The effect of stress on the human body and health. Stress and excess weight. Danger in different trimesters. "Female" type of stress

Many people know that emotional state pregnancy has a significant impact on the health of the unborn baby. In this case, the impact can be short-term or long-term, bringing both benefit and harm. Stress during pregnancy is normal. But you need to understand what stressors have an impact, and take into account how a woman endures it.

Definition

Stress is the body's reaction to strong anxiety. This means that the person was very scared, surprised, upset or outraged. Medical specialists view this concept a little differently. What was presented above, namely mental confusion or nervous tension, refers to neuropsychological stress.

There are several main types:

• emotional;
• physiological;
• light;
• temperature;
• hungry;
• neuropsychic.

That is, such a condition can be caused by a variety of factors. Carrying a baby is a very responsible task, so every mother needs to know how stress affects pregnancy.

Peculiarities

When a woman is in an interesting position, a huge number of changes occur in her body, disturbances appear in metabolic processes, hormonal disruptions, so the organs function differently. On expectant mother affects everything - not only environment, but also other personal factors:

• a pregnant woman experiences rapid fatigue;
• freedom of action is limited;
• there is constant irritation;
• There is a constant fear for the child.

Symptoms

All expectant mothers should know how stress during pregnancy affects a woman in order to avoid this condition, since the fetus reacts very actively to all experiences. It should be noted that such problems can occur in several types:

1. Acute - it proceeds quite quickly and ends the same way.
2. Chronic is a severe depressive state that lasts constantly.

Because a girl is nervous, her body produces the following hormones:

• adrenalin;
• cortisol;
• norepinephrine.

This increases the tone of the uterus, significantly constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure, as a result, the pregnant woman’s heartbeat accelerates.

It is almost impossible to get a definite answer to the question of how stress affects pregnancy, since a short-term emotional outburst is also best workout for the body. But it is very important that such a condition does not develop into a chronic form. After all, if such shocks are constant, a woman may have problems breathing, her skin will begin to turn pale and red. Other symptoms include wet palms, greatly dilated pupils, and periodic pain in the chest area.

In this case, a woman cannot restrain her emotions, she becomes fussy, absent-minded, she has problems with memory, appetite, headaches and eating disorders.

Reasons

It is already known whether stress affects pregnancy, so you need to know the factors that contribute to the problem:

1. Lack of support from loved ones.
2. Continuous problems with sleep, because a woman gets tired so quickly during pregnancy.
3. Feeling of constant dissatisfaction with everything.
4. Nervous and difficult work or studying at a university.

You need to know that severe stress is dangerous, as it can threaten the life of the fetus. It occurs when a woman long time worries about something and accumulates a huge amount of emotions. Due to such troubles, the body cannot produce the required protection, so such factors negatively affect the process of bearing a fetus.

How to relieve stress during pregnancy?

It is extremely important to get rid of nervous worries in a timely manner. Even though sometimes it is difficult to do, it is worth closing your eyes to the problems and thinking about the health of your unborn child. To overcome troubles, you need to strengthen your body:

1. As prescribed by your doctor, you should take vitamin complexes. Vitamins C and E are especially necessary. With their support, you can not only strengthen the immune system, but also rejuvenate the entire body as a whole, and also protect the nervous system. It has been proven that with the help of vitamin C you can get rid of provocateurs that cause a feeling of panic. Thanks to vitamin B, the nervous system will be thoroughly protected; it can be easily found in seafood products.
2. Having understood how stress affects pregnancy, and understanding that this can leave a negative impact on the health of the baby and mother, you should perform specially designed yoga complexes, which include breathing exercises, relaxation and simple physical exercises.
3. It is advisable to do your favorite thing as often as possible, knitting, reading, that is, to calm your mind and distract yourself from various problems.
4. Those who know how it affects nervous stress pregnancy and how difficult it is sometimes to get rid of it, it is recommended to seek help from a psychologist if for a long time It’s impossible to get out of this state. The doctor will advise effective techniques, and the patient will feel better.
5. Pregnant women are calmed by listening to romantic and calm music.

