TO Sometimes doctors should prescribe rest, exhibitions, concerts, hugs, evenings with friends. Relax. The philosopher Anti -flick He supported him in the fifth century before Christ: “In all men it is the mind that directs the body towards health or towards the disease”. Equally clear was the psychosomatic of the twentieth century, with deductions of common sense even if not always supported by research data. Today the connections between a loomed life, a suffocating work and physical problems were included. The contours are more nuanced, in the sense that there is no cause-effect relationship between a hard period and a possible pathology. But what you know for sure is that chronic stress leads to the body’s showing off capable of making us sick. The focus is on a key hormone: cortisol.
The translation of psychosomatic
The scientific translation of the old psychosomatic and popular expression “do not make an illness” is a discipline that adds to psychology: it is called Neuroendocrinology and studies how the nervous and endocrine system are connected, which is responsible for the production of hormones. The link between the two systems is an ancient region of the brain, the hypothalamus, a kind of large puppeteer who intercepts the nerve impulses and free in response substances that in turn stimulate the pound, director of the hormonal secretion of all the other glands. In other words, sensations, emotions and thoughts become chemical messengers who will travel through the body.
The physical repercussions
Stress crosses this street. The mechanism in itself is a useful jolt, it is the spring that pushes us forward, that motivates us, who saved the skin to our ancestors. As soon as, in 12 thousandths of a second, a danger signal reaches the brain, for the joint action of hypothalamus and pituitary in our body, hormones are released that trigger very rapid consequences: pumping blood and oxygen, accelerating heart rate, increasing mental lucidity. We become ready in a flash to fight or escape (Fight or Flight).
The reaction that allows us to face the circumstances is identical whatever the destabilizing, real or imaginary event. And it is the same for acute stress, such as that of a quarrel, and for chronic stress, due to the overload of commitments, the relationship with a gruff garment, the tendency to worry, to an elderly parent who is not well or a couple relationship in crisis. With the furious chemical wave that falls alongside, adrenaline and norepinephrine are released.
Then comes the cortisol, which immediately causes the release of glucose in the blood to increase its use by the brain and have mental readiness. The body always reacts like this, as if a lion was in front and should decide, in a minimal fraction of time, whether to fight or run away to survive. The substances produced do not return to normal levels until the event that caused the reaction is exhausted. The point is that repeated stress only turn on the fight or escape response. And to the body it is not good for a long alert state that should last little.
The weakened defenses
To begin with, an excess of cortisol in the circle (hypercortisolism) has an immunosuppressor effect. That’s why in the stressful weeks the defenses lower and become more susceptible to the ailments, as knows of those suffering from recurrence of the lippes. To be slowed down by the hormone is another of the functions of the immune system: the elimination of senescent cells, which are no longer able to duplicate and which should die to be replaced by others.
With the defenses boycotted by the stress hormone, senescent cells accumulate and remain in a sort of limbo, in which they continue to release inflammatory mediators to recall white blood cells, waiting for a death that does not arrive. The complication is that the Senescent cell sends chemical signals that alter the behavior of the nearby cells, which also make their own pro-inflammatory substances. A sort of small grill is created that hatches under the ash, a silent inflammatory state, which can associate with many pathologies.
The extra pounds
In the tiring phases of life it happens to increase the consumption of food and cared for fat mass (particularly in the belly) and weight. During acute stress, the adrenaline suppresses the appetite, while the chronic tension can lead to desire calorie foods, rich in sugars and lipids. It happens because abundant cortisol interferes with two hormones: the leptin, which promotes satiety, and with the Greclin, responsible for moving the appetite.
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High cholesterol
Not everyone knows that lasting emotional pressure can also influence blood cholesterol levels. One reason on many: the liver summarizes more to satisfy the greater request for cortisol, which derives from cholesterol. And the molecule can settle on the arteries and form those atherosclerotic plates that reduce the light of the vases with the risk of obstructing them. Exercise is the natural weapon to help mood and to consume that redundant cholesterol, using it as a fuel for the muscles.
The accelerated heart
Stress is a good thing if it remains content within certain levels, but it becomes harmful when it exceeds the tolerance threshold, coming to make the leather sick. One of the most common reactions induced by stressful situations are arrhythmias and tachycardia. They are once again the adrenaline and cortisol that favor the raising of blood pressure and the increase in heart rate. This state, for a chain reaction, generates the spasms of the arterial vessels but also the activation of generic mediators of inflammation, in turn co -responsible for the atherosclerosis.
Sleep and memory problems
When you have the feeling of being overwhelmed by events, when mental effort is such that you cannot rest well, we should do everything possible to relax. Stress can make nights difficult, also because cortisol is the supervisory hormone, just as poor or bad quality sleep is a stress factor. A vicious circle. Not only that. A work from 2018 out of 2231 participants, subjected to various tests, concluded (on Neurology) that people with high cortisol levels obtained lower scores in all cognitive tests. According to another research, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, being always as a tense rope correla with short -term memory loss in people between 40 and 50 years old.
The stomach ache
Stress can be linked to the type of work that is done, to the pushed performance required in certain working environments, to the repetitiveness of domestic activity or factories, but it can also derive from a personal condition. In any case, it translates into a biological fact. It can induce or worsen a spectrum of disorders ranging from ortic to migraine, from back pain to gastrointestinal disorders. The head and belly influence themselves, so much so that anxiety often accompanies those who suffer from irritable intestine syndrome or chronic intestinal diseases. The Persian Avicenna understood this in the 11th century: in his canon of medicine he hypothesized that it was the disposition of negative spirit to prejudice good digestion. Which is quite true, because restless thoughts can upset the work of the stomach and colon. Somehow, if we are dried the belly knows.
Eliana Liotta (photo by Carlo Vangeri Gilbert).
Eliana Liotta is a journalist, writer and scientific popularizer. On Iodonna.it and on the main platforms (Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast) you will find its podcast series The good I want to.
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