How Stress Affects the Body

Holiday shopping lists. Unwrapped presents. A surprise visit from the in-laws. Are you feeling stressed yet? The winter season is meant to be the most wonderful time of the year, but if you’re finding yourself feeling (more than) a bit immunocompromised, it might be because you’re feeling the toll stress takes on the body. And while this time of year is especially stressful, mental health can seep into your physical health in many ways all year round. So, today, we’re covering how stress affects the body – and what you can do to prevent it.

Stress 101

What is stress, exactly? We asked Memphis-based clinical psychologist Amy Balentine to share her take. Stress is “simply our perceived lack of resources to handle a threat,” she explained, and these threats could include any number of “stressors” that might cause a “stress response.” For some, this might be holiday shopping. For others, it could be an overwhelming workload. Everyone’s list of “stressors” is different, and we rarely, if ever, have only one.

In fact, The American Institute of Stress reports that 77% of people experience stress that impacts their physical health. These effects range from sleep issues to gut health conditions and everything in between – not to mention the emotional toll of acute or chronic stress.

The Stress Response

Humans are exceptionally good at threat recognition. This really helped us when a tiger popped out of the bushes or when we noticed our friend reaching for a poisonous plant. As our stressors evolved into more modern-day issues, however (like your 40-mile-an-hour commute down Poplar), our evolutionary stress responses remained much the same.

There are two types of stress that affect our minds and bodies, and today, we respond the same way we would have 20,000 years ago.

Fight, Flight, & Freeze

We’ve all heard the phrase. These stress responses are the body’s built-in reactions to stressful stimuli. You might notice your fist ball up when you hear a loud noise (fight) or feel the urge to get up and leave when an argument gets heated (flight). More rarely, you might feel your body pause, become watchful, and “shut down” (freeze) when overwhelmed.

Stress hormones kickstart each one of these reactions. Fight and flight usually begin with a surge of adrenaline and cortisol that causes your pupils to dilate, your muscles to tense, your blood pressure to rise, and your breath to quicken.

While your heart rate might actually slow down in a freeze state, your cortisol levels remain high, your muscles become tense, and your breathing becomes rapid.

Acute Stress

Acute stress is a short-term response to an immediate challenge, threat, or demand. You can think of this type of stress as the daily pressures of everyday life, like looming work deadlines or unexpected news.

During these brief episodes, your body attempts to ready you to face the challenge with the full force you need. It releases stress hormones to give you the heightened sense of focus and energy you need to fight or run away.

Once the threat is resolved, acute stress ideally fades away, and you return to a balanced emotional and physical state.

Chronic Stress

But what happens when the acute stress response is continually activated and re-activated? That’s where chronic stress begins.

As a persistent response to a perceived lack of resources—like an unrelenting work environment or long-term relationship issues—elevated adrenaline and cortisol levels begin to take a toll on the body, leading to inflammation, weakened immune systems, and increased risk of heart disease. The list goes on.

The physical toll is very real. For example, brain scans in patients experiencing the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a chronic stress condition, look remarkably different than patients without it.

Patients with PTSD may exhibit hyperactive amygdalas, prefrontal cortex alterations, and smaller hippocampi as a result of prolonged exposure to cortisol. Outside of the brain, PTSD patients typically experience chronic pain and muscle tension, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal issues, sleep problems, chronic inflammation, and more. So, how else can stress affect the body?

The Mind-Body Connection

While the brain changes associated with PTSD show an extreme side of chronic stress, day-to-day stressors can impact your physical health as well. If you’re “stressed out,” you might be subject to these physical manifestations of strained mental health.

Muscle Tension & Headaches

Muscle tension, particularly in the neck, shoulders, and jaw, is a common physical response to stress. Persistent tension can contribute to tension-type headaches or exacerbate other types of headaches, leaving you feeling less productive or fatigued.

Elevated Heart Rate & Blood Pressure

Under stress, the release of adrenaline and cortisol increases your heart rate and narrows your blood vessels, potentially elevating your blood pressure. Chronic stress exposure can contribute to long-term cardiovascular strain, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other circulatory problems.

