Complementary Health Practices Stress and Health Stress has a
clear impact on our bodies. When we are scared or tense, our
hearts race and our breathing becomes shallow. When our lives
are particularly stressful, many of us experience headaches,
digestive problems, insomnia, and a host of other discomforts.
Some research provides evidence that chronic stress can make us
more prone to anxiety and depression and put us at higher risk
of experiencing intense hot flashes and insomnia.4 It is
important to recognize the physical effects of stress. Yet
stress is not a simple phenomenon. People sometimes assume that
stress alone is responsible for a wide range of physical,
psychological, and behavioral problems that may in fact stem
from other causes. Some research does not make clear the
difference between correlation and cause and effect; many
conditions correlated with stress are not necessarily caused by
stress, although stress may be a factor. For example, a research
study concluding that stress puts women at hi