Impacts of Chronic Stress on the Body

Impacts of Chronic Stress on the Body
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Impacts of Chronic Stress on the Body
Through a complex system of communication among organs, the body can respond and adapt itself to acute stress. However, organs become strained due to chronic stress. Stress occurs from challenging situations in life that trigger specific physiological, psychological, and biological responses. The most significant thing about stress is that it affects all the systems of the human body, including gastrointestinal, reproductive, endocrine, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory (American Psychological Association, 2018). The communication among body organs is triggered by chemical messengers, such as neurotransmitters and hormones. For example, the pituitary gland releases hormones upon sensing the body's needs. These chemical messengers pass into the bloodstream and transmit information that makes specific organs react accordingly. The adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulates adrenal glands to secrete cortisol. Chronic stress tampers with the body's communication system among organs. As such, it causes adverse impacts on the body.
Chronic stress tampers with the body tissues and cells composition, which is essential for people's health. Indeed, it leads to the hypersecretion of hormones and other chemical messengers responsible for the coordination of different organs. Chronic stress causes various diseases, such as anxiety, depression, type two diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome, and autoimmune disorders. In addition, it fosters osteosarcopenia or frailty, chronic systemic inflammation, cellular dehydration, and psychological and somatic manifestations (Stefanaki et al., 2018). In some cases, chronically stressed individuals forget to drink water, which is crucial in metabolism, shock-absorbing, lubrication, and thermoregulation. In the metabolism process, water acts as the solution medium and reactant. A person of average weight and height has an extracellular water volume of 40% and intracellular volume of 60% (Stefanaki et al., 2018). Homeostatic mechanism regulates body hydration and involves kidneys, cardiovascular system, and the brain. When an individual has chronic stress, it affects the homeostatic balance maintained by the volume of water excreted, water percentage in food, water uptake, and water used during metabolism. The pituitary gland releases the antidiuretic hormone (ADH), which is activated by the hypothalamic osmoreceptors (Stefanaki et al., 2018). What is more, chronic stress disrupts the osmotic pressure in the extracellular fluid compartment (ECF). ECF and ADH are the ones that make a person feel thirsty, and upon drinking water, the normal osmotic pressure is restored. One of the adverse effects of chronic stress is that it causes the ECF osmotic pressure imbalance, meaning that the body and cells become dehydrated, which makes them not function optimally.
Individuals' exposure to chronic stress results in the loss of spines and dendrites in the brain's prefrontal cortex (PFC). In particular, PFC is responsible for regulating people's thoughts, actions, and emotions. Weakening PFC functionality...