10 Unknown Facts About Stress

Health June 14, 2015

This post was last updated on July 28th, 2015

More than half of the population goes through stress, but is not aware of it. So, what are the things you must know about stress so that you can identify it and lead a stress-free life?

The human body has a tendency to respond to the change in the environment and one way of responding or reacting to the change is stress. The way a person handles the situation that he faces in daily life decides whether he will take the stress or not. There are so many things about stress, which most of us are simply unaware about.

Here are 10 such unknown facts about stress that are not only interesting but also enlightening:

#1. What are the most important things in life? Money, work, relationships, family and economic outlook! Right? According to a survey, conducted by the American Psychological Association in 2010, these five factors are the reasons for stress in Americans.

#2. Heartbreak can cause stress. True! But stress can also cause heart break. Surprised? A broken heart syndrome or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy occurs when the bottom part of the heart grows in a shape of a pot or balloon. It occurs when, due to extreme stress or grief; the stress hormones overflow the heart.

#3. Stress increases the risk of hypertension, compromising immune systems, cardiac disease, and inflammatory disease and in some cases cancer.

#4. A survey suggests that around three-fourths of the overall human population undergoes stress at different levels in a period of two weeks. It is more common in working populations who are particularly subjected to mental, physical and emotional stress.

#5. Stress is known to be the main cause for various sleep disorders including insomnia. Due to the presence of stressors, the body’s response system heightens causing the person to remain awake.

Recommended: Ways to Have a Stress Free Day

#6. You can beat the stress by using the best natural medicine-laughter. Taking laughter therapy lowers the cortisol, epinephrine and adrenaline levels that aggravate the stress hormones. Laughter contributes in the release of the feel-good hormones like dopamine and thus, works as a major stress buster.

#7. Chewing the gum lowers the stress level, which is why the ancient Greeks and Mayans kept on chomping on resin gums.

#8. Unlike what many people believe, stress does not cause gray hair, but it surely can be the cause for hair loss.

#9. Are you worried about your back pain, which is not responding to any treatment? Surprisingly, many times severe back pain can be caused just because of stress. So, if you have severe back pain without any reason, try using some stress busting techniques such as exercise, laughter therapy and you will surely get relief from it.

#10. High cholesterol, chest pain, depression and cardiac problems are mostly caused due to stress; rather it is the stimulating factor that turns a small condition into to life threatening disease.

Stress is one factor that can lead to unhappiness, anxiety, grief and bad health. So, the best way is to keep it away from you as much possible. Apart from the day-to-day life tensions, what you eat also affects your stress hormone levels. Eating right, exercising daily and keeping a positive approach towards every situation in life is the only way of keeping stress at bay and enjoying a tension-free life.