Stress is a natural response to various situations that require attention often. For many women, stress has become part of the daily routine.. However, chronic stress can have a detrimental impact on mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
In most cases, chronic stress leads to sleep disturbance, changes in menstrual patterns, and anxiety. It can also put you in a situation where you might question yourself: why do I have brown discharge but no period?
However, that isn’t the only damage that chronic stress can cause you. To let you learn about the impact of stress beyond mental well-being, here is a list of other conditions associated with it.
- Suppressed immune system
Stress is not all bad for women when it comes to immune function. The reason is that our body needs a mild stress response to ativate protective mechanisms. This way, the body becomes all prepared to fight off the infections.
However, chronic stress can put your immune health at risk. The ongoing high-level stress can contribute to inflammation and changes in adaptive immunity.
This can weaken your immune system and prevent you from fighting off infections, which is not a good health condition.
- Autoimmunity
Chronic stress is one of the silent killers that wreaks havoc on your immune system. It can make your immune system fight the healthy tissues by confusing these with foreign ones. This is one of the reasons why around 80% of women account for autoimmune diagnosed conditions.
It can be Hastimoto’s, lupus, and arthritis, which are women-dominant autoimmune conditions. All of these are common health conditions, but only a few can be cured.
- Weight gain
The excess of stress can lead to an increase in cortisol levels, which affects metabolic health. An increase in cortisol will impact weight management in women and lead to weight gain.
This stimulates calorie consumption by increasing cravings for women. This way, it becomes a natural coping mechanism to deal with stress at the cost of weight gain.
- Insomnia
Chronic stress can cause insomnia in most women and impact their mood. Insomnia is the main culprit that can drain your energy level and make you feel tired. Due to hormonal changes, women are more likely to experience insomnia symptoms.
With slight hormonal fluctuation, insomnia can come and go without causing any serious health problems. However, if it is becoming part of the routine, you might need to see a doctor for it and reduce your stress intake for a peaceful and quality sleep.
- Increase pain sensitivity
Another impact that chronic stress has on women’s health is lowering pain tolerance. This increases women’s susceptibility to conditions like migraine attacks, headaches, and other chronic pain.
Generally, women exhibit higher sensitivity to pain than men. As the chronic stress disrupts the hormonal balance and mood swings, women can be more emotional to mild pain around the body.
If the tolerance is reduced, it can make women suffer greater pain intensity, which is no good.
