Stress

The Physical Side of Stress
The effects of stress on your emotional and physical health may be worse than you thought.
By Clare Kittredge
Medically reviewed by Lindsey Marcellin, MD, MPH
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Although female sex hormones and brain chemistry offer some protection from stress, women are more deeply affected by the physical and emotional effects of stress than men.
Women’s reactions tostress are rooted in their body chemistry. Men have higher androgen levels, while women have higher estrogen levels, says Paul J. Rosch, MD, FACP, president of the American Institute of Stress (AIS). “Their brains are also wired differently,” says Dr. Rosch, who is also a clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College, and honorary vice president of the InternationalStress Management Association. “Women tend to react to stress differently than men. They don’t respond with the fight or flight response — they’re more apt to negotiate.”
Stress: How Women Are Affected
The effects of the anti-stress hormone oxytocin, produced during childbirth, breastfeeding, and in both sexes during orgasm, are enhanced by estrogen and reduced by testosterone, which helps women morethan men, Rosch says. And nurturing activities boost oxytocin levels in women. The catch-22 is that women need more oxytocin than men to maintain their emotional health. For example, Rosch explains, women are more negatively affected when they’re not touched, and also feel more stress than men in relationships.
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), stress is anexpression of the body’s natural instinct to protect itself. While this may warn a woman of immediate danger, like a fast-approaching car, prolonged stress effects can negatively affect your physical and emotional health.
“Our stress response was exquisitely honed over millions of years as a protective mechanism,” said Rosch. “That was OK for our ancestors who ran into saber-toothed tigers. The tragedy isthat today, it’s not that, but hundreds of things like getting stuck in traffic jams. Our bodies respond in the same unfortunate fashion, with hypertension, strokes, and ulcers.”

Stress Effects: The Physical Side
“Your stress may vary, but if you have stress with your work, your kids, your neighbors, and marriage all at once, that’s a big deal,” said Lori Heim, MD, president-elect of the AAFPand a hospitalist (a family physician who works only in a hospital) at Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg, N.C. “In women, I see this in changes in menstrual patterns — nothing else is going on except a huge increase in stress, and all of a sudden, they may be losing their hair or having menstrual irregularities, and everything points to stress as a factor.”
The AIS reports that some surveysshow 75 to 90 percent of visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints. According to the National Women’s Health Information Center, the effects of stress on women’s physical and emotional health can range from headaches to irritable bowel syndrome. Specific stress effects include:
* Eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are 10 times more common in women than in men,says Rosch, and this may have something to do with stress levels. Like depression, this illness has been linked to low levels of serotonin and is often treated with serotonin-boosting antidepressant drugs.
* Stomach ailments. Stress can make you reach for junk or comfort foods, or upset your stomach to the point that you feel like you can’t eat. Common stress-related stomach troubles includecramps, bloating, heartburn, and even irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Depending on how you respond, these can lead to weight loss or weight gain.
* Skin reactions. Stress can lead to breakouts and even itchy rashes and hives in some people.
* Emotional conditions. From being in a blue or irritable mood to more serious mental issues like depression, your emotional health suffers when there’s...