by Hazel Milla
Stress is a normal part of our daily lives that can help us focus and address challenges, such as sports competitions or public speaking, but stress can also pose health risks. Whether or not stress contributes to health problems depends on many factors. To understand how stress impacts health, we first need to understand the stress response.
What is the stress response?
The stress response results in physical changes including faster heart rate, increased respiration, and heightened focus, among others. During a stressful experience, your body works to provide energy in the form of glucose to your muscles so you can respond to physical challenges. Changes to your immune, digestive, and urinary systems also occur. The stress response is essential to our survival because it helps us adapt to changes in our environment. When this response goes on for too long, however, health problems can ensue.
Figure 1: Stress causes changes to many systems in the body. Image created by author using BioRender.com.
Why would the stress response cause health problems?
Given that the stress response is necessary for our survival, it seems counterintuitive that it could cause health problems. However, we should consider that while stress enables us to survive, it is also energetically costly and thus comes at a risk when the response is activated for extended periods of time. This is just one of many explanations for why stress can harm our health.
Another theory that aims to explain the harmful effects of stress emphasizes the difference between the conditions in which people evolved and the conditions in which many people live today. Throughout most of human history, people lived hunter-gatherer lifestyles, whereas many people today live in societies that depend on agriculture for food. For people who are hunting and gathering, the stress response makes a lot of sense; they face stressors that require them to flee from a predator or chase after prey. Today, instead of experiencing threats like running from a predator, many people experience stressors like high workloads, economic challenges, and social injustice. These are long-term difficulties that the human body is not well adapted for. Consider that humans have lived in more equitable hunter-gatherer societies for about 250,000 years while we’ve lived in agriculture-based societies for about 12,000 years. So, while our stress response has served us well historically, it hasn’t exactly prepared us for the long-term stressors many people experience today.
Figure 2: For most of human history, people have lived as hunters and gatherers. Image source.
Let’s consider what happens when someone is exposed to a long-term stressor. For example, let’s say someone is overwhelmed by work or school for several months. Their body is constantly mobilizing energy to their muscles and not allowing sufficient energy storage. Their blood pressure is often elevated. They may struggle to sleep restfully, as they remain alert to potential threats. Stress-associated changes to the immune system cause it to dysregulate. Consequently, this person ends up fatigued, suffering from high blood pressure, and facing a greater risk of infection. These are just a few of the many issues that can arise when someone is exposed to chronic stress. Studies have shown that chronic stress can increase the risk of mental illness, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, among other health issues. It’s important to note that the harmful effects of chronic stress vary from person to person due to environmental and genetic factors.
What can we do to counter the harmful effects of stress?
It’s impossible to avoid stress altogether, and even if we could, we wouldn’t want to completely, as manageable amounts of stress can be beneficial to our health. So, while it’s important to do what we can to reduce our exposure to damaging stressors, it’s also important to develop healthy coping strategies. Studies have shown that interventions such as mindfulness, physical activity, and social support can improve our psychological well-being. Exposure to green spaces can also help reduce stress.
Figure 3: Mindfulness may help reduce stress. Image source.
Ultimately, the best recipe for coping with stress varies from person to person, and it may be best to consult with a mental health professional to determine what steps will be most beneficial to you. It’s also important that, as a society, we work toward building a more equitable world where stressors including structural inequalities and poverty do not continue to contribute to damaging health outcomes.
