Stress

Stress

By | 2018-05-10T01:36:09+00:00 August 30th, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Stress

Psychological stress is a common occurrence during everyday life and is hard to avoid. Whether it be work getting a bit much, exams proving difficult, or your better half is doing your head in, everyone has their own form of stress that they have to deal with. Stress can manifest in numerous different ways; depression, anxiety, unhappiness and fear are all forms of stress which can have the same damaging effect.

Although some forms of stress can be beneficial such as the acute stress (fight or flight) response, prolonged exposure to stress hormones can result in chronic stress which has numerous negative impacts on the body. Chronic stress has been proven to scientifically impair healing and slow down the healing process. The correlation between stress and wound healing is not only statistically significant, but also clinically relevant.

Wound healing

Wound healing is a vital component when recovering from a trauma such as injury or surgical procedure. If a wound does not heal it will not recover. A longer healing process can result in:

  • Increased pain/discomfort
  • Increased risk of infection
  • Increased risk of complications
  • Increased time to return back to activities of daily living/return to sport

It is very important to try and minimise the length of healing time by making the process as effective as possible

Health damaging behaviours

People who are exposed to higher levels of stress have been found to indirectly adopt the following health damaging behaviours:

  • Increased alcohol consumption
  • Increased tobacco use
  • Decreased motivation
  • Decreased exercise participation
  • Increased amount of sleep disturbances

Not only can these have a physical effect on the body leading to health complications, but the psychological effects can diminish reduce growth hormone production and slow down wound healing.

 

Physical Effects

Just because it is psychological stress doesn’t mean it’s all in the mind. It can also have a number of physical effects that you might not even realise. Some of these effects are:

  • Headaches
  • Muscle tension/pain
  • Irritability
  • Tiredness
  • Weight loss/gain
  • Increased risk of injury

The treatment of stress is very overlooked as everyone experiences it and just thinks it’s a part of life. Stress is not something that should be left as the longer you leave it the more damaging effects it can have. Whether you are already suffering from the symptoms of stress or you want help decreasing your stress levels, book in with one of our Sports Therapists. They are highly trained in both physical and psychological stress relieving techniques that can not only reduce your symptoms, but also help to deal with the core issue.

Call us now on 01908 722 499 or book online at www.bodilightosteopathy.co.uk

Don’t just deal with stress, do something about it!