Your muscles tense, your heart races and your breathing quickens – we all know that is how stress works, the ‘fight or flight’ principle: hormones prepare your body to either face a threat or run away from it. If this happens too often – say, every day or more than half the week – it is called chronic stress. Chronic stress can affect not only individual body systems or organs, but also overall health. But how does it happen?

1) Hormones (biologically active substances secreted by the endocrine glands and cells of different tissues in the blood, lymph or brain) are involved in the regulation of the whole body, linking individual organs to each other, coordinating their functions and adapting them to a particular stage of life or level of activity of the body. Your adrenal glands make the so-called stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol) and they help your body to prepare for fight or flight from danger. If levels of these hormones are high for a long time, it can lead to weakened bone strength and immune system, poor sleep and reduced bone mass.

2) Abdominal pain. If you are really tense, you may feel nauseous and have abdominal pain. This is normal, as your body may slow down or stop digestion during stress to help your body focus on the stressful situation and deal with it.

3) If stress is prolonged and affects your digestive system too often, it can cause diarrhoea or constipation and affect your body’s ability to absorb nutrients. It is believed that there is a link between stress and irritable bowel syndrome, which can cause abdominal pain and cramps, as well as constipation and diarrhoea.

4) People who are under high and prolonged stress may eat more, or eat more unhealthy foods. They may also drink more alcohol or smoke more often. All this can cause heartburn and acid reflux (when stomach acid gets into your oesophagus). If left untreated, this can lead to gastric ulcers and scar tissue.

5) Headaches. When you are tense, the muscles in your head, neck and shoulders also become tense. This can cause tension headaches and migraines. Different relaxation techniques can help relieve stress as well as these headaches.

6) Irregular periods. Stress can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle. It can become irregular. It can also worsen premenstrual syndrome (PMS) – the mood swings and cramps that some women experience before their periods.

7) Stress can make both men and women less interested in sex, but chronic stress can cause serious problems for men in the bedroom. It can cause erectile dysfunction and affect the quantity and quality of sperm.

8) When you are stressed, you breathe harder and faster, which can be a problem if you have asthma or a lung condition such as emphysema, which already makes it difficult to get enough oxygen to your lungs.

9) Stress hormones, if they are high for a long time, can be bad for your heart as they can raise your blood pressure, which could lead to a heart attack or stroke. They can also indirectly affect the condition of the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart muscles, which can cause a heart attack.

10) Anxiety and depression. The stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline cause chills, stomach irritation, panic attacks and sometimes even paranoia. Overproduction of these hormones interferes with the production of the happiness and well-being hormone serotonin, which is why prolonged stress leads to a bad mood and a feeling of hopelessness.

For the normal functioning of the nervous system, especially in cases of tension and stress, we have created NERVOKLER, a 100% natural food supplement made in Latvia. The product, which contains magnesium, L-theanine, passiflora or passion flower (Passiflora incarnata L.) and vitamin B6, promotes physical and mental well-being under stressful conditions, helps prevent neurosis, neurasthenia, anxiety, chronic fatigue and nervous system disorders.

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