Stress affects the immune system in much the same way a virus does, except the painful reality is that no one cares if you’re sick from stress. Though your symptoms may be the same as if you had a cold or the flu, bosses don’t tend to be too sympathetic.

Most family members and friends don’t know that stress affects the immune system to the point where it can cause serious illness; the people around me found this out when I developed a bacterial infection in my stomach from work-related stress, which caused me to lose a lot of weight.

So how exactly is it that stress affects the immune system? What does it do to it?

The short answer is that it weakens the immune system, allowing you to get sick easier. Viruses and infections have an easier time breaking down the walls your immune system puts up, resulting in an increased number of illness or symptoms of illness.

Imagine your immune system is a fortress made of stone, and illness is the army attempting to overtake it, but they can’t get through the sturdy walls. This is an example of what your immune system is like when you are in good health. But when you start to get stressed out, those walls start to crack and crumble, and before you can repair them and get better, that army of viruses, bacteria and infections breaks through. This in turn stresses you out more, and though you may manage to repair some of the walls, the constant wave of yuckiness keeps pounding on them, and it becomes increasingly difficult to recover.

While stress affects the immune system in these ways, it can also affect other parts of our physiology as well. Stress can steal our sleep, leading to higher blood pressure, and possibly heart disease. Nausea and headaches are fairly common symptoms of stress. An article on Easy Stress Management’s website mentions that stress can even slow your digestion and lower your pain threshold. That doesn’t sound like something where you can just “suck it up.”

The article also mentions that long-term effects can include things like allergies and asthma, diabetes, and even cancer. Before you go thinking you’re going to get any serious illness, please realize that the results of stress on your body all depend on the strength of that stress and how long you suffer from it. So don’t freak out if you have one of those days when everything seems to go wrong and you find yourself a little frazzled. However, if you have chronic stress every day for several weeks, months or years, you need to get in to see your doctor.

Aside from medication and/or counseling, there are simple things you can do in your life to decrease stress levels. Find what works for you, and develop a daily routine for stress management. If you need some suggestions, you can check out my Anxiety Relaxation Tips.

Don’t let stress get the better of you. Make sure you manage it now. Don’t let it build up. Your health is everything, so keep stress in check, and you’ll live a better, healthier life!