It’s true. Worry can . . . and will . . . kill you.

The human body is marvellous. Fifty million tiny cells all wrapped up into one human being. And each of those cells has a “mind” of its own. At least that’s the opinion of one biologist who claims to have seen a single cell move away from something bad for it, and toward something that was good for it.

So much for genetics.

But we humans can do something that even the animals do not appear to do. We worry. And with worry, comes a change in our body. Consider this description by Dr. Sapolsky:

“You sit in your chair not moving a muscle, and simply think a thought, a thought having to do with feeling angry or sad or euphoric or lustful, and suddenly your pancreas secretes some hormone. Your pancreas? How did you manage to do that with your pancreas? You don’t even know where your pancreas is. Your liver is making an enzyme that wasn’t there before, your spleen is text-messaging something to your thymus gland, blood-flow in little capillaries in your ankles has just changed. All from thinking a thought.” (1994: 20)

With stress comes this kind of activity in your body. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

What happens if the stress situation is caused while sitting in your car on the freeway when there is a traffic jam making you late for an important appointment? At that time, your body is stressed, but it neither fights nor flees. You’re just sitting there worrying — immobile in the car.

It’s the same in the office, and a range of other stressful situations. If you’re sitting silently, angry, depressed and resentful, the new glucose secreted into the body, is not used up.

So the glucose gets stored in the form of fat, especially in the cells around the abdomen, which absorