From meditation to a morning run, we all try our best to avoid feeling stressed out.

But life can throw us with curveballs, and unfortunately, stress is something that many of us will experience at one time or another.

And while we all know feeling stressed isn’t great – we may not be aware of the seriously negative effects that feeling this way can have on your health.

Both physically and mentally, stress wrecks havoc.

‘Stress causes a whole range of physical, emotional, and behavioural symptoms including headaches and fatigue, anxiety, irritability, and even changes in appetite and social withdrawal,’ Chris Newbury prescriber and pharmacist of online pharmacy The Independent Pharmacy tells metro.co.uk

‘The overall experience of stress can vary widely from one person to the next — some patients may feel it as an uncomfortable, nervous energy, whereas others may experience it as irritability and anger.

‘However, a common theme reported by many patients experiencing stress is the sensation of losing control.’

Significant amounts of stress on the body can actually lead to a number of serious consequences and health problems in the long term.

Here are a few to note.

Dementia

A recent study has uncovered evidence suggesting that stress can elevate the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The study, led by the University of Alabama, asked more than 24,000 adults how often they felt stressed or were unable to cope with everything they had to do. 

According to the findings, those who reported high levels of stress were found to be 37% more likely to develop dementia in their later years.

The study said: ‘perceived stress is associated with hormonal and inflammatory indicators of accelerated ageing, as well as excess risk of cardiovascular and stroke morbidity and mortality. It has also been associated with sleep problems and poor immunologic function.’

Heart attacks

In a 2017 paper published in The Lancet, researchers from Harvard University found that constant stress could raise your risk of heart attack and stroke.

The research was made up of two studies and suggested that when you are stressed, your amygdala (an area of the brain that deals with stress) signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells.

This in turn causes the arteries to become inflamed and we know that inflammation is involved in the process that leads to heart attacks, angina and strokes.

The study also looked at inflammation of the arteries and activity in the amygdala in highly stressed people. Researchers found a direct association between raised amygdalar activity and more arterial inflammation.

Digestive problems

Gastrointestinal disorders will affect 35% to 70% of people at some point in life. This can be down to many biological factors, but stress can play a significant role in such illnesses.

Why? Well, according to Harvard Health our enteric nervous system (which controls our gastrointestinal behaviour) is a second brain.

If stress is in the body, the way it works changes.

‘After sensing that food has entered the gut, neurons lining the digestive tract signal muscle cells to initiate a series of intestinal contractions that propel the food farther along, breaking it down into nutrients and waste,’ Harvard Health said.

‘At the same time, the enteric nervous system uses neurotransmitters such as serotonin to communicate and interact with the central nervous system.’

And so, as stress triggers a ‘fight or flight’ response, digestion processes can be hindered.

‘When a person becomes stressed enough to trigger the fight-or-flight response, for example, digestion slows or even stops so that the body can divert all its internal energy to facing a perceived threat,’ Harvard Health added.

‘In response to less severe stress, such as public speaking, the digestive process may slow or be temporarily disrupted, causing abdominal pain and other symptoms of functional gastrointestinal disorders.’

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