If you feel heartburn after eating practically anything, a lack of energy and debilitating body aches, you might think you have a cold or the flu. However, if you aren’t experiencing common cold and flu symptoms like a runny nose, a fever or a persistent cough, you might be suffering from excess stress. Even though it’s been well publicized that chronic stress can raise your blood pressure and disrupt your sleep, it’s not as well known that stress can also manifest itself in ways that are similar to a viral infection.
With the holiday season in full swing, it’s very easy to become stressed out. If you’re under a lot of pressure to complete your last-minute shopping, make travel arrangements and complete all your ongoing work assignments before the end of the year, there’s a good chance that all that running around and anxiety is catching up with you. As such, you might want to modify your diet so that it includes more foods that are known to fight stress. The next time you have dinner, replace greasy French fries with sautéed asparagus tips. Instead of grabbing a bag of chips, snack on some vitamin C filled blueberries. Not only will those non-junk foods actually seat your hunger, they can reduce your stress and debilitating symptoms that come with it.
Read the full article here: 13 reasons to take stress seriously!