LYRICFLUENT
LYRICFLUENTHow Stress Affects Your Body Lyrics by Addison Anderson Addison Anderson
Below, you will find the lyrics for How Stress Affects Your Body by Addison Anderson.
Cramming for a test?
Trying to get more done than you have time to do?
Stress is a feeling we all experience
When we are challenged or overwhelmed
But more than just an emotion
Stress is a hardwired physical response
That travels throughout your entire body
In the short term, stress can be advantageous
But when activated too often or too long
Your primitive fight or flight stress response
Not only changes your brain
But also damages many of the other
Organs and cells throughout your body
Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones
Cortisol, epinephrine, also known as adrenaline
And norepinephrine
As these hormones travel through your blood stream
They easily reach your blood vessels and heart
Adrenaline causes your heart to beat faster
And raises your blood pressure, over time causing hypertension
Cortisol can also cause the endothelium
Or inner lining of blood vessels
To not function normally
Scientists now know that this is an early step
In triggering the process of atherosclerosis
Or cholesterol plaque build up in your arteries
Together, these changes increase your chances
Of a heart attack or stroke
When your brain senses stress
It activates your autonomic nervous system
Through this network of nerve connections
Your big brain communicates stress to your enteric
Or intestinal nervous system
Besides causing butterflies in your stomach
This brain-gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions
That move food through your gut
Leading to irritable bowel syndrome
And can increase your gut sensitivity to acid
Making you more likely to feel heartburn
Via the gut's nervous system
Stress can also change the composition
And function of your gut bacteria
Which may affect your digestive and overall health
Speaking of digestion, does chronic stress affect your waistline?
Well, yes
Cortisol can increase your appetite
It tells your body to replenish your energy stores
With energy dense foods and carbs, causing you to crave comfort foods
High levels of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories
As visceral or deep belly fat
This type of fat doesn't just make it harder to button your pants
It is an organ that actively releases hormones
And immune system chemicals called cytokines
That can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases
Such as heart disease and insulin resistance
Meanwhile, stress hormones affect immune cells in a variety of ways
Initially, they help prepare to fight invaders and heal after injury
But chronic stress can dampen function of some immune cells
Make you more susceptible to infections, and slow the rate you heal
Want to live a long life?
You may have to curb your chronic stress
That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres
The shoelace tip ends of chromosomes that measure a cell's age
Telomeres cap chromosomes
To allow DNA to get copied every time a cell divides
Without damaging the cell's genetic code
And they shorten with each cell division
When telomeres become too short
A cell can no longer divide and it dies
As if all that weren't enough
Chronic stress has even more ways it can sabotage your health
Including acne
Hair loss
Sexual dysfunction
Headaches
Muscle tension
Difficulty concentrating
Fatigue
And irritability
So, what does all this mean for you?
Your life will always be filled with stressful situations
But what matters to your brain and entire body
Is how you respond to that stress
If you can view those situations as challenges
You can control and master
Rather than as threats that are insurmountable
You will perform better in the short run and stay healthy in the long run
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