Why Is It Important To Reduce Stress When Your Cholesterol Levels Get Too High?

Stress is a term that’s very hard to define, particularly because of its subjective nature. A matter that causes stress for a particular person may not be as stressful for another. Stress can be considered as difficulty in coping with something, and usually that “something” is a period or an event in one’s life. But is it possible that something of a psychological nature can lead to an increase in cholesterol levels?

How stress impacts the body

When people go through periods of stress, their bodies respond to the psychological difficulty with what is known as the “fight or flight” response. The muscles and the organs in the body get pumped up, more adrenaline is released, along with other hormones such as cortisol or norepinephrine. This accelerates the heart beat, breathing, and blood pressure.

When cortisol is released, the body sends fatty acids and glucose to the blood and muscles, so that they may have more energy. It’s not uncommon for these hormone levels to stay high until the stressful period passes, in which case your cholesterol levels may be affected on the long term as well.

What is the link between stress and cholesterol?

Hemoconcentration is another process that’s related to stress. This occurs when the blood loses fluid, causing whatever is in the blood, such as cholesterol, to become highly concentrated.

Researchers also tend to believe that cortisol levels can also lead to an increase in cholesterol in the body. High levels of cortisol can cause a person to feel an increased appetite, but also to cause more fat deposits building up inside the body. As mentioned above, it’s not uncommon for the body to release glucose and fatty acids in order to feed it with energy. Naturally, this can also cause cholesterol levels to rise.

Stress can also have an indirect impact on cholesterol levels

While stress can directly influence cholesterol levels, by making changes throughout the way the body works, it can also impact cholesterol levels indirectly. What this actually means is that people who have to face stressful periods are more likely to engage in activities that boost cholesterol levels, such as:

• Smoking. Stressful situations have a tendency to push people into smoking even more than usual. It’s not uncommon to find people with the misbelief that smoking a cigarette helps calm their nerves, so they turn to this habit whenever they feel overwhelmed.
• Drinking. Similar to the example mentioned earlier, people also tend to drink more when they feel stressed. That’s because alcohol helps calm the nerves, or so people tend to believe. While a glass or two of alcohol is perfectly acceptable, drinking too much to “forget about the worries” is a misconception, and can lead to a number of problems, such as trouble sleeping, nausea, vomiting, difficulty in focus, and increased cholesterol levels.
• Eating more and worse foods. Everyone knows someone who overeats when they feel stressed. That’s because a series of hormonal imbalances can lead to an increase in appetite, causing people to indulge in eating a lot of foods that are fatty and high in cholesterol.
• Not exercising. Someone who is going through a rough time will often feel depressed and unmotivated. Naturally, this causes an introversion process and a lack of will to perform any physical exercise. When this occurs, cholesterol levels are very likely to go up.

Stress: Some key facts to keep in mind

Naturally, the best way to remove a health problem is to identify the underlying cause and work to treat that one first. There are plenty of people who are stressed and don’t even know it. While there are lots of reasons why treating high cholesterol is important, here are some stress facts that may help you see that this is no ordinary life issue:

• Emotions related to stress, such as anxiety, depression, anger, and the likes, are very likely to lead to heart attacks (just like cholesterol).
• Stress can lead to fat deposits in the abdominal area, causing your body to be more resistant to insulin, which can therefore lead to type 2 diabetes and heart attacks.
• Stress can weaken the immune system, making you more likely to develop an infection that can eventually cause coronary atherosclerosis.
• Stress can also cause atrial fibrillation, which is one of the main risk factors for a stroke.

Stress management

Managing period of great stress requires getting to the root of the problem and figuring out what could be causing it in the first place. It can be anything from a stressful time at work, moving, colder relationships, financial problems, divorce, issues with your family, and many others.

In more severe cases, seeing a doctor may help, as they can choose to prescribe medication that will help you cope with stress. Take note that this only happens if your doctor diagnoses you with severe anxiety or depression. Antidepressants might be a good solution in such a situation, but they also have adverse effects.

Therapy, however, is a long-term solution without any (physical) side effects. Talking to a therapist can help you understand your habits and reactions a lot better, showing you the triggers that cause stress in the first place.

Conclusion