Danger in different trimesters

Every woman who intends to become a mother should know how stress affects early stages pregnancy, because negative experiences can result in miscarriage. If problems occur to a girl in the second or third trimester, then there is a threat to the mother herself. Vital major organs begin to tense up, then pressure increases, and large number swelling and it is possible to see protein in the urine. Blood flow in the placenta deteriorates and as a result the fetus will lack oxygen.

Possible consequences

What are the dangers of stress during pregnancy? Many girls ask their doctors a similar question. The presence of additional worries often leads to problems with the baby’s health. He may be absolutely healthy at birth, but troubles will begin to appear later. The most common disorders observed in children are:

• increased distraction and activity, which subsequently affects learning;
• problems with the speech apparatus, as well as difficulties in learning to write;
• phobias, fears, urinary incontinence, neuroses;
• weakness immune system and cardiovascular diseases, which provoke an increased susceptibility of the child to various diseases;
• the appearance of appearance defects that require surgery to correct;
• autism and mental development problems.

Pathologies during pregnancy

As you can see, a woman needs to know how it affects during pregnancy, as well as how it affects the mother’s condition:

1. A common problem is hypoxia - lack of oxygen. Because of this, it is more difficult for a woman to bear and give birth to a healthy baby. In the most severe cases, suffocation and fetal death may occur.
2. Blood circulation in the placenta is disrupted, causing problems with metabolic processes between the child and mother. Therefore, the baby is born premature and is delayed in development.
3. Childbirth is difficult, and the woman in labor quickly loses strength.
4. Due to the fact that a woman constantly has fears, her pregnancy is disrupted. Sometimes it even ends in miscarriage. Girls are born much earlier, and move with boys.

Another indicator of how severe stress affects pregnancy is the threat of early rupture of amniotic fluid as a result, and this is quite dangerous for the life of the child.

Stress medications

Special psychotropic components for the treatment of stress are used extremely rarely and only at a time when the body's adaptive mechanisms are not able to cope with emotional stress. In this case, the doctor will definitely weigh everything possible risks both for the baby and for the mother and will select the most harmless medications.

Many drugs negatively affect the fetus and lead to the formation of developmental defects and circulatory disorders. Thus, expectant mothers should understand that drops such as “Barboval”, “Corvalol”, “Valocordin”, which can be easily purchased at any pharmacy, are strictly contraindicated for pregnant women. Experts also do not recommend self-medication and taking combination medications based on herbs - Nottu, Novo-Passit, Persen - since their effect on the fetus has not yet been fully studied.

The safest remedy is valerian.

Prevention

It is already known how stress affects pregnancy, so it is better to avoid this condition. There are several types of stress: moderate, which is standard for all women in labor, and severe, which arises from mental shock leading to prolonged depression.

The final stress factor may be severe anxiety or loss. loved one, work, property. Lack of attention, cynicism, rudeness, as well as harsh statements from doctors about any problems of the mother in labor also lead to a similar state.

As a preventive measure, you can suggest that a pregnant woman undergo special tests from a psychologist that show her predisposition to nervous shocks. This procedure should only be carried out by a specialist. Based on the results of the survey, a conclusion is drawn up for psychologists and doctors to provide assistance to the expectant mother.

Each of us has experienced stress at least once in our lives when preparing for exams, before public speaking, at competitions, before an interview or after dismissal - there are many reasons. However, many do not attach importance to this, forgetting what dangerous consequences stress may overtake them a little later. We will remind you about them.

How stress affects the body

Short-term stress can sometimes be beneficial, for example, to increase performance and productivity. But when you experience stress too often or for too long, it becomes chronic and begins to not only affect your brain, but directly harm your body.

The physiology of stress is such that when entering this state, an important paired organ of our body - the adrenal glands - is actively involved in work. They secrete special hormones: cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Moving through the body along with the blood flow, these hormones enter the blood vessels and the heart; in particular, adrenaline makes the heart beat faster and increases blood pressure.

