The Effects of Stress on Health: Negative and Positive Aspects

Effects of stress:
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Stress is a common emotion that comes when one is unable to deal with a difficult
situation and it is a common part of daily life. Recent studies show that many people get stressed
every day and many more are always stressed but it is difficult for them to handle stress. Stress is
always seen as a medical problem and it is experienced by almost everybody in their life but they
experience it in different forms and degrees (Jean, 2005, p. 10). People get stressed whenever
they are faced with a difficult situation that they cannot cope with or handle. It has negative
effects on health of people and individual behavior because it can cause serious mental problem
like depression and anxiety and this means that it is a bad emotion. This paper explains how
stress can affect heath and also looks into its positive effects.
The meaning of stress is not clear although people use it to mean how the body
reacts when it is exposed to a dangerous situation. According to McCeney and Krantz (2002, p.5)
stress is looked at as normal physical response that the body goes through when there is lack of
balance between the situation we are faced with and our ability to cope with. Jean (2005, p. 15)
states that managing stress is difficult and confusing because there are different types of stress
like acute stress, episodic stress, and chronic stress and each type has its own characteristics,
symptoms, duration, and how to treat it. In some cases it is always difficult to know that an
individual is having stress because sometimes it motivates them to work hard.
Having stress makes an individual to have serious health problem that interferes
with how body functions biologically. For example, when the body is faced with stressful
situation, the brain coordinates with the body to release body hormones to deal with that
situation. As a result, when this process continues, it makes the heart rate to increase and the
person start breathing faster and this makes the muscles to tighten in order to make the body
respond to that situation (McCeney & Krantz, 2002, p. 15). This is normal way that body deals

with stress but when it continues to happen it can cause serious health problems. It may also
results to chronic stress that affect a person’s mind, body, life and behavior. It also makes a
person to start having fatigue, lack of concentration, and worst body condition.
Furthermore, body problems such as depression, anxiety, headache, high blood
pressure, diabetes, and heart problems can come as a result of stress. It has been found that
almost all the diseases are as a result of stress because it badly affects a person’s physical,
emotional and mental health (Burke & Matthiesen, 2004, p. 10). It has also been found that when
stress continues, many stress hormones in the body causes problems to the respiratory and
cardiovascular system which can cause deaths. Legg (2018, para 3) states that when a person
who is suffering from “Type D” personality is also stressed they are high chances that the person
will face bad outcome. Additionally, the condition of a stressed person with breathing difficulties
like asthma can become worst when the person begins to breathe faster to respond to stress.
If someone fails to manage stress properly it can cause more health problems like
type 2 diabetes. This happens when a person is undergoing stress and the liver reacts by
producing excess blood sugar in order to boost sugar levels. However, under chronic stress,
when excess sugar is released the body will be unable to handle it and this will lead to the
development of type 2 diabetes. Legg (2018, para 3) is also concerned that stress affects
digestive system because when stress hormones increases in the body it causes it leads to
increase in breathing nd heart rate which affects the digestive system. As a result, affected person
will have heartburn and will also have problems with how food flows leading to problems like
constipation, stomachache and vomiting (Legg, 2018, para 1).