MystiFACT-or-FICTION challenge #1 - Can stress eventually KILL you?
Stress is a natural bodily response. If you think about it, it makes sense. Say you are being chased by someone, or something – you don’t want to be relaxed in these situations; you want to be kicked into gear, which is exactly what stress does. Unfortunately, everyday stresses keep your body ‘kicked up a gear’ when it doesn’t need to be in that state, resulting in chronic stress. You don’t need to be a doctor to know that too much stress is bad for you, but can it get to a point where it could kill you?
Stress
Stress is everywhere. Everyone you know has experienced it before and many are experiencing it right now. Homework, exams, rent, bills, jobs or even kids all can cause you a degree of stress, especially if you are unfamiliar with dealing with it properly. To understand why it is bad for you, we must understand what stress is at a fundamental level.
Fight or Flight
Stress, anxiety and fear are all a result of a response in the body called Fight or Flight. This response is triggered when a person reaches a certain level of discomfort. Since people find different situations more uncomfortable than others, people perceive stress, anxiety and fear differently [1]. The intensity of Fight or Flight is what causes us to feel these different emotions. As we are talking about stress, we must be a little more specific.
Cortisol
Cortisol is known as the stress hormone. The more we are stressed, the more of this chemical is released. Its task is to divert energy to where you most need it [2] – therefore, if you are running from a grizzly bear, cortisol would divert more energy to your muscles to help you run faster. Do you see how being stressed all the time could cause problems? If energy is constantly diverted away from some functions in the body, it can cause some problems such as:
• Suppressed immunity
• High blood pressure
• High blood sugar levels
The list goes on and on. Being exposed to high levels of cortisol for long enough eventually leads to susceptibility to disease and maybe even cancer.
Can Stress Cause Death?
Studies have shown that those who are chronically stressed can experience a wide range of harmful complications where some of which, can cause eventual death.
Telomeres
Telomeres are a part of your DNA. As you age, your telomeres get shorter and shorter [3]. Once they vanish, the cell containing that DNA cannot replicate so it dies. Increased stress can accelerate the shortening of these telomeres which could lead to early aging or even eventual death.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3675/10085714333_5d4f4d06b2.jpg)
Figure 1: Image showing the telomeres on the DNA (pink)
Heart Attacks
Generally, a heart attacks occur when blood flow is blocked and cannot pass through the heart as expected. A way this could happen is when plaque continues to build up on the inside of an artery eventually clogging it. Researchers have shown that those with chronic stress have more clogged up arteries than those who do not [4]. Not doing anything about this stress leads to more clogging which could eventually lead to a heart attack that could very well kill you.
![](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Stress_2.gif)
Figure 2: This illustration shows many of the other effects of prolonged stress
Coping with Stress
Everyone gets stressed out; it’s natural for our bodies to do so. Having said that, we must have a threshold of what makes us stressed in day to day life to avoid stress-related health complications. If you are one to blame for stressing out too easily, how can you learn to cope with it better?
Oxytocin
Oxytocin is also known as the stress hormone - it is the hormone responsible for love and does what it says on the tin. It combats stress and is what you need more of to deal with it better. There are many ways to increase your levels of Oxytocin so I will state a few and leave you with a link if you are interested in finding more ways to do so!
• Meditating frequently
• Exercising on a regular basis
• Physical contact with those who you love (eg. Hugs and kisses)
• Simply just smiling and laughing!
Click here for more ways to naturally increase your oxytocin levels, otherwise, I hope you have enjoyed this article.
Good luck with the challenge and I look forward to reading your responses!
HINT: I love you.
UPDATE 1: Please read the article very carefully. The mistake is strikingly obvious
If you have any questions, leave them below and until next time, take care.
~ Mystifact
References:
[1] – https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/counselling
[2] – https://www.insidetracker.com
[3] – https://www.tasciences.com/what-is-a-telomere/
[4] – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science
Please note; no copyright infringement is intended. All images used have been labelled for re-use on Google Images. If any artist or designer has any issues with any of the content used in this article, please don’t hesitate to contact me to correct the issue.
Relevant articles:
Why Do We Get Nervous?
Fascinating facts about the Human Body
What is Cancer? How does it kill?
Previous articles:
Introducing the all new MystiFACT-or-FICTION Challenge!
Cosmological Mysteries: What is Dark Matter and Dark Energy?
What happens if you are STRUCK by Lightning?
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Ever heard of burnout syndrome?
That is basically the result of chronic stress.
Interesting! I will look into it, thank you for your contribution. Be sure to check out the challenge rules and put forward a response :) It will be good fun!
An incessant need to do burnouts?, jk it's dimished cortisol production
Interesting, thanks for sharing your thoughts... @mystifact
Stress is a problem for many people. We simply live in an environment that causes everyone to stress a lot. Meditation and exercise are definitely goos ways to reduce stress and laughter is good as well !
Agreed. Don't forget to try out the challenge, would love to see your response :)
Thank you for sharing this very useful science. You are so wonderful. May always be successful for you
Thank you very much :) Don't forget to try out my competition! Would like to see your response.
Oke my friend
It can cause stomach ulcers as well and many other complications. plus Ive found whatever your stressed usually isnt worth it.
Completely agree. Stress is never worth it unless it's for survival! Don't hesitate to participate in the competition. Would love to see your response :)
Thanks for bringing awareness to a topic like this, stress is such a downer on so many levels. A lot of people don't realise that it's actually physically unhealthy to be stressed, not only mentally. Great post.
Thank you, don't forget to participate in the challenge :)
This deserves some attention. Upvoted and resteemed...
Thank you! Don't forget to go for the challenge :)
Oxytocin is not the love chemical.Oxytocin is indeed used as a social learning stress cue. Unbeknownst to most people it can actually enhance fear acquisition learning as well. The "love" chemical is phenethylamine. One could also increase oxytocin by ingesting sodium. Currently there is no tin for oxytocin, only a nasal spray to my knowledge
Hi! Thank you for your comment. I will have to slightly disagree with you on that one. It is widely known as the love hormone but can also have negative social effects especially in high doses. For the purposes of the challenge, please regard Oxytocin as the love hormone.
Good luck!
What a detailed and very informative post on stress. I have been writing small posts on stress as I research it more as I am interested in how stress impacts computer workers.
Thank you for your comment! Stress is stress, yet it affects everyone differently. The best way is to try and remain calm and collected no matter what job you have!