In fact, the adrenal glands are responsible for the “second wind” that opens in a person in a critical situation. But if this situation drags on, the adrenal glands continue to work without stopping, without even having time to recover. Let's take a closer look at the consequences of stress on our body.

Dangerous effects of stress

• A stressful state weakens the human nervous system and overloads it, depleting the adrenal glands, and a regular increase in blood pressure causes hypertension. All this increases the chances of a heart attack or heart attack. The hormone cortisol released during this process can disrupt the functioning of the endothelium - the first step towards the development of atherosclerosis.
• The effects of stress also include irritable bowel syndrome and heartburn. When your brain senses stress, it transmits a stress message to the enteric nervous system, which controls smooth muscles gastrointestinal tract. At the same time, the natural rhythmic contractions that move the food eaten are disrupted, and susceptibility to acid increases. Through the enteric nervous system, stress can change the composition and functioning of intestinal bacteria, which impairs digestion and the health of the entire body.

Can you die from stress?

There are three stages of stress: anxiety, resistance and exhaustion. At the first stage, the body produces stress hormones and prepares for defense; at the second, it throws all its strength into resisting irritants and tries to adapt to the current situation.

And if the stressful state continues, and it reaches the third stage, then exhaustion sets in: the body’s reserves can no longer be mobilized, which leads to the occurrence of physical diseases and psychological disorders. And since the consequences of stress also include serious illnesses, in the absence of proper treatment they can actually lead to death.

It turns out that, fortunately, you will not die from stress as such, but the lingering consequences caused by it can lead to anything. Therefore, we advise you not to let things take their course and start fighting stress so as not to trigger its consequences - we already wrote how this can be done in the article “Anger management: methods for effectively dealing with stress.”

The following video will help you find out the symptoms and causes of stress:

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

Read also on our website:

The enteric system of the human body is part of the autonomic nervous system. It regulates the functioning of smooth muscles internal organs that have contractile activity, including the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract. It is often called the “second brain.” The same types of neurons and neurotransmitters operate in the gastrointestinal tract as in the brain. They perform many functions, including maintaining communication with the central nervous system. Have you ever noticed that changes in emotions cause certain reactions in your stomach? For example, with positive love experiences, pleasant sensations arise in him, anxiety causes nausea, and fear seems to tear the guts apart. This is because the brain has a direct influence on the gastrointestinal system.

When you experience stress - be it chronic or momentary - your gastrointestinal tract immediately reacts to it. Psychological stress disrupts gastrointestinal muscle contractions, promotes inflammation, and increases susceptibility to infections.

Research has shown that the gastrointestinal tract's connection to the brain is so strong that patients seeking therapy to relieve stress and anxiety experience characteristic symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders. And vice versa: by changing your diet, you can improve your mood and tone up.

How can you determine if stress is to blame?

The gut's natural reaction to stress is chronic indigestion, intestinal irritation and other unpleasant symptoms caused by disruption of the digestive system. To minimize the damage to mental and physical health, it is necessary to accurately determine the source of the discomfort and the moment when it first made itself felt. Then try the following techniques to reduce stress:

• Meditation

Try to calm down and not think about anything, do yoga or just find a quiet place where no one will disturb you (even a regular bathroom will do). Don't forget to visit your "safe haven" at least once a week.

• Diary

Sometimes you just need to “let it go.” Recording events, thoughts and states on pages personal diary– a great way to rid yourself of stress and your body from unpleasant symptoms, and the mind - from thoughts that bother you.

• List

Sometimes it can be very easy to deal with stress by simply articulating what needs to be done.

• Therapy

Have a heart-to-heart talk with someone you trust, or consult a professional therapist.

How can you tell if you're eating right?

