With so much talk about stress management and reducing stress, it’s starting to feel like it’s just another health fad that’s here today and gone tomorrow. When it comes to stress, however, managing it is critical for all aspects of your health. When you experience chronic stress from the events in your life you are more prone to physical and mental health issues. Your quality of life and relationships decrease, and you don’t get to experience the same kind of joy as other people do. Here are the top 8 reasons why managing your stress is so important.
Stress Can Mess With Your Hormones
Men and women alike are prone to hormonal shifts when they feel stressed. For women, this can look like irregular periods, infertility, and even early menopause. In men, this can look like erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and even angry outbursts. Your body releases a stress hormone when you experience stressful situations that can be beneficial for a short time, but long-term stress hormones can wreak havoc on your other hormones causing a lot of challenges.
Stress Can Lead to Weight Gain
Nobody wants to gain weight, but the way that the stress hormones work is that they want your body to conserve as much as possible. Pair that with many people’s tendency to overindulge in junk food when they are stressed and it’s a recipe for disaster. This can lead to uncontrolled weight gain, which leads to more stress, and then the cycle continues. The best thing you can do for yourself if you’re gaining weight due to stress is to change your diet and look for natural supplements like full spectrum CBD oil to help lower your stress response and help you feel more relaxed.
Stress Can Increase Your Risk of Heart Disease
For whatever reason, stress puts people in a high-risk category for heart disease and heart attacks. Men especially who have high-stress jobs are more likely to experience heart problems than those who have less stressful work environments. It’s important to lower your stress levels, especially if you have a personal or family history of heart disease.
Stress Decreases Your Mental Focus
Want to do better at work? Want to be able to start and complete tasks with ease? Reduce your stress. Stress makes it harder to focus and people who are often stressed don’t feel like they can give their best at work and at home. Not being able to focus can cost you not only your job, but also relationships in your life.
Stress Can Make You More Emotional
Men and women can both experience emotional highs and lows when they are stressed. Sometimes this expresses itself through being angrier frequently. This means that they will end up lashing out at work or at home with their partners or their children. It can make you feel on the verge of crying more often as well, and if left unchecked, these emotions can become more serious.
Stress Can Lead to Mental Health Issues
Some people who experience chronic stress end up depressed or experiencing debilitating anxiety. Managing stress as well as possible from the start can help reduce or even prevent you from later experiencing depression or anxiety. These mental health issues can be very damaging long-term as they make it difficult to function in everyday life.
Stress Can Cause Digestive Problems
Do you struggle with constant GI distress or stomach pain that seems to have no real cause? Stress can do that. If you want to improve your bowel function, reduce your stomach pain, and improve your overall health, then look for ways to reduce your stress. For some, it can be as simple as a good self-care routine. For others, it might mean taking certain supplements. In more severe cases, getting professional counseling to learn better stress management routines can also be effective.
Final Thoughts
Reducing stress, managing stressors, and creating a more satisfying lifestyle are possible and it is important. Those who want to reduce their risk of certain diseases can benefit from creating a life that is more relaxing. This doesn’t mean you need to fund a massage every day, although that would be nice. But it does mean that you are actively looking at the things that are stressing you out and finding better ways to cope with them.