We’ve all experienced stress to some degree during the pandemic. Whether you’re an essential worker who’s had to work during COVID-19, or you had to stay home for weeks on end as you Shelter in Place, both scenarios add stress to our lives. Stress reduces our immune system’s ability to fight infection, so it’s doubly important to manage our stress during an infectious disease outbreak.
Stress Triggers the Sympathetic Nervous System
Unfortunately, the Sympathetic Nervous System doesn't also destress the body once the danger has passed. Another component of the Autonomic Nervous System, the Parasympathetic Nervous System, works to calm the body down. Blood pressure, breathing rate and hormone flow will return to normal once the body senses the danger has passed as we move from ‘Fight or Flight’ to ‘Rest and Digest’.
Chronic Stress Creates Health Issues
The world we live in today puts
constant stress on most of us which causes our bodies to produce Adrenaline and
Cortisol. Adrenaline increases your
heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol,
the primary stress hormone, increases glucose in the bloodstream; it also curbs
functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight
situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive
system, the reproductive system and growth processes and effects our motivation,
mood and fear.
Chronic stress leads to overexposure
to Cortisol and other stress hormones that follows can disrupt almost all your
body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of many health problems,
including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Digestive problems
- Headaches
- Heart disease
- Sleep problems
- Weight gain
- Memory and concentration impairment
