Stress within your comfort zone is a good thing – for instances, it is required when you need to do your best or keep you alert when danger looms! But the problem comes when it becomes overwhelming and you lose control on it. For such case, it can carry some health risks. Can also it cause high blood sugar levels in non diabetics?
Understanding stress in general
Stress is actually the natural mechanism of the body to respond any demand or even threat. For example, the body can release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline when you feel threatened. You breath more quickly, muscles tighten, heart beats faster, and blood pressure increases. As a result you have increased stamina, strength, focus, and speed – making you ready for emergency action!
It is also important to help you rise to get your goal and meet challenges. You need it to keep focus during a presentation at work, drive your concentration for study, or sharpen your skill when playing a sport.
So stress is not always bad. Again it can give a number of benefits when working properly! But beyond this comfort zone, it is also linked to a number of many different conditions. When it doesn’t work as well as it should, it can be a serious threat to your mind and body.
Your body is naturally designed to have stress and react to it. Stress can also cause negative effect on your health when you face continuous challenges without relaxation /relief between challenges – or when you lose control on it. As a result, stress-related tension builds and your body becomes overworked!
When it continues without relief, you have a negative stress reaction (distress) that is to blame for physical symptoms such as raised blood pressure, upset stomach, difficulty sleeping, headaches, and chest pain. With this way, stress may also be a trigger for a number of health problems or worsen the symptoms of many diseases.
Unfortunately, some people use heavy drinking and smoking to relieve their stress. These choices are bad, or even can worsen the effect of stress on health. Alcohol and tobacco smoke tend to keep you in a stressed state, causing more problems.
Many long term sources of the problem are mental. Stress is actually designed for a real threat. But your mind can react to a harmless thing as if it was a real threat. Mental stress can pump out many hormones in the body to no avail.
In diabetics, bad stress management is bad blood sugar control
So again stress is actually a natural mechanism of your body to prepare itself to take action. This preparation is known as the ‘flight-to-flight’ response.
