icon to save an article into your beauty book.
icon to delete a product. 
What is stress? All animals, including humans, respond to threat by fighting or fleeing. While deciding what to do, your body gears itself up to respond. Extra stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol) are secreted, your heart pumps faster, blood pressure rises, breathing quickens, perspiration increases, and digestion slows. Taking physical action exhausts the stress hormones. But when stuck behind a desk or in a car, with one tense situation after another, stress chemicals remain in the bloodstream. This causes headaches, creating further anxiety. Eventually your system is so overloaded that a minor incident can prompt a crisis.
What are some of the physical symptoms of stress?
Aches and pains, palpitations and dizziness, loss of appetite or compulsive eating, digestive problems, grinding your teeth, insomnia, breathing difficulties, stammering or speaking too fast, feeling tired, frequent infections, as well as reduced sex drive.
How does stress affect behavior?
It can make you unhappy — depression, anxiety, panic attacks, feelings of inadequacy, pessimism, and dissatisfaction with life are all part of the picture. It can make you difficult to live with because people under stress are often irritable, irrational, and hostile. It can affect your work performance — you may be forgetful, lethargic, and unable to concentrate or make decisions.
Can stress make you sick?
Stress may not directly cause illness, but it can be a contributing factor, triggering allergies, asthma, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, psoriasis, and hives. It's also thought to contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.
