We experience stress big and small in our lives. The causes vary from external factors such as schoolwork, employment, and conflicts with friends to internal factors such as perfectionism and workaholism. Appropriate stress increases concentration and maintains tension. However, when excessive stress is received for a long time, various abnormal symptoms begin to appear in the body.
Stress｜Source: Clip Art Korea
Signs Your Body Sends When You’re Stressed
It is known that stress often causes mental symptoms such as fatigue, nervousness and tension. However, when unusual physical symptoms appear, it can also be due to stress.
1. Palpitations
When you are stressed, you can feel your heart beating, causing ‘palpitations’, a feeling of anxiety or discomfort. This is caused by the activation of the sympathetic nerve due to stress, and the sympathetic nerve is activated to secrete adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones, leading to an increase in heart rate and constriction of blood vessels, leading to the symptoms this.
2. Headache
Some people feel headaches when they are stressed. This condition is medically referred to as a ‘tension headache’. Tension headaches are the most common type of headache and are caused by continuous contraction of the muscles distributed on the scalp. In some cases, you may get a headache from clenching your teeth due to stress or straining your body. A tension headache is usually worse in the afternoon and is characterized by appearing on both sides of the head. Generally, the pain does not last long and the symptoms can be easily relieved by taking simple pain relievers.
3. Indigestion
When the nerves are sensitive or under a lot of stress, the stomach does not function normally and symptoms of indigestion can appear. This is called ‘active dyspepsia’, and it means indigestion caused by stress, overwork, etc. without any abnormality on examination. Symptoms of functional dyspepsia are characterized by upper stomach pain, stomach discomfort, and symptoms of indigestion.
4. Change your eating habits
When cortisol secretion increases under stress, our bodies stimulate appetite to keep blood sugar levels high. At this time, our body is very keen on carbohydrates which can raise blood sugar quickly. For this reason, when you are stressed, you crave sweet food.
In addition, if you look at the results of domestic studies, the higher the stress, the higher the possibility of poor eating habits. Sahmyook University Department of Food and Nutrition Professor Hyo-Jeong Hwang’s research team published the results of a study that found that men who were under a lot of stress usually enjoyed processed meat and alcohol, while men who were under less stress had a pattern of healthy eating. foods such as soybean paste, tofu, and vegetables. In addition, Bae Yoon-jeong, a professor at Shinhan University’s Department of Food and Culinary Science, presented the result of an analysis that found that women under severe stress tend to eat less fruit and vegetables than the recommended daily intake.
5. Stomatitis
When you’re tired or stressed, you may get stomatitis, which is a sore or inflamed mouth. The most common stomatitis is ‘aphthous stomatitis’, which is caused by bacterial infection, stress and malnutrition. It is characterized by a white, round inflammation of about 5 mm on the mucous membrane.
Stress can also cause ‘herpes simplex stomatitis’. This happens when the herpes simplex virus remains dormant in the nervous tissue and then becomes stressed and the immune system weakens. Herpes simplex stomatitis is characterized by clusters of small blisters of about 1 mm on the oral mucosa and lips.
6. Smartphone Addiction
High stress can also be the reason why you can’t let go of your smartphone in your hand and can’t stop using YouTube and social media. The higher the stress level, the higher the risk of smartphone addiction. In 2017, a team led by Professor Min Kyung-bok from Seoul National University College of Medicine published a study that found that the risk of smartphone addiction is up to 2.24 times higher if you have mental health problems such as symptoms of stress, depression, or anxiety . The research team explains that if there is a problem with mental health, it affects the functioning of the brain and leads to a failure to manage self-control and impulse control.
When stress is severe, other symptoms such as △ hives △ memory loss △ muscle pain may appear. When symptoms like these appear, you should try to relieve stress in a healthy way, such as meditation, exercise, or hobbies. Lump, if the size is severe or does not improve despite efforts, it may be useful to get treatment from the Department of Psychiatry.
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