SIMMER DOWN

Eight compelling reasons your body wants you to dial back the stress in your life

- Rosemary Counter

MY JAW HURTS. BIG DEAL, RIGHT? Right...at least at first: It starts with a looming deadline or a tiff with my spouse, but tension leads to jaw clenching and then pain. Soon chewing hurts, so my blood sugar drops and my head starts to ache. I cancel plans to exercise or see a friend, and my mood goes south fast. A good night's sleep is impossible. I toss and turn and clench my jaw some more, then start it all again tomorrow.

Even the tiniest seed of stress can quickly snowball into debilitating symptoms. Not anxious or irritable or depressed (though it can do that too). I mean physically ill in the whole body-from dead stem cells causing prematurely grey hairs down to reduced blood flow in your toes (seriously: “foot tingling” is common before and after a panic attack).

If you need a reason to take a breath, here are eight ways stress could be taking a toll on your body right now.

YOUR BRAIN: Firstly, let’s define stress. “Stress is a state of worry caused by an external trigger,” says Krystal Lewis, a Maryland-based clinical psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health. It can be short-term and acute (like speeding out the door to get to work on time) or long-term and chronic (like a busy career).

Ideally, your stress is acute and you bounce back as soon as it stops. In reality, if you’re like three-quarters of Americans who report that stress has negatively affected their lives, your stress is likely chronic.

Either way, your brain’s amygdala jumps into high alert, causing the hypothalamus to release a chemical rush of cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, that might have helped you outrun a sabre-toothed tiger. It’s less helpful today, when you’re having the same tiger-sized response to being late.