Cortisol Chaos: Understanding the Effects of Stress on the Body

Articles about the effects of stress on the body are often paired with the advice so stop stressing.”

Stress is an unavoidable part of life. We will all experience stressors daily that affect the way we approach ourselves, our bodies, and our interpersonal relationships.

I, personally, have expressed the various way that stress has affected my career and inhibited my Career Success before. Yet the long and short-term effects it can have on your body are often overlooked. In doing research for this article alone, I was shook just how much stress can shape the way our bodies function.

While the mental effects are equal in priority when handling stress, research has also shown an extensive range of physical health issues that stress can cause. This includes headaches, insomnia, an increased risk of heart attack, depression, and more.

In this article, let's explore how stress can take a toll on our bodies both in the short term and long term. Then, I’ll outline a few ways that you can work with your stress to combat these effects.

What is stress?

You know it. You might even be able to describe it! But do you know what happens to your body when you’re stressed?

When your body confronts a stressor — like an impromptu meeting with HR, or a looming deadline that you know you can’t meet — our bodies release a series of stress hormones that tell each system to brace for impact. Here are a few them.

• Cortisol
• Adrenaline
• Vasopressin
• Human Growth Hormone
• Catecholamine
• Glucagon

The first line of defense is adrenaline which sends you into a fight or flight” response. The rest all target specific systems in your body to let the body know that you’re in a potentially dangerous situation.

When there were predators and potential malice around all the time, these would help your body redelgate glucose and other reserves to prepare for a big physical act like fight or flight.

Cortisol, in conjunction with these other hormones, harnesses the power of the systems together to make you do unbelievable things. Think of the mom lifting a car to save her child.

I used to feel like under high-pressure deadlines, I could physically see better. While my prescription doesn’t change, cortisol heightened my senses and allowed me to perform at hyper speed.

Like when you had an essay due that you’d been procrastinating and suddenly you managed to learn all the material and write it in a single night? Cortisol was the hormone giving you the boost. It might also explain why you had to spend a couple days recovering from that exhaustion.

Short-term effects of stress on the body

Career Success means experiencing financial health and work you enjoy while feeling fulfilled in your peer community and life choices.

If you can believe it, your cortisol levels play a huge role in navigating every part of that definition, even with short term goals.

When confronted with a single — or a few smaller — stressors for a short period of time, your body will go through all those fight or flight, hormone-releasing effects. This is exemplified by the physical symptoms you may feel.

• Nausea, vomitting or stomach pain
• Tensing of muscles
• Hyperventilation or trouble breathing
• Higher blood pressure
• Higher blood sugar
• Faster heart beat

You may have experienced these things before to varying degrees. Usually, once the stressor leaves and the threat is gone, your body will go back to normal. But if you do find yourself in this state — we all will at one time or another — it’s important to take a step back.

When you are stressed, it can affect the way you approach otherwise calm situations. When it comes to your job, this can be detrimental to your Career Success and interpersonal relationships.

Under stress, you may find yourself…

• Irritable
• Inpatient
• Overwhelmed
• Racing thoughts
• Lacking perspective
• Worried and tense

These alone, are nothing to worry about. Your emotions belong in the workplace, and it’s no use showing up and pretending like everything is fine. If you need to excuse yourself to calm down and return, your team will understand.

It’s better to walk away when you’re experiencing these symptoms than to push through and say something you might regret. Meditation through apps like Headspace or Calm can help combat the immediate effects of stress and bring you back to a place of clarity.

Long-term effects of stress on the body

Long-term stress is simply short-term stress with no respite. This is when that one pressing deadline, becomes months of unsustainable deadlines.

Unrelenting stressors can keep your body in that fight-or-flight state for months at a time, constantly needing more cortisol and adrenaline to keep you working at that superhuman rate for longer.

Speaking to professional actors working at some of the top theatres in the country, they’ll confirm the addictive qualities of adrenaline and cortisol alike.

Public speaking is one of the most feared things in the world. When actors are facing that fear twice a day, 5 to 6 days a week in front of huge crowds, their bodies are under constant duress.

This up and down of hormone levels have long-lasting effects on every single system in the body. Symptoms include…

• Chronic muscle and joint pain
• Tension headaches anbd migraines
• High blood pressure and cholesterol
• Gastrointestinal pain
• Acid reflux
• Drastic weight fluctuations
• Insomnia

This can lead to the development of chronic and severe illnesses including…

• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Hypertension
• Type 2 Diabetes

As well as worsen the symptoms of any underlying conditions you may already have. If your body is already undergoing a physical attack, it can be so much harder to navigate any new stress on the body.

How to combat stress on the body

Like I said, working will always bring up stressors. Career Success cannot be achieved without confronting your stress head-on and persevering through it.

By persevering, I don’t mean pushing yourself to the point of burnout. I mean working with your team and relying on your support network to ease that stress. We have already written a ton of articles about combatting stress and burnout from within.

I recommend, additionally, taking care of your body to work from the outside in as well.

• Eat consistently, even if you’re nauseous, and add nutritious foods to your diet.
• Move your body in enjoyable ways. Often, exercise can feel like another thing on your plate. If your gym routine is causing you more stress, take a dance class instead or put on a podcast and go for a long walk.
• Meditate or try some deep breathing exercises. These are the best way to reset the nervous system and bring yourself back to resting levels.
• Use your health benefits! Refill your prescriptions, and book a massage. Treat your body the way you would treat that of a 5-year-old’s and be good to it!

Combat stress with Uvaro

We know stress can feel isolating. Especially when the effects of that stress on the body interfere with your career fulfillment.

That’s why we encourage you to reach out to people you trust. Our expert Career Coaches can help you navigate stress at work, and find ways to integrate some of the above tips into your work day!

Take a look at our Career Success Catalog for more details.