Everyone at any stage of life experiences stress and anxiety. Many things cause stress and anxiety. You may experience pressure from the demanding work or tense atmosphere at home.

Apart from the serious mental health issues it causes, stress and anxiety ages you. Physical aging coupled with biological ageingare the effects of stress and anxiety.

Here are five ways of how stress can make you look and feel older.

Hormone Imbalance

When you are under constant stress or anxiety, your body starts to produce adrenaline and cortisol heavily. This is due to how your brain responds to the pressure.

Adrenaline leaves your skin wrinkly due to the heavy irregular blood flow it causes. While cortisol hinders new skin cell growth, when these two hormones are combined, your skin might look wrinkly and plumpy all the time.

Irregular Menstrual Cycle

Medical experts are still researching irregular menstrual cycles. However, one thing is for sure; stress causes symptoms that are similar to menopause.

The decrease in the production of estrogen in your body is heavily related to your stress level. As mentioned, chronic stress makes your body continually produce high levels of cortisol. This cortisol hormone also causes your body produce less estrogen which is used to regulate your period.

Eyebags

While stress causes you to lose more sleep and results in eyebags, it also breaks the fragile capillaries under your eyes. The broken capillaries will leak blood which makes your eye circles look dark blue.

Additionally, stress makes your skin look pale. Unhealthy-looking pale skin plus broken capillaries may make your eyes look sunk in and sallow.

Damaged Teeth

Experts mention that stress is associated with the constant activity of gritting teeth and clenching jaw. The jaw-clenching causes your muscle jaw to become overworked, while the constant teeth-gritting damages your teeth.

Hair Loss

Sudden hair loss can be caused by two significant conditions called Telogen Effluvium and Alopecia Areata. Both diseases are caused by chronic stress. Your hair can suddenly fall out in handfuls. The bad news in this condition is that Telogen Effluvium stops your hair from growing.

As for Alopecia Areata, this condition attacks the white blood cells in your follicles. The difference between these two conditions is that Alopecia Areata causes instantaneous hair loss. Your hair falls out in patches, and it may affect the whole scalp in only a few weeks.

To understand more on how stress can further impact your body,  you can consult medical professional online 24/7 through Okadoc app.