Physical complaints due to stress

Do you suffer from fatigue, stomach ache, muscle pain, or headache? This could very well be related to stress. Stress can cause fluctuations in hormone levels, which can make people feel tired, lethargic and nauseous. Stress also affects sex hormones, which can lead to irregular sexual activity and menstrual disorders. Fortunately, there are a number of scientifically proven solutions to stress that do not require medication or therapy and can prevent physical complaints. Examples include breathing exercises, changes in dietary patterns and better sleep rituals. However, there is often a different solution for every physical complaint.

Stress, muscle pain and headache

When the body is stressed, the muscles will become tense. You end up in fight-and-flight mode: your body is tense to counter any danger. In the past, people entered this mode because there was a direct threat to life. Today, people enter this mode because they become stressed from too much work, distractions, irritations and traffic jams. With chronic stress, the muscles remain continuously tense. With tense muscles around the head, neck and shoulders, you can experience severe muscle pain and therefore headaches and migraines.

This can be prevented by doing relaxation exercises during work or other stressful periods, for example by loosening the neck and shoulders or by breathing exercises. By becoming relaxed again, stress will decrease and, as a result, muscle tension.

Lung problems and stress

Stress accelerates the heart rate and therefore also breathing. People with asthma, bronchitis or other lung problems may experience this. Finally, in severe cases of accelerated breathing, hyperventilation and therefore panic attacks can occur. To counteract this, you can do various breathing exercises. Especially when one feels a stress attack coming, deep breathing from the abdomen with eyes closed helps. This will automatically lower the heart rate.

Hormonal

When people are stressed, two stress hormones are released: cortisol and eninephrine. This puts you in fight-and-flight mode. Subsequently, more sugar is released into the blood. An increased sugar level has a strong relationship with increased stress levels and vice versa. This increased sugar level can be especially dangerous for people with type 2 diabetes. Peaks and troughs in blood sugar levels can cause lethargy, mood swings and depression. Dealing with stress well can have a positive influence on your mood by keeping blood sugar levels low.

Fatigue and stress

Stress can make it more difficult to fall asleep. In addition, sleep quality deteriorates and stressed people often wake up in the middle of the night. This is due to a higher heart rate and the inability to rest. People will often use alcohol or sleeping pills to fall asleep. However, these can lead to a general feeling of fatigue throughout the day. In addition, stress causes spikes in blood sugar levels, resulting in rapid ‘crashes’ in which people feel tired and lethargic. There are a few scientifically proven tips for better sleep that can also indirectly suppress stress. Examples of this are: paying more attention to winding down the day and relaxing by turning off screens half an hour before going to sleep and avoiding caffeine and sugar.

Stomachache, nausea and stress

In a tense situation due to stress, you become more aware of your stomach. You are more likely to feel stitches, irritations and pain as long as the stress persists. It can even lead to nausea and vomiting. This is often also due to the unbalanced sugar level that can lead to dizziness. Stress also affects digestion, which can be accelerated or slowed down. In any case, stress often causes the speed of digestion to be different than at rest, which can cause diarrhea or constipation. Finally, chronic stress can cause you to develop stomach ulcers. If you experience abdominal pain, try to lie down or sit somewhere and relax through breathing exercises. Preferably with eyes closed. In addition, try to take enough breaks during work and eat regularly.

Fertility

In men

When cortisol is released, this causes a peak in testosterone in men, which leads to a higher chance of becoming aroused, which can be distracting during work or study. Because cortisol affects men’s sex hormones, chronic stress can have a strong influence on the man’s reproductive system, causing it to become out of balance. The consequences of this are erectile dysfunction and unbalanced sperm production and maturation.

In women

As seen earlier, stress affects hormone release, blood sugar levels and heart rate. A combination of these can cause more irregular periods that last longer or shorter. In addition, the entire period can be experienced as more painful and stressed women have more difficulty dealing with menstruation.

At both

The libido can decrease in both men and women due to too much distraction and a lack of concentration. The fluctuations in hormone release can therefore cause an imbalance in the mood and therefore lead to relationship problems. Finally, stress is very tiring, which can have a negative impact on sex life.

read more

• 8 tips against stress during work and study
• 14 Scientific tips to sleep better
• Stress due to too many sugars