title. I feel like you always hear stuff to the liking of “high stress leads to poor health,” but I am kind of wondering exactly why this occurs.
For instance, it’s said that stress can cause:
- Aches and pains.
- Chest pain or a feeling like your heart is racing.
- Exhaustion or trouble sleeping.
- Headaches, dizziness or shaking.
- High blood pressure.
- Muscle tension or jaw clenching.
- Stomach or digestive problems.
- Trouble having sex.
- Weak immune system.
Imagine, hypothetically, that I were to have a high stress life, but still had good sleep, low blood pressure, and a slow heart rate, while also staying away from unhealthy habits like drinking or addiction.
Would my health still be worse than a person who lives an equivalent, but less stressful life than me?
You’re lucky your ophthalmologist has a model of causation for this stuff.
I had a vitreous degeneration in both eyes. It must have been caused by something but when I asked my eye doctor his response was “this happens in X% of people”.
Like his entire knowledge of the disease’s etiology is “it’s probabilistic”. He didn’t seem to understand what I was asking when I asked for risk factors.
Doesn’t inspire much confidence.