Stress and Disease: A Vicious Downward Cycle (Part 1, The Problem)

When you face stressors often and find that you have little control in these situations, you’re at risk for experiencing chronic stress. This can affect your health in many negative ways. Having your stress response activated long-term, and not getting your body back to a state of relaxation, can tax your system. This will leave you overstimulated and depleted at the same time. Studies on health and stress show that stress can be a causal or contributing factor to virtually all major illnesses. Chronic stress can lower immunity, which sets individuals up for a wide range of diseases. You could even be at a higher risk for infectious disease because of your body’s weakened condition.

When you sit at your desk at work, whether that is in a high rise building in uptown Charlotte, NC or your home office in Columbia, SC or where ever you are in the United States, how often do your feel stressed? How often do you feel overstimulated yet functioning on depleted energy?

Stress can lead to or contribute to the onset of anxiety. As humans age, we tend to suffer from moderately increased, naturally occurring inflammation and oxidation. Nearly everything bad that happens in the human body occurs downstream from inflammation. Oxidation is caused by oxygen free radicals that are turned loose on the body because they are present in excess and/or the body has lost its ability to utilize it. What does free oxygen do? It burns and destroys tissues. To get an idea of free oxygens potential for destruction think of the reason people are told not to smoke around oxygen tanks. According to the article entitled “Increase of Oxidation and Inflammation in Nervous and Immune Systems with Aging and Anxiety” [1], combining increased inflammation with that produced by anxiety and stress can cause an overload that has the potential to damage the body.

This research suggests that anxiety can create a scenario of chronic oxidative stress and inflammation, especially in brain and immune cells. Thus, the body must function with increased production of inflammation and oxidation, causing more anxiety. The vicious downward cycle continues to accelerate the rate of aging and, theoretically, shortens the lifespan. The chronic diseases resulting from this cycle are known as diseases of lifestyle and were unknown to our Paleolithic ancestors. According to paleoanthropologists, the condition described above uniquely traumatizes modern civilizations.

See the next article in this 2-part series, Stress and Disease: A Vicious Downward Cycle (Part 2, The Solution).

Wayne Coolidge Jr., M.Ed., CHES is a scholar-practitioner, author, and speaker. He owns Healthy Dynamic Living, an innovative health promotion consulting firm.