Stress and its influence on lifestyle diseases

Stress can manifest itself in a variety of ways, some of which are not psychological.

It is known that certain disorders such as depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disorders or reduced immune competence can be closely related to stress.

Stress is a risk factor for both our physical and 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.).

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 occupational 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 a cause or a consequence, sometimes both.. The result is a continuous level of over-activation 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, the main threat is stressIn 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, cerebrovascular accidents, tumors, traffic accidents, allergies, myocardial infarctions, psychosomatic complaints and many other health problems could, to a certain extent, be considered as diseases or lifestyle disorders because of their association with lifestyle diseases. lifestyle disorders because of their association with psychosocial stress.. So let us take seriously the words of the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti:

It is not a sign of good health to be perfectly adapted to a profoundly sick society. A stressful event always brings about a change or the expectation of a changeIn this sense, it constitutes a threat to homeostasis (natural balance of the organism), and therefore 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 becoming ill.

The overload of stress on the body does not act in a specific way, predisposing us to a particular disease, but rather leaves us in a state of helplessness. Rather, it leaves us in a state of helplessness, impairing our body's overall ability to regenerate, defend and recover, making us more susceptible to disease.and recover, making us more vulnerable.

Minor events, "small setbacks" such as the typical rush hour traffic jam, form the bulk of small stressful events of everyday life. With 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.

The accumulated experience of setbacks seems to predict the level of psychological (basically emotional) and somatic symptomatology (somatic complaints in general).

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, albeit less clear, between daily stress and the occurrence of psychopathological disorders (anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, etc.), which, however, does seem to be linked to the prior occurrence of life events (major events).

Perhaps the most important relationship between daily stress and these disorders would be through an effect on the course of the disorder, aggravating its symptoms, rather than acting as a precipitating factor.

Daily stress and physical health disorders

The nervous and hormonal alterations generated by stress have various repercussions on our state of health. Below you can see which are the main ones.

1. Gastrointestinal disorders

There are several studies that relate daily stress with the course of some chronic medical diseases. Gastrointestinal disorders have received some attention, such as Chron's disease or irritable bowel syndrome..

Some research have linked the stress of life events to the onset of rheumatoid arthritis, although it appears that stress, especially daily stress, plays a role in aggravating symptoms.It appears that stress, especially daily stress, plays a role in aggravating symptoms. There is some controversy as to whether it acts by mediating stress-associated immunological changes or whether it does so by increasing sensitivity to the pain response.

3. Cancer

Already in 1916 the statistician Frederick. L. Hoffman pointed to the low prevalence of cancer among primitive peoples, suggesting a close relationship between cancer and stress.suggesting a close relationship between the development of this disease and the lifestyle of modern societies.

In 1931 the missionary physician Albert Schweizer observed the same phenomenon, as did 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 disease increased in prevalence as the primitive peoples of the Arctic came into contact with the white man.

More recently, it has been shown that the weakening of the immune system brought about by stress is related to an increased occurrence of cancer.

4. Migraine

Daily stress may aggravate angina symptoms in patients with coronary artery disease. On the other hand, increased stress may predict the following week's angina,

6. Cardiovascular responses

There is a relationship between stress and hypertension and/or coronary artery disease and they play an important role in increasing Blood pressure. an important role in increasing blood pressure.

7. Infectious diseases

Several authors point to 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 linking the involvement of stress in relation to the functioning of the immune system is abundant. This effect could be observed in immune-mediated diseases such as infectious diseases, cancer or autoimmune diseases.

This influence of stress on the immune system has been observed both in acute stressors (an exam) and chronic stressors (unemployment, conflicts with a partner or life events (loss of a spouse). (unemployment, conflicts with a partner) or life events (loss of a spouse).

There is not as much literature on the influence of daily stress, although it has been observed that positive events in our life are related to an increase of an antibody, immunoglobulin A, while negative events tend to reduce the presence of this antibody.

Conclusion

The consequences of stress are manifold, affecting various levels (physical and psychological) and manifesting themselves in a wide variety of ways, both in form and severity. A large part of this stress overload is linked to our particular lifestyle and it is up to us to make changes to reduce this harmful influence on our 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 stress.

Remember that if you feel overwhelmed by circumstances you can always turn to a psychology professional who can teach you appropriate strategies to better cope with day-to-day difficulties.

Bibliographical references:

• Sandín, B. (1999). Psychosocial stress. Madrid: DOPPEL.