We are all familiar with stress – it makes our heart beat faster, gives us headaches, makes us sweat, and gets us going to the toilet often.
You don’t have to have a major stress – say from the upcoming exams, for instance – to trigger those behaviors. Small stresses of everyday life can activate stress hormones, and when there’s a long-term build up of these minor stresses — when the body doesn’t go back to “normal” — you can experience weird symptoms.
Skin problems
Stress can also cause skin problems for some, because of the gut-brain connection. The hormone cortisol is released during stress, which over time can cause the wall of the gut to be a less effective barrier to bacteria and toxins. When these enter the bloodstream, they can activate the body’s immune response, causing itchy rashes or even chronic skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis.
Increased sensitivity to pain
Stress can lead to painful headaches and neck and back pain, and also affect how you experience pain – meaning your pain is exaggerated.
Scientists think this heightened pain response might occur because stress can make the hormones that help people cope with pain less effective. In multiple studies, it’s shown that people with chronic pain had their levels spike when they’re stressed.
Getting sick more easily
With the constant threat of stress, the immune system can easily get run down, so when you get exposed to a virus or another infection, you’re not able to fight it as well because your resources have been stretched.
One scientific theory explains that stress weakens immune response due to the release of cortisol (the stress hormone), which lowers the number of white blood cells that helps the body fight sickness.
Flatulence, bloating, and a lot of peeing
When you’re stressed, the link between your gut and brain can lead to an imbalance of gut flora. This is because the intestines have their own nervous system that connects to the brain, and they can spasm when you feel stress – this leads to diarrhea, constipation, or flatulence.
When we feel fear or anxiety, stress causes us to physically ‘dump’ so we can move faster during our fight-or-flight mode – leading some people to pee more frequently when they’re chronically stressed.
Hair loss & premature graying hair
Stress can cause a temporary condition called telogen effluvium, which leads to hair strands falling out more easily over time (like when you wash your hair) because it stops hair follicles from growing.
Chronic stress can also cause people to lose pigment in their hair, resulting in premature graying – remember Barack Obama? In our fight-or-flight mode, sympathetic nerves in the hair follicles release stress hormones, causing pigment-related stem cells to leave the hair follicle, so all new hair becomes gray.
A lump in the throat
Sometimes, in your stressed mode, you may even find yourself unable to swallow. This is because the muscles in the lower part of the throat constrict under anxiety, giving some people the a sensation of having a “lump” in their throats when there’s nothing actually there.
Heightened sense of smell and ringing in your ears
For some, a heightened sense of smell comes with emotional stress; studies show that this actually makes people identify smells more accurately. Theoretically, since stress puts the body in a hyper-aware state, the brain works harder to “sniff out” potential threats.
Some people also experience persistent ringing, buzzing, or chirping sounds – called tinnitus – when they’re stressed. It could be caused by the amygdala, a part of the brain that reacts to stress and process sound.
Reduced fertility
Women are familiar with how stress can disrupt their menstrual cycle, resulting in irregularity and decreased ovulation. In men, prolonged emotional stress can result in lower sperm count.
