How does stress affect your immune system?

Did you know that stress has a negative impact on your immune system and lowers your immunity?

In times like these with the current covid19 situation, stress is common as a lot of people are anxious about the current state of the world and stressed about their current life circumstances in these uncertain times. There are financial issues, worry about employment, being asked to stay at home, feeling isolated and having to give up some of the things that we enjoyed and being constantly bombarded with negativity from the media. All of these things can be stressful for even the most easygoing of people and even cause anxiety and depression. For people who were already suffering from chronic stress, anxiety or depression, situations like this can compound the effects and make it harder to manage.

When you become stressed, your body reacts in a number of ways. Firstly, our adrenal glands get a signal from your brain to release adrenaline into your body. This happens, when you think about something that you perceive as stressful. When adrenaline is released, you are then in fight or flight mode. Your heart rate and blood pressure increase, to help you to stay alive, for example, if you had to run away from a bear or something like that. The fight or flight mechanism is a primitive system in your body, that is there and always has been, to keep you alive. It is meant to be used in situations of extreme danger but is activated by stress, whether that stress poses a direct threat to your life or not. That includes thinking about something that is stressful to you. When you are in fight or flight your body’s only focus is to keep you alive and away from significant danger, so anything that is not posing a direct threat to you, is put on the back burner for now and that includes your immune system. It’s really important to realise that stress will have a negative impact on your immune system, making it much more difficult for you to fight off illness.

When stress becomes chronic, your body does not come out of fight or flight mode. For you, this means that all of your body’s systems are negatively affected, including your immune system. Your fight or flight response is there to protect you but is only meant to be used while there is a direct threat to your safety. These days, we are constantly stressed and a lot of people suffer from chronic stress and worry (ie thinking thoughts that are stressful to you for most of the day). We worry about our job security, finances, negativity portrayed by the media, our health and our family and every time you worry about something, your stress response is triggered, meaning that your body cannot function at its best. If this is normal to you, you may not even be aware of the impact that this type of thinking is having on your physical health and your mental health.

The effect of living your life in chronic stress can be different for everyone but can include symptoms like disturbed sleep, insomnia, low immunity, increased susceptibility to illnesses (eg. You catch a lot of illnesses), high blood pressure, infertility, hormone disruptions, digestion issues and much more. You may never link these conditions back to stress but stress can be the trigger for anything really.

So how can you resist stress? The most important thing to do is make a conscious effort to change your thoughts. If you can slowly change your thoughts, you will change your life. This is not easy but it is possible. In the meantime, you can use supplementation to help alleviate the stress response happening within your body. As you do this, it also helps to clear your mind. There are many natural supplements that help to alleviate the stress response in your body and also help you to have a clearer mind, resulting in less stressful thoughts. You can try meditation or anything that helps you to clear your mind. Try to be focused on the present moment only and when you find your mind wandering, take yourself back to the present. Do this hundreds of times a day if you need to. You can avoid too much media to help your thoughts stay focused on the positives. If you are having trouble sleeping, you can use a natural supplement to help you to get more sleep.

And remember, there is never shame in seeking help. If you need support through these times and strategies on coping with stress and improving your health, always seek support and use supplementation to help you through and improve your health.

If you need any support with this, please get in touch :-)