Lymphatic System & Immune Response

Elevated levels of cortisol and other stress hormones can suppress the activity and production of certain white blood cells. This suppression can weaken the body’s defense against infections, limit your lymphatic system’s ability to filter pathogens, slow down the healing process, and make you more vulnerable to disease.

Gastrointestinal Problems

The gut and brain are connected through a complex network known as the gut-brain axis. When stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, it can alter gut motility, reduce blood flow to digestive organs, and potentially disrupt the balance of gut microbiota. These changes may lead to symptoms like stomachaches, nausea, acid reflux, and the worsening of conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Weight Fluctuations & Metabolic Changes

Stress can influence your eating behaviors—some people overeat, particularly high-fat and sugary foods, while others lose their appetite. Chronic exposure to cortisol can also alter your metabolism, contributing to weight gain and increasing the risk of conditions like type 2 diabetes.

Sleep Disturbances

Because stress puts your body in a heightened state of arousal, it can interfere with the natural winding-down process needed for restful sleep, making it harder to fall asleep or maintain consistent sleep throughout the night. Over time, persistent stress not only reduces sleep quality and duration but can also create a feedback loop where poor sleep further elevates stress levels, compromising mood, cognitive function, and overall health.

Inflammation

When you’re under constant stress, your body’s stress hormones can lead to a small but continuous level of inflammation. Over time, this ongoing irritation can raise your risk of health problems like heart disease, joint pain, and metabolism issues. Studies show that people experiencing chronic stress often have higher levels of these inflammatory markers.

Coping with Stress to Improve Your Health

It’s not all bad news. The beauty of the modern world is that we’ve come a long way in helping patients struggling with stress and mental health issues. Here are a few ways to reduce your stress and improve your overall health.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

“Talk therapy” is designed to help patients learn how to think differently about stressors. By identifying distorted or negative thinking—such as catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, or jumping to worst-case scenarios—patients can learn to replace these patterns with more balanced and realistic perspectives.

At the Memphis Center for Mindful Living, Amy Balentine and her expert team of psychologists offer CBT to help patients learn healthier ways to cope with stress. Over time, this shift in mindset can significantly reduce the intensity and frequency of stress responses, giving your physical health a much-needed breather.

Mindfulness

It can be difficult to stay in the here and now. By practicing mindfulness, however, you can cultivate that ability and reduce the stress of worrying about the future or the past. Mindfulness allows you to recognize your stressors and notice how your body responds to them, creating a distance from these feelings that can help you regulate your nervous system more effectively.

Research suggests that regular mindfulness practice, such as brief periods of meditation, controlled breathing, or simple “check-ins” throughout the day, can reduce stress hormone levels, improve emotional regulation, and promote an overall sense of balance and well-being.

Co-Regulation

The positive connections you have to others – be it your spouse, a friend, your dog, or your cat – are often naturally healing. Our bodies can tune in to the emotions of others, which can create a calming effect that brings us back down to baseline.

That’s why a strong doctor-patient relationship that allows you to feel seen and heard can have such a positive impact on your overall health. Knowing that you have the time to explain your symptoms and concerns to a person that you trust can create a level of safety that you just don’t get from your typical 5-minute doctor cameo.

Medication

Medication can play a supportive role in managing stress by targeting the physiological and neurological factors that contribute to chronic tension and anxiety. This can help reduce the risk of stress-related health consequences, such as hypertension or weakened immune function.

It’s important that any medication used is guided by a qualified healthcare professional like our ZüpMed Providers. It is equally as important to note that treatment plans are often most effective when tailored to your unique needs and combined with non-pharmacological approaches like CBT or mindfulness practices.

Reduce Your Stress at ZüpMed

Anyone who is a healer knows that having the time and space to be heard by your provider can be healing in and of itself. At ZüpMed, our number one priority is always clear: it’s YOU. We want to get to know you, understand your concerns, and be there with you through the bad times to lead you into the good – because we know that it takes a holistic approach to help you feel better mind, body, and soul.

If you’re curious about how our interdisciplinary approach to healing works, schedule your next check-up with our team, and we’ll be here to help. Until then, here’s your prescription to relax and enjoy this holiday season – just what the doctor ordered.

Posted by ZüpMed