If everything that prevents you from living a peaceful life seems to be under control, but you still feel irritated, anxious, or lack of energy, this may be due to food sensitivity. This reaction differs from a food allergy in that it is not as severe and sometimes may not appear for several days. The most common culprits are certain processed and dairy foods, gluten, peanuts, soy, sugar, artificial sweeteners and, of course, alcohol - they cause you mental discomfort and mental suffering.

To determine the source of your distress and associated symptoms, try a special diet. Develop a plan healthy eating, which involves the gradual elimination of toxic foods from the diet. This will take you three to four weeks. This will help you rid your body of the harmful effects of each type of food.

After making a list of the foods that you excluded from your diet, begin to include them again. food products– one at a time, observing how it changes your mental state and physical well-being. Reactions may be the following: mental – problems with concentration, fatigue, depression, inability to think coherently; physical – abdominal cramps, indigestion, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, acne. If these effects are not observed within a week, then the food added to the diet is safe, and you should include the next food from your list in your diet. If negative effects occur, stop using this product immediately as your body is overreacting to it.

Upon completion of this diet, you will be able to develop a balanced diet, excluding from it those foods that adversely affect your psyche. You will see that after eliminating these foods from your diet, you will have additional energy, you will be able to regulate your weight, your mind will become clear, and your mood will be mostly good and calm. The quality of your sleep will also improve significantly.

Dr. Jennifer Landa, FoxNews.com

Many people have heard this opinion. That pregnancy cannot occur due to stress. Some laugh at this opinion, while others take everything too seriously and attribute this reason to themselves.

Possible links between stress and conception

It is worth noting the fact that stress is simply necessary for every person in order for some organs to function normally, and also to avoid problems with mental and physical activity. But when a person lives in constant severe stress, then his body simply stops coping with it and then the benefit from it disappears.

The theory that stress can affect conception is quite realistic. Moreover, many women say that they noticed during nervous tension or a prolonged stressful situation, a delay in menstruation or lack of ovulation on time. And then it is worth concluding that if ovulation does not occur, then conception will not occur either.

How can stress affect ovulation?

Hormonal reasons. The main version is that during stress, too much of the hormone prolactin is released in the body, and it has a very negative effect on LH and FSH, which are simply indispensable for ovulation to occur. The amount of the hormone estrogen may also decrease, which will entail a decrease in the thickness of the endometrium, and this will allow the fertilized egg to attach to the wall of the uterus.

Also, do not forget about men in whom these hormones are responsible not only for potency, but also for the formation of sperm. Therefore, if the amount of hormones LH and FSH is disrupted, the sperm will be defective, and this will significantly worsen the quality of the seminal fluid.

Nerve and muscle disorders

There is an opinion that stress, even at a nervous level, can affect conception. This is because the reproductive organs, like any other organs, are connected to the brain. Therefore, during stress, they also receive impulses that cause smooth muscle contractions. This can cause spasm of the fallopian tubes or uterine hypertonicity. This will make it very difficult for the egg to travel to the uterus. If we consider the male body, then his sexual desire and potency can thus significantly decrease. It is very rare for problems with ejaculation disorders to occur, when during orgasm sperm ceases to be released or its outflow goes into reverse side and enters the bladder.

Sometimes, with frequent contraction of muscle fibers, the body produces alpha-amylase, which is also called the stress enzyme. And this also does not have a very positive effect on the reproductive system.

How to reduce the harmful effects of stress?

The main advice here can only be that you need to immediately get rid of severe and constant stress. There is too much harm from it, and practically no benefit. To do this, you must first find out the cause of stress and its source. And only then try to reduce it to a minimum or remove it altogether. Sometimes it happens that stress comes from constant voltage at work and from long-term attempts to conceive a child. If you have stress of this nature, then you need to try to relax, perhaps change the situation. This will help break the vicious circle and give you many positive emotions. For example, relaxation techniques help in such cases. When the effect of stress on conception was studied and this technique was used as a medicine, within six months 34% of the women who took part in the study were able to become pregnant. Massage, spa treatments, aromatherapy and so on also have a good effect.

