How Hormonal Balance is related to Stress

Nowadays, stress is a factor which affects our lives in ways most of us wouldn’t even think possible. Many researchers suggest that most of our sicknesses started with certain level of stress at a certain point of our lives. It is a fact that stress, lower our immune system, this being the beginning of a serious of negative consequences to our bodies.

Stress affects our lives not only emotionally, but also physically.

The factors the cause stress to our lives are infinite. For instance, what causes us stress may not cause stress to others. But stress can also be positive when used wisely, like for example when it is used by businessmen or students to achieve certain goals and to raise their levels of performance. Many people call this kind of stress productive, as it is use as a way of helping the challenge. Positive or not, the fact is that regardless of the intensity of stress, stress always causes changes in our bodies; and these changes are now being proved to lead our bodies to deadly diseases.

When our body responds to stress, all our bodies’ systems, like our heart, blood vessels, brain, and immune and digestive systems are modified to meet the perceived danger.

During a stressful moment, there is a production and release of certain hormones and other substances (like cortisol and adrenaline). Also, our heart, lungs, circulation and immune systems are being affected. Breathing becomes rapid, blood flow may increase up to 400%, fluids in the mouth and throat are diverted and what is more, digestive activity is shut down and muscles tense.  Once the stress period passes and there were no harmful consequences, hormones go back to normal, and the body’s systems normalize.

When our bodies are our of shape, meaning when our diets are unhealthy, our bodies are tired and not used to activity, or when we perform unhealthy habits like drinking to much alcohol and smoking; our body is basically not ready to fight stress. As you may have already come to conclude, if our systems are not working properly, when we need to use them, they will not function right!

In this is how hormonal unbalances are directly related to stress. For instance, our bodies might not be strong enough to bring its hormones and substances to their natural level after they increased or decreased during the moment of stress. This resulting in many unwanted consequences, such as lost of sexual libido, lack of energy, depression and anxiety, and more severe menopausal and PMS symptoms for women.

This is why healthy habits are such an important issue in our stressful lives. Our bodies do not only need to be strong to perform better at certain tasks, they also need to be strong internally, our systems are stronger when we take care of ourselves, and as a return of our care and discipline our internal systems are able to work properly and are able to help us avoid sicknesses and live a more fulfilling live.