The five really weird ways that stress can mess with your body

Sep 17, 2015

We all get stressed from time to time – for an uncountable number of reasons.

Whether it's about work, college, family or your love life, it's something many of us simply can't avoid.

Not only does it suck up your energy, it puts you in a bad mood, and eats away at your desire to do anything interactive.

Some stress is healthy, yes, but when you over do it, it can lead to these nasty side effects.

It makes you exhausted

When you stress, your brain to releases a hormone called cortisol into your bloodstream to help your body deal with it.

BUT it totally backfires if you stress too much. Frequent freaking-out can cause your brain to limit the amount of cortisol it sends to your bloodstream, which makes you feel really tired, all day, everyday.

It makes you break out

When you really stress out, hormones called androgens in your body spike, causing acne to flare up. It can also cause other parts of your body to produce nasty rashes.

You can always use a topical treatment to try and stop the spots, but in reality, when you stop stressing, the blemishes will go away.

It makes you gain weight

A recent study found that dieters who learned stress-management techniques were more successful at losing weight than dieters who didn't.

The connection between reducing stress and losing weight could be that it helps cut back on stress binge-eating. So be careful what you eat next time you have a freak out.

You could lose some hair

Just like a spike in androgens can cause your skin to break out, it can also cause your hair to shed more than usual. The unfortunate side effect is only temporary but it could get worse if you worry for a continued amount of time.

It makes your back ache