Hello everyone! Stress is an immediate response of the human body to dramatically changing external conditions. This can be any situation, both harmless and requiring caution. An individual can experience shock at the sight of a car rushing through a red light, or at the approach of an aggressive person or a stray dog. Such situations cause the release of hormones, with the help of which one or another reaction to such an event is formed.

Nowadays, stress is an integral part of everyday human existence. Its peculiarity lies in exactly how and with what intensity the individual’s body will react to the current situation. Most often, the greatest burden falls on the emotional or physical sphere. And today we will talk about how stress affects human health.

Causes of stress

The most common causes of stress are:

• overload;
• new job;
• constant nagging from the boss;
• severe shock;
• conflict;
• anxiety;
• panic fear;
• self-doubt;
• significant hypothermia;
• possible accident;
• disease;
• injury received;
• hunger;
• thirst, etc.

Such influences entail a corresponding reaction of the body. It can be very different. It depends on the complexity of the situation and its impact on the person. It also matters whether he himself, the people for whom he is responsible, or his loved ones are involved.

It is very important how it manifests itself. A person either hides and suppresses them. There may also be an option that he does not express the feelings that he actually experiences in order to achieve the necessary reaction from others.

Stress can arise at any time. Even small child, who is called to the blackboard during class at school, is already testing it. In the future, almost every step of an adult is accompanied by one or another negative impact.

What are the reactions to stress?

If there are too many such situations or the body’s reaction to them is inadequate, then they can cause harm. Gradually:

• the person becomes anxious;
• he is decreasing;
• he is constantly nervous;
• gets irritated;
• cries;
• screams;
• swears, etc.

As a result, he gets exhausted very quickly, gets tired, his attention wanders, his memory decreases, and muscle tension begins to arise, leading to quite severe pain.

Human health gradually begins to suffer. Eastern medicine is generally of the opinion that most diseases occur under the influence of stress. Indeed, bronchial asthma, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, stomach ulcer, etc. develop precisely as a result of nervous overload.

This happens because a significant negative nervous effect does not pass without leaving a trace for a person. He develops a severe emotional disorder, temporary normal conditions or constant with ongoing stress. Any malfunction in an individual’s body begins with psychological trauma. It is this that causes other dysfunctions of internal organs.

Therefore, specialists in the field of medicine and psychology are closely studying this serious problem. It has been proven that most diseases of internal organs occur under the influence of nervous overload. If they are repeated too much, then pathology may develop.

This happens as follows. During a stressful situation, endocrine organs are activated. The active release of hormones begins. Their excess quantity has a strong effect on the brain, stomach, cardiovascular system. If this condition is prolonged or not neutralized, then a failure occurs.

A sudden release of a large number of various hormones leads to a significant increase in heart rate, sudden surges blood pressure, reactions of the parasympathetic system. If this is repeated often enough, then gradually protective forces organisms decrease. Sometimes a poor immune system is no longer able to protect a person from even developing oncological diseases.

Thus, an abundance of stress weakens a person, disrupts his metabolism, and inhibits regeneration processes in cells and tissues. They suffer from this:

• leather;
• muscles;
• brain;
• spinal cord;
• bones;
• hair;
• nails;
• thyroid gland;
• spine, etc.

Bones become thinner, which leads to fractures, and constantly increased hormonal levels disrupt the metabolism, genitourinary system, gastrointestinal tract and nerves.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to give stress an outlet. This is possible in the presence of muscular or emotional stress. If you do not accumulate it, but get rid of it, then it can even be useful for the body.

The essence of a hormonal attack is to activate all the systems necessary to cope with the current situation. Since these days, as a rule, no increased effort is required for this, a way out can be given through an emotional or muscular response. Subsequently, the body, when faced with a similar problem, no longer reacts to it so sharply, but quickly finds a solution already embedded in the memory cells.

If stress occurs only occasionally and is not destructive, it can have health benefits. This happens when its action does not exceed the danger of the situation or the person knows how to cope with it. The main thing is that problems do not become too frequent and severe. Otherwise, the body will simply stop fighting them.

