How Does Stress Affect the Immune System?
How does stress affect the immune system? Our physical body maintains a state of health when it is in complete balance. Stressors continually try to throw us off balance, and it is our reaction to them that determine their success. Excessive and prolonged stress breaks down our body's defense mechanism making it vulnerable to disease and illness. The quality, intensity and length of the stress determine the effect is has on the body. When we are feeling stressed our bodies go into a stress response state of "fight or flight" and then shuts down the long term, non-essential bodily functions such as our immune system. During a stressful situation or event our nervous system produces a hormone that tells our body to increase heart rate, produce adrenaline and pump blood to our major muscles in preparation for defense. Our immune system is not considered important for defense during stressful situations and is therefore paid less attention to during this time of stress. Health Consequences of StressDuring chronic or prolonged stress our immune system is not functioning fully. Our body is then vulnerable to infections, diseases, and allergies. You might have noticed that, when you suffer from chronic or prolonged amounts of stress, you are morely likely to catch a cold or the flu? That's True! Beware though, because a continued dysfunctional immune system can lead to diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
How the Stress Affect the Sympathetic Nervous System?
When we experience stress our Sympathetic Nervous System responds rapidly to mobilize the body’s defence mechanism, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, perspiration, cardiac blood flow, breathing becomes deeper and faster, adrenaline is produced which stimulates the heart and other organs to help defend the body. The SNS also reduces certain systems such as bowel movements and digestion which are not needed in stressful or dangerous situations. Chronic stress has detrimental effects on the body.
It's not only the outside stressors that can put our stress response into action. It's also our perception of the stressors, our response and level of coping abilities that relates to our levels of stress and the affects it has on our health and body. Stress, and the ability to cope with it, influences a person’s health. Regular relaxation techniques triggers the workings of the Parasympathetic Nervous System which in turn sends relaxation signals throughout the body allowing it to heal.
How does stress affect the immune system and our health?Stress has been shown to alter the immune system and increase the susceptibility to infection and certain forms of cancer. The effects of stress can result in dis-eases like hypertension, asthma, ulcers, allergies, hives, acne, high cholesterol and others have been shown to be enhanced by stress.How does stress affect the immune system? When the immune system is dysfunctional it leaves the body vulnerable to infections, allergies, and perhaps cancer. It's VITAL to your health and wellbeing to implement a regular Stress Management Plan to keep your stress levels at a balanced level to avoid the detrimental side effects. You might like to develop YOUR PERSONAL STRESS MANAGMENT routine by using the MANGING STRESS IN 5-STEPS ECOURSE by StressAffect.com. It is a comprehensive and well researched ecourse that will take through all the necessary steps to understand your stress levels, stressors and how to implement an effective stress management routine that suits your lifestyle and time constraints. Click here for more information.
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