t just be willed or massaged away with more meditation. But beyond taking medication, here are some small, easy ways to take action:

• Work on your friendships – loneliness is an epidemic, especially in the age of COVID. Face-to-face interaction is precious and, when done safely, outside on a walk, sitting at a distance in a park can make all the difference in your day and your friend’s.
• Exercise is everything – according to that same report from NPR, “people who exercised reported fewer days of bad mental health compared to those who didn’t exercise.” That’s huge! Get out there—even if it’s a 10-minute walk after dinner. Any little bit of movement helps.
• Healthy eating makes a difference – we’ve talked about this many, many times, but they say your gut is like a “second brain”. That means what you put in your stomach can affect your mind. After all, 95 percent of the serotonin, or the happiness hormone, that we use every day comes from our gut! So be kind to your body, and you’ll be kind to your mind.