What stress really does to your body — and what to do about it
It causes everything from headaches to gut pain. Claire Cohen meets a leading osteopath with the latest solutions.
In a report published by Mental Health UK in January, 91 per cent of adults said they’d experienced high or extreme levels of stress in the past year. But what we’re often less conscious of is the way we deal (or don’t) with stress and the subsequent toll it can take on our bodies.
The back problems so many of us seem to suffer with, jaw pain, headaches, digestive troubles — we might consider these chronic physical issues but they can all be symptoms of stress. A 2021 academic study of 8,473 people found that severe stress was associated with a 2.8-fold increase in the risk of chronic lower-back pain compared with the general population.
The link between stress and physical anguish isn’t inevitable, however, says James Davies, an osteopath and performance coach who has seen every type of stress-related chronic pain out there and written a best-selling book on the subject called Body. Davies, who worked for Team GB at the Olympics, as well as treating a host of celebrity clients and sportspeople including David Beckham, Joe Wicks, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kylie Minogue, believes there are things we can do to protect our bodies from stress.
“Around 90 per cent of my clients have stress and anxiety so chronic that they’re seeing physical consequences,” he says. “Some of them don’t even feel stressed but their muscles are tight in their neck, shoulders or chest. They have headaches and digestion issues. But they’re not linking these symptoms to stress.”
Davies says that some stress — the sort that enables us to power through when our boss demands that report by 4pm — is good. It becomes harmful when that heightened response fails to die down. Being in this state “can create tension in our muscles that will impact other tendons and joints. We feel permanently exhausted and it can interfere with our immune system, which means we’re more likely to get ill.”
The key, he says, is to recognise when stress may be causing us pain and tackle it — ideally before it’s even happened. According to Davies, there are several major areas where we may experience stress-related pain. Here’s what to look out for and how to tackle it.
Stress headaches and how to beat them
One of the best-known ways that stress manifests is the tension headache which, Davies says, “usually affects both sides of the head around the temples or across the forehead like a tight band”. It can be caused by a particularly stressful event or day, leading the muscles in the back of your head and neck to contract, tense up and become painful. “The pain will feel dull and may worsen when you move your neck.
If rubbing on the area makes it feel better, that’s a good indication it’s a stress headache,” Davies says. (Anyone experiencing symptoms such as vomiting, blurred vision or numbness should seek medical attention.)
To alleviate it, Davies recommends splaying your fingers across your temples and working the pads in a circular motion to get blood flowing. At the same time take deep breaths from the diaphragm, instead of the chest, which will also act to release tension in the muscles higher up in the body. This “belly breathing” can lower the heartbeat, which helps to reduce feelings of stress or anxiety. The key is to see your abdomen expand when you breathe in and contract when you breathe out. Stretch first thing to prevent neck and shoulder ache.
“You only need to see someone’s posture to know if they’re stressed,” Davies says. “I ask my clients to look in the mirror and they’re often surprised to see their shoulders are up towards their ears.” A consequence of going through life in this stress posture, he adds, is that your muscles shorten, reducing the amount of blood flow reaching your neck and shoulders, leading to pain.
Poor posture, including slumped shoulders or constantly looking down, which we tend to do if feeling overwhelmed or when glued to a device, can also cause muscle tension.
To help guard against this, begin your day with a daily stretch to counteract the hunching that will inevitably follow. When you get out of bed, stand with your feet apart, stretching both arms upwards in a 10am and 2pm position of a clock face and leaning back slightly. Hold for 30 seconds.
Follow this with a specific neck stretch: visualise two pencils coming out of your eyes and draw a figure of eight with them. Do this a few times, in both directions, then place the imaginary pencil on your chin and repeat the exercise. Then, during the day, in a stressful moment, “tilt your left ear towards your left shoulder, and then the same on the right side. If you feel any type of tension, that’s a good indicator that it’s caused by stress.”
To release it, try a minute-long neck massage, putting one hand around your throat, under your chin, and running it down your neck to the collarbone to soothe muscles, encourage blood flow and engage the lymphatic system, which helps to drain waste products away.
A good tension-relieving stretch for those shortened muscles involves placing the heel of one hand on your breastplate, putting the other hand on top, pressing downwards and away from the neck, then tilting your chin upwards and head backwards.
“Just rolling your shoulders back and forwards is good for getting rid of tension,” Davies says, “and you can do that while sitting in the car or on the bus.”
A painful jaw is likely to be stress-related. Your jaw is the strongest bone in the face and it’s particularly susceptible to stress — you might be clenching it, grinding your teeth during the night or, Davies says, “overloading it with stress through talking a lot or overeating, leading the muscles to become tight”.
Clues that you’re experiencing stress-related pain include an aching jaw when chewing, sore temples, headaches and ringing ears. You should be able to open and close your mouth, move your lower jaw from side to side, extend your lower jaw forwards and fit three sideways fingers between your top and bottom teeth when you open your mouth without any pain, clicking or locking.
For relief he suggests “opening your mouth really wide and repeatedly moving the lower jaw left to right to release tension”. Placing a clean thumb on the inside of your mouth and pressing on the inside of your cheek, gently pushing the cheek outwards and holding for five seconds, can also be a good release.
