Do you feel like you are all alone, overwhelmed, short-tempered, exhausted and on top of that lacking proper sleep? Turns out that you are stressed.

But it is completely normal for a human to get stressed out. Stress is actually helpful to kick start you, like when you are getting up on a stage to perform or to do a public speech.

It provides you a spurt of energy and concentration.

Stress only becomes a problem when it gets persistent.

How Stress Begins?

 When your brain senses a stressful situation, the HPA axis - Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal axis - is activated and releases a hormone called Cortisol.

This prepares your body to take action.

Educator Madhumita Murgia writes that “the HPA axis is a series of interactions between endocrine glands in the brain and on the kidney which controls your body’s reaction to stress”.

When Does Stress Become a Problem?

 Flip back some pages of your memory and go straight to biology class. Remember adrenal glands?! Those small organs that sits on top of your kidneys like a cap?

Yes, they produce cortisol. It’s a prime stress hormone and does pretty much a lot of functions.

So after dealing with a stressful situation cortisol comes back to rest.

But when a stressful situation persists, can cortisol go back to its normal levels? Nope!

This Can Overwhelm Your Brain Functions

- It increases the neural connections in the Amygdala.

- It weakens electric signals in your hippocampus.

And why is that a problem? Amygdala is your brain’s fear center!

And Hippocampus is mainly associated with your memories, learning and stress control.

Moreover, do you remember the HPA axis? Hippocampus has a role in inhibiting its activity.

So you lose your ability to control stress when Hippocampus weakens.

Too Much Cortisol Can Literally Shrink Your Brain!

“The prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that regulates behaviors like concentration, decision-making, judgement and social interaction” writes Ms. Madhumita Murgia.

When cortisol levels rise abundantly, it can contribute to

- The shrinking of the prefrontal cortex and

- “The loss of synaptic connection between neurons”.

How It Affects Your Memory?

 So, remember how your hippocampus weakens? Similarly, chronic stress limits the production of new brain cells made in the hippocampus.

Also Hippocampus is related to learning and memory. So when production of new cells is reduced you would find it hard to learn new things and to remember them.

“And this can also set the stage for more serious mental problems, like depression and eventually Alzheimer’s disease.” writes Ms. Murgia.

The Relation Between Stress and Your Immune System

 Now this has high relevance in our present scenario of the Covid pandemic.

The apprehension of getting infected, financial depression and a lot of other things have draped people in a blanket of stress.

But controlling this stress is important. Because even decades before, studies have established that a highly stressed person is more susceptible to infections by many viruses and other diseases.

As you know, the white blood cells are involved with our immune system. “When we are stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections.” writes Dr. Saul McLeod in simplypsychology.org

Increases The Chances of Heart Attack or Stroke

 Atherosclerosis is the buildup of cholesterol plaque in your arteries.

“So excessive Cortisol can cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels to not function normally. Scientists know that this is an early step in triggering the process of Atherosclerosis”, writes educator Sharon Horesh Bergquist in TED-Ed.

So these variations can increase your risk of getting a heart attack or stroke.

It Can Exacerbate IBS

 So IBS is Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It is an intestinal condition which causes stomach pain, diarrhea and constipation

But before getting to it, Back to biology class again!

Remember the flowchart of the nervous system that coordinates our actions and sensory information?

The Autonomic nervous system can be divided into sympathetic (“fight or flight system”), Para-sympathetic (“Rest and digest” or “Feed and Breed ”system) and Enteric nervous system.

The Enteric nervous system is another division “which controls most of Gastro intestinal system”.

So there is a relation between your brain and gut.

Constant Stress and anxiety can prompt over activity of your gut. It can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions of your gut and can aggravate IBS.

You Can Definitely Fight Stress

 All these effects of stress are not to stress you more but to keep excessive stress out of your life.

- The most effective ways to win over stress and to gain control over it is to exercise and meditate.

- If you are a person who believes in The Almighty, you can reconnect with Him. It definitely helps in easing out your heart.

- Try to keep in touch with the ones that you love.

- Engage in activities that can relax you like painting, listening to audio books or music and much more.

- Make it a point to not overburden yourself and to bravely face the hurdles of life.

“Get in control of your stress before it takes control of you”

Source: TED-Ed

Written by: Afra Meera Ahamed

Edited by: Gunika Manchanda