It is known that certain alterations such as depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disorders or reduced immune competence can be closely related to stress.
This constitutes a risk factor for both our physical health and our mental health. It can alter or affect health through various forms and mechanisms (precipitating the occurrence of a disorder, affecting the course of a disease, generating new sources of stress, producing physical and psychological discomfort, reducing our well-being and quality of life, etc. )
From this it follows that stress constitutes a dangerous vicious circle, since it generates a whole series of consequences that are also sources of stress. We’ll see now the connection between stress and so-called lifestyle diseases
In Western civilization, the main causes of death are due to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (myocardial infarction, hypertension, etc.) and cancer. Other health disorders, such as mental disorders (depression, hypochondria, somatization problems, etc.), are associated with marked health disturbances, loss of quality of life and work problems.
For many of these types of disorders, the concept of lifestyle diseases has been suggested. There are numerous risk factors characteristic of the lifestyle of our society that constitute important sources of stress, such as unemployment and job insecurity, unhealthy eating habits, toxic habits such as smoking, etc.
These factors are sometimes cause or consequence, sometimes both The result is a continued level of overarousal that ends up affecting our health directly (continuous increase in heart rate) or indirectly (promoting unhealthy behaviors, such as binge eating).
Before the invention of penicillin, in the first half of the 20th century, our greatest invisible enemy was bacteria. Today, with advances in medicine and the widespread use of vaccines, the main threat is stress, because in advanced societies it causes more deaths and suffering than viruses and bacteria. So much so that the WHO, in October 1990, estimated that these lifestyle diseases were the cause of 70-80% of premature deaths in industrialized countries.
Depression, anxiety, essential hypertension, strokes, tumors, traffic accidents, allergies, myocardial infarctions, psychosomatic complaints and many other health problems could, to some extent, be considered diseases or lifestyle disorders due to their association with psychosocial stress Let us then take seriously the words of the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti:
It is not a sign of good health to be perfectly adapted to a deeply sick society.
How does stress affect us
A stressful event always involves a change or the expectation of a change, in this sense it constitutes a threat to homeostasis (natural balance of the body), which is why it puts us on alert. The stressful potential of a life event is a function of the amount of change it entails: the greater the change, the greater the probability of getting sick.
The overload that stress represents for the body does not act in a specific way, predisposing us to a particular disease, rather leaves us in a state of helplessness, impairing our body’s overall ability to regenerate defend and recover, making us more vulnerable.
Minor events, “little setbacks” such as the typical traffic jam on the road during rush hour, form the bulk of small stressful events in everyday life. By relying on the force of habit, these day-to-day discomforts become part of our routine, we incorporate them as something habitual, normalizing them, and we respond less to these small complications than to major life changes.
It is thought that this type of daily stress, due to its cumulative impact, could constitute a greater source of stress than major life changes and would be a better predictor of health alteration, particularly chronic disorders.
Psychological and somatic symptoms
The accumulated experience of setbacks seems to predict the level of psychic (basically emotional) and somatic (somatic complaints in general) symptoms.
Many authors have found relationships between daily stress and levels of anxiety and depression, general somatic and psychological complaints, symptomatological level in different somatophysiological systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological-sensory, musculoskeletal, etc.), psychological well-being and psychological symptoms of different domains.
There is also a relationship, although less clear, between daily stress and the emergence of psychopathological disorders (anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, etc.), something that, however, does seem to be linked to the previous occurrence of life events (major events).
Perhaps the most important relationship between daily stress and these disorders would occur through an impact on the course of the disorder, aggravating its symptoms, rather than acting as a precipitating factor.
Daily stress and physical health changes
The nervous and hormonal alterations generated by stress have various types of repercussions on our state of health. Below you can see which are the main ones.
1. Gastrointestinal disorders
There are various works that relate daily stress to the course of some chronic medical diseases. Gastrointestinal disorders have received some attention, such as Chron’s disease or irritable bowel syndrome
With respect to irritable bowel syndrome, several authors have indicated the convenience of implementing cognitive-behavioral stress coping programs aimed at the treatment of these patients and even more so if it is taken into account that medical treatments are only palliative.
2. Rheumatoid arthritis
Some investigations have linked the stress of life events with the onset of rheumatoid arthritis, although it appears that stress, especially daily stress, plays a role in aggravating symptoms. There is some controversy as to whether it acts by mediating immunological changes associated with stress or by increasing sensitivity to the pain response.
3. Cancer
Already in 1916 the statesman Frederick. L. Hoffman pointed to the low prevalence of cancer among primitive peoples suggesting a close relationship between the development of this disease and the lifestyle of modern societies.
In 1931 the missionary doctor Albert Schweizer observed this same phenomenon, as well as the anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1960. The latter explains in his book Cancer: Disease of Civilization, how upon reaching the Arctic he observed the non-existence of cancer among the Eskimos and how this The disease increased in prevalence as the primitive peoples of the Arctic came into contact with the white man.
More recently, it has been seen that the weakening of the immune system caused by stress is related to a greater presence of cancer.
4. Migraine
Several authors have reported a close relationship between setbacks and migraine symptoms An increase in daily stressors would produce greater headaches, being associated with both the frequency and intensity of the pain.
5. Coronary artery disease
Daily stress can aggravate angina symptoms in patients with coronary artery disease. On the other hand, increased stress could predict angina the following week,
There is a relationship between stress and hypertension and/or coronary artery disease and they play an important role in increasing blood pressure
7. Infectious diseases
Several authors point out daily stress as a factor that increases vulnerability to infectious diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections, influenza or herpes virus infections.
8. Immune system
The literature that links the implication of stress in relation to the functioning of the immune system is very abundant. This effect could be observed in diseases mediated by the immune system, such as infectious diseases, cancer or autoimmune diseases.
This influence of stress on the immune system has been observed in both acute stressors (one exam) and chronic stressors (unemployment, conflicts with your partner) or life events (loss of husband).
There is not much literature regarding the influence of daily stress, although it has been observed that positive events in our lives are related to an increase in an antibody, immunoglobulin A, while negative events tend to reduce the presence of this antibody.
Conclusion
The consequences of stress are multiple, affecting several levels (physical and psychological) and manifesting themselves in very diverse ways, both in their form and severity. Much of this stress overload is linked to our particular lifestyle. and it is in our power to make changes to reduce this harmful influence on health.
Finally, it should be noted that beyond the influence of external factors that generate stress, there are variables in the person that modulate the greater or lesser adequacy of the response to the demands of the environment. There are personality variables such as neuroticism (tendency to worry) that make us especially vulnerable to stress or personal factors such as resilience that harden us against it.
Remember that if you feel overwhelmed by the circumstances, you can always go to a psychology professional who can teach you appropriate strategies to better cope with day-to-day difficulties.
Sandín, B. (1999). Psychosocial stress. Madrid: DOPPEL.