A daily exercise with a tennis ball can be useful to massage pressure points and relieve stress on the jaw. “Lie on the floor or bed and place the ball at the base of the skull, where there are many tiny muscles and blood vessels, which can become tight and tense,” Davies says. “Gently work the ball in a circular motion to release some of the pressure, alleviating pain in the face and scalp — do it for as long as you can.”
Techniques to relieve tension in your lower back
Davies calls the lower back “the epicentre for pain” — an area in which 80 per cent of us will experience discomfort at some point, in the form of an ache, stiffness or spasming that can radiate into the buttocks and legs. It’s where a huge amount of the body’s weight presses down every day — and that includes referral from any muscular tension we’re feeling in our necks, shoulders and mid-backs.
In addition, during stressful times our blood vessels may contract, reducing blood flow to our back muscles and leading to pain. It can be helpful to notice patterns, Davies says. Does your lower-back pain worsen in the office or on deadline? Then it’s likely stress-related. It may also be a symptom of other negative manifestations of stress: lower-back pain can be caused by irritable bowel syndrome (on which more below). “Most of the clients I see with IBS arrive at my door with lower-back pain and won’t have realised that the two are often connected,” Davies says.
Basic ways to decompress tension in your lower back include spending a few minutes standing up and widening your legs, lying on the floor or bed with your legs vertically up a wall or lying in a star shape and stretching your four limbs away from each other as far as you can.
You should also stretch in bed before you get up in the morning: lie on your back with your knees raised and your feet flat on the mattress. Place your arms by your side to take the pressure off your lower back and breathe deeply through your nose, trying to push up your belly. Breathe out slowly. Repeat for one minute. In the evening, try lying on the floor with your legs on the sofa at a 90-degree angle and staying there for five minutes to help decompress the lower back and realign your pelvis.
Avoid ‘stress eating’ to calm your digestive system
The gut is just as susceptible to stress-related pain as anywhere else. Davies tells me that he experienced digestive issues when working at the Olympics — a result of the pressure he was under.
IBS can be triggered by high levels of the fight-or-flight stress hormone cortisol in the body, as it causes the colon to spasm and can decrease the good bacteria in your gut. But gut issues can also be linked to lifestyle choices.
“When people are stressed, they start to eat rubbish, reach for fizzy drinks and alcohol, don’t drink enough water and exercise less,” Davies says. “They also tend to eat faster, which can mean food isn’t absorbed into the body as well and can lead to gut issues.”
Aside from being mindful of your diet, he advises self-massage, as the gut can also hold tension. Starting on the lower-right-hand side of the abdomen, where the appendix is, use the finger pads of both hands to massage in a circular motion, moving upwards and around the entire gut. When you reach an area that feels tight to the touch, stop and gently press down, breathing in and out for a few seconds, before continuing your lap of the area, until you’re back where you began.
Use breathing techniques to relieve a tight chest
The chest, Davies says, is the “main centre of the stress battle”. Pain here can be caused by high levels of cortisol and adrenaline coursing through your body, which make the chest muscles contract — the longer you remain in the stress state, becoming anxious, the tighter they can become.
And, of course, if you’re experiencing chest pain, that can snowball into more stress as you may worry about heart problems. (If you’re experiencing other symptoms such as dizziness, numbness, disorientation or profuse sweating, seek medical advice.)
The ribs are also susceptible to muscular tension caused by poor posture and rounded shoulders, which we often fall into when feeling anxious.
Feeling your chest for signs of pain or looking at yourself in the mirror to see whether you’re breathing deeply or from your upper chest are indicators of stress in the area, Davies says. Slow, deep breaths from the diaphragm can help to lessen pressure around the chest. You can also try placing a foam roller vertically under your back as you lie on the floor, and stretching your arms out wide to open up the chest area.
Daily routines to help stop stress turning into physical pain
Start your day with a cold blast
Davies, along with Beckham and Wicks, is a fan of daily ice baths. The cold water encourages blood flow to increase, can boost your metabolism and — as you get used to the icy temperature over the days — actually lowers how much of the stress hormone cortisol is released into your body.
Anecdotally, fans report increased mental clarity and energy levels. Even splashing your face or dipping in for a few seconds can help, and never stay in longer than 15 minutes.
Alternatively, placing the cold head of a shower on your chest, or standing under a cold shower for just a few seconds every morning, can have a similar effect.
Take regular saunas
Studies have shown that regular sauna use helps to lower cortisol levels and releases feel-good endorphins, helping to tackle feelings of anxiety. It’s also a great form of meditation, Davies says. “You’re away from the world, you get to relax and you can’t take your tech with you, so you’re having an enforced screen break.”
Call your friends
“One of the best ways to reduce tension in the body is by talking about how we feel and that doesn’t have to be with an expensive professional,” Davies says. “It can be a friend, family member or just by talking to yourself — I often do that out loud in the shower or garden in the morning, speaking aloud what’s worrying me about the day ahead.”
Go to bed earlier
“Sleep is the ultimate chance to reset after a fight-or-flight stress response,” Davies says. “The minimum you should be having is six hours a night and it’s likely that your body will need more. After one night of little or no sleep, we will be tired and often short-tempered. If this rolls on for many days, weeks or months it will affect our general health and mood.”
He suggests going to bed earlier, as we get most of our restorative deep sleep before midnight, as well as leaving our phones outside the bedroom to avoid stressing our brains with a dopamine hit last thing at night or first thing in the morning.
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