How does stress affect the body?
Stress causes chemical changes in both the brain
and the body. One of the most common effects is seen in the nervous system, in particular
the autonomic nervous system. This is the system that controls the workings of your
body without you having to think about it.Your heart rate, the movement of food
through your digestive tract and many other processes that seem to take care of
themselves are in fact affected by the nerves of the autonomic nervous system. The
autonomic system reacts to sudden change.
A loud noise will quickly make your heart
beat faster, the blood vessels in your skin and digestive system will become narrow
and you will sweat. A hormone called adrenaline will be released from your adrenal
glands and this will affect your whole body so that you are best prepared for immense
physical effort.
The fight response
When something like a loud noise occurs
(or a hungry lion runs towards you) your
body prepares to fight or run. Everything that
happens to your body is designed to help you
concentrate on one thing and use your muscles
in a superhuman effort to survive. However, in
modern life we respond in a similar way to an
important phone call or an exam result, even
though there is nothing to fight or from which
to run away. Furthermore, this state of tension
can persist and our survival mechanism can
actually do us harm.
Exercise can restore the balance of many of
the physiological changes of the fight response.
Furthermore, exercise has beneficial effects in
combating stress. It also triggers the release
of chemicals in the brain that help make you
feel better.