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“When the fight or flight response is activated [in both sexes], our bodies go into emergency
mode and take care of immediate
and acute needs, focusing on getting energy to the muscles, and we
don’t take care of the longer-term
needs of the body,” Christy Matta, MA, author of The Stress Response, tells The Huffington Post.
“We shut down things like our immune systems, reproductive systems ... It does suppress the release
of testosterone and it suppresses
other reproductive systems. The
wear and tear on the body is severe
from repeated stress.”
With this in mind, ahead find
seven important health reasons
for men to de-stress.
1. DECREASED FACIAL
ATTRACTIVENESS
The male hormone testosterone
has been linked with a strong immune system and facial attractiveness in men. A University of
Aberdeen study in which women
ranked the attractiveness of 94
men found that those with higher
testosterone and lower levels of
the stress hormone cortisol had
higher immune system responses,
and were deemed the most attractive, Health.com reported.
STRESS
LESS
Men with higher cortisol levels, in
turn, were deemed less attractive.
Cortisol, the study suggests, may
play a role in blocking testosterone’s appeal to potential mates.
2. EARLY HEART DISEASE RISK
An extensive body of research
has established that stress is a
risk factor in the development
of heart disease, and inherited
stress can also increase the risk
of early heart disease. Recently, a
Henry Ford Hospital study found
that men with a family history
of heart disease had a diagnosis
of heart disease an average of 12
years earlier than those without
a family history. They were also
more likely to have a higher stress
symptom score (an evaluation
based on worry, impatience, anger
and other symptoms) than men
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13