First, headaches begin to appear. Then arrhythmia and increased blood pressure will occur. After a short time, these pathologies generalize and become chronic.

It is very important not to try to cope with stress through alcohol, smoking or drugs. In addition to a strong blow to the psyche, the influence of such substances will significantly worsen your health. The consequences may be delayed. That is, at first a person will experience relief, and then gradually a serious illness will arise that can even lead to death.

How stress affects human health

Then a condition called distress appears. It negatively affects health by damaging cells and tissues. It is divided into:

1. nervous;
2. short-term;
3. chronic;
4. psychological;
5. physiological.

Therefore, stress can affect a person in a variety of ways. Do not think that too much nervous shock is required for a significant impairment of health. Small but constantly recurring nervous situations are no less dangerous. Gradually they merge together and pose a direct threat to health.

It can manifest itself abruptly, under the influence of a specific negative situation, or accumulate day after day in a traumatic environment.

Then stress can create serious problems. This is explained by the fact that its course is subject to a certain logic. The body's response is aimed at helping a person adapt to the current unfavorable situation.

Therefore, stress goes through three successive periods of time, consisting of anxiety, the stage of adaptation to specific conditions and exhaustion if this does not happen.

Anxiety and adaptation are the normal course of this reaction, leading to positive results. But in the case when there are a lot of stressful situations and the body does not have time to adapt to them or they are repeated so often that the adaptation loses its strength, then the stage of exhaustion begins. This is usually followed by the development of some disease.

They can manifest themselves in the psyche, nervous system, metabolism and the functioning of the internal organs of a person. If he is already suffering from any disease, it may worsen and even degenerate into a malignant tumor. Most often, an excess of stressful situations leads to:

• coronary heart disease;
• heart attack;
• stroke;
• hypertension;
• angina pectoris;
• cholecystitis;
• duodenal ulcer;
• stomach colic;
• dermatitis;
• hives;
• neurodermatitis;
• neurosis.

Stress brings considerable harm to the nervous system and psyche. It becomes increasingly difficult for a person to cope with ordinary everyday situations, he stops believing in himself, it is difficult for him to force himself to do anything, he does not believe in the success of the business he has started. Gradually he develops depression and even has suicidal thoughts.

Fully healthy person may start to catch a cold first. Then suffer from minor ailments, and later discover that he has developed a serious illness.

Stress is very harmful for women. Under its constant influence, they age, the skin ceases to be fresh and elastic, and the hair begins to thin.

Thus, a person must be able to cope with such situations or, if this is not possible, avoid them. If you live in a state of constant nervous tension, this can result in very serious consequences.

Under the influence of chronic stress, a person’s body simply wears out, the resources of his psyche and nervous system are depleted, and they can no longer cope with their load internal organs. An individual gets sick and is not always able to recover. As soon as one disease recedes, another immediately begins. Overall life expectancy is also decreasing.

Therefore, it should be understood that stress can arise both under the influence of an external situation (conflict, attack) and an internal one (anxiety, fear). Moreover, the problem does not have to be real; it can only happen in a person’s imagination. For example, a student who has prepared well for an exam experiences an inexplicable horror of the teacher. Or a person who has received a new position and is thoroughly familiar with technological process, worries that he will not be able to cope with the work.

Therefore, the manifestation of such unreasonable emotions should be controlled, since the human brain, which sends signals to the endocrine organs, does not distinguish between where the real danger lies and where the imaginary one lies.

In addition, even if a person has already developed any psychosomatic disease, he must learn to respond correctly to stressful situations. This can be achieved by putting your emotional reactions under the control of your mind, for example.

If a person begins to fully realize that every traumatic problem leads to a sharp deterioration in his health, then he should think about how important it is for him to work in an unfriendly team, engage in excessively stressful work, or be married to an alcoholic.

Now you know how stress affects human health. Take care of yourself! See you again!