Cramming for a test?
Trying to get more done than you have time to do?
Stress is a feeling we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed.
But more than just an emotion, stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body.
In the short term, stress can be advantageous, but when activated too often or too long, your primitive fight or flight stress response not only changes your brain but also damages many of the other organs and cells throughout your body.
Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, and norepinephrine.
As these hormones travel through your blood stream, they easily reach your blood vessels and heart.
Adrenaline causes your heart to beat faster and raises your blood pressure, over time causing hypertension.
Cortisol can also cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels, to not function normally.
Scientists now know that this is an early step in triggering the process of atherosclerosis or cholesterol plaque build up in your arteries.
