You don’t have to search very far to find advice from health professionals urging us to reduce our stress levels and relax more.

Charitable organizations and private companies exist to help us combat stress in our lives, either through meditation, massages, counselling and other forms of relaxing therapy. So why is stress so bad for our health? Let’s explore further the negative effects that stress can have on your health.

It affects your mental health

This is often the first thing you will notice – stress affecting your mental health. You may start to feel depressed, anxious, worried, low in confidence or more emotional than usual. If you start to notice any of these signs, you should visit your doctor.

A health professional will be able to give you tips on managing your stress levels and may also refer you to a counsellor for talking therapy.

It can affect your weight negatively

The more you stress, the more you will notice differences in your appetite. For some people, this means eating more to deal with the stresses they are feeling, while others will lose their appetite altogether and stop eating as much as they should.

Both of these will have a negative impact on the body in most circumstances, by either depriving the body of the nutrients it needs, or by giving your body too much.

It can stop you from sleeping properly

People who are under a lot of stress will often notice problems with their sleeping pattern. This could mean that your sleeping pattern has suddenly changed, or that you never used to struggle falling asleep and suddenly now you do.

While these symptoms can be attributed to other health concerns, stress is one of the most common causes of insomnia and sleep problems. As well as struggling to fall asleep, you could find that stress causes you to wake up multiple times during the night, or wake up at early hours without being able to fall asleep again.

It can cause you to catch colds and viruses easily

Too much stress means that your immune system cannot work at maximum efficiency, thus causing bacteria and viruses to enter your body more easily.

This is one of the common ways that stress will affect your body physically, so if your body feels weaker than usual and you seem to be catching more colds, pay a visit to your doctor.