Can Stress Affect Your Physical Health?

Stress isn't only something you feel emotionally. Your brain and nervous system coordinate your body's response to what is happening around you—and that response can affect you physically.

For people dealing with chronic, recurring or difficult-to-explain health problems, an important question may be:

“What was happening in your life when your health began to change?”

Your brain and nervous system are involved in coordinating functions throughout your body. They constantly receive information, interpret what is happening and help your body respond and adapt.

That includes your response to stress.

When your brain perceives a threat, your body can respond almost immediately. Your heart may beat faster. Your breathing can change. Your muscles may tighten. Your digestive system can react. Your attention can become focused on the perceived threat.

That's not imaginary. It's physiology.

The stress response is designed to help protect you.

The important question is what happens when that stress doesn't end.

Source: NCCIH (NIH) — Stress

Short-term stress is normal.

If you're in danger, your brain needs to recognize it quickly and prepare your body to respond. Once the stressful event has passed, the body should be able to move away from that heightened stress response and toward rest and recovery.

Long-term stress is a different story.

The stress may be related to finances, work, relationships, grief, abuse, an accident, illness, something that happened during childhood—or several stressful events occurring close together.

And sometimes the stressful event is over, but its effects may continue to influence how a person responds.

Long-term stress has been associated with effects involving sleep, digestion, headaches, cardiovascular health, anxiety, depression and immune function.

Source: NCCIH (NIH) — Stress

These forms of stress don't necessarily occur separately. A person may experience physical, chemical and emotional stresses at the same time.

In my office, I'm interested not only in where it hurts, but also in what was happening around the time a person's health began to change.

Stress involves communication among the brain, nervous system, endocrine system and immune system. The body's response to stress can influence functions involving heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, immunity and hormonal activity.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, include potentially traumatic experiences during childhood.

Research has found relationships between childhood adversity and health years or even decades later. The CDC states that prolonged toxic stress associated with ACEs can affect children's brain development, immune systems and stress-response systems and that ACEs are associated with a range of chronic health problems later in life.

Source: CDC — About Adverse Childhood Experiences

What happens to us emotionally can have physical effects.

A 2009 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine examined 15,357 adults participating in the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study.

Researchers compared childhood traumatic stress with later hospitalization involving autoimmune diseases.

Compared with people reporting no ACEs, participants reporting two or more ACEs had approximately:

The researchers concluded that childhood traumatic stress was associated with an increased likelihood of hospitalization with diagnosed autoimmune disease decades later.

This research does not mean that stress is the sole cause of autoimmune disease. It does demonstrate an important association between childhood traumatic stress and later autoimmune health outcomes.

Source: Dube SR, et al. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2009

After more than 25 years in practice, I've learned to ask questions that go beyond simply, “Where does it hurt?”

With chronic and recurring problems, I want to know:

• When did this begin?
• What was happening in your life at the time?
• Was there a major physical, chemical or emotional stress?
• Did your health seem different afterward?

These questions are part of why I became interested in Quantum Neuro Reset Therapy, or QNRT.

QNRT is a neurologically based approach I use to look for brain imbalances and stress patterns that may be relevant to what a patient is experiencing.

The goal isn't to erase a person's past or pretend stressful events didn't happen. The QNRT framework looks at how the brain and nervous system are responding to those experiences and uses specific neurological evaluation and stimulation as part of the reset process.

Many of the people who find their way to my office have already tried multiple approaches.

They've had tests. They've seen doctors or other practitioners. They've changed their diet, taken supplements, tried medications, chiropractic care or other therapies.

And sometimes they're still asking:

“Why am I still dealing with this?”

I don't assume stress is the answer to every health problem.

But when a person's health has changed following significant physical, chemical or emotional stress, I believe it's worth asking whether that stress may be another piece of the story.

If you've been dealing with chronic, recurring or difficult-to-explain health problems, there may be value in looking beyond where it hurts.

Dr. Tony Fry has been practicing in Harrisburg, Illinois since 1997, serving patients from Southern Illinois and the surrounding region. He uses QNRT along with other approaches at Inspire Health & Wellness.

If you're interested in QNRT or aren't sure which type of care is appropriate, start with a Comprehensive New Patient appointment.

Inspire Health & Wellness

200 East Poplar Street, Harrisburg, IL 62946