Stress could excite brain cells to death

Studies show that chronic anxiety can rip your health apart, writes Joyce Gathu

If asked, many people, would never think of stress as a cause of death. 

However, the most leading killer diseases are caused or escalated by this state.

In fact, science has already linked chronic stress to brain degeneration (death of brain cells). Chronic stress occurs when your body goes for a prolonged period without relaxation.

While stress is a normal body’s responses to situations that make you feel threatened, it can also predispose you to many health complications including depression, insomnia, diarrhoea, constipation and not forgetting, brain damage.

Dr Christine Wamaitha, a general physician explains that stress can save your life by giving you an energy burst flee from danger.

“When we are in a situation we perceive dangerous, our body responds in a manner that gives us more energy, focus, keeps us alert and tunes us into an emergency response mode — stress response,” Wamaitha explains.

When in danger, your heart beats faster, your blood pressure increases and you breathe faster, pumping maximum oxygen and energy-rich blood to your muscles. Your liver releases more sugar into your blood, ready for action.

Once your brain decides there’s danger, it sends immediate nerve signals down your spinal cord to your adrenal glands telling them to release the adrenaline hormone. This increases the amount of sugar in your blood, accelerates your heart rate, and raises your blood pressure.

Prolonged tension

Your body’s stress response is perfect in the short-term, but damaging in the long haul.

This is because it raises cortisol levels — another stress hormone produced by the adrenal gland gradually throughout the day.

But excess cortisol affects your immune system and decrease the number of brain cells, thus impairing your memory.  It can also affect your blood pressure and the fats in your blood making you more prone to a heart attack or stroke.

Cortisol has been shown to damage and kill cells in the hippocampus — the brain area responsible for your episodic memory. Chronic stress triggers premature brain ageing.

Without cortisol you would die, as it is key in keeping your blood sugar and pressure up to help you escape from danger.

The cortisol released during stress travels into the brain and binds to the receptors inside many neurons. Through a cascade of reactions, this causes neurons to admit more calcium, through channels in their membrane.

However, if neurons become over-loaded with calcium they fire too frequently and die — they are literally excited to death.

Unfortunately, a large number of people have learnt to live with chronic stress and their bodies are paying the price.

As James Gatama explains.

“I get so stressed when I lack money to pay debts. During those periods, I can’t sleep and find life tasteless and meaningless,” Gatama explains.

Chronic stress can affect your eating and sleeping habits.

While some choose to take medication to escape from stress, it is not recommended.

“When stressed I get incessant headaches and at times take medicines to help me sleep in order to suppress it,” says Kenneth Mwaniki.

Dr John Ondicho warns that stress can frustrate efforts to control chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

Studies show that stress interferes with one’s libido, memory, triggers hair loss, ulcers, anxiety disorder, tooth and gum diseases and obesity. Ondicho advises that when stress begins to affect the quality of one’s life, it is a hint for quick intervention.

Symptoms

Exposure to stress ultimately leads to physical symptoms. In the beginning, the signs of an underlying problem are mild. They include headaches and frequent colds.

“Some people complain of pain in various parts of the body and frequent visits to the doctor may not reveal the cause. Further investigations might disclose that the pain is stress-related,” explains Ondicho.

Ondicho observes that stress affects how we feel and perceive pain.

“When a person cuts their finger, they will often shake the finger and suck on it, this communicates to our brain that by doing so, we feel less pain,” says Ondicho.

He argues that these tricks with our fingers don’t lessen the actual pain, but trick our brain into believing it does, hence people tend to feel better.

This is similar to how our brain works when stressed. It magnifies how we perceive pain.

Handling pressure

Handling stress in a manner that is useful results from making a subtle everyday choices.

“Healthy habits can help you avoid or reverse effects of chronic stress. These include regular exercises, eating a well-balanced diet, and observing a healthy sleep regime,” says Wamaitha.

This means falling asleep without difficulties and maintaining that state until it’s time to wake up without going through periods of sleeplessness.

Since change, be it swapping jobs, moving house, marriage or separation can trigger chronic stress, health experts advise that one makes one adjustment at a time.

If a feeling of constant emotional and physical exhaustion persists, it is advisable to see a counsellor, psychiatrist or even a psychologist to help resolve the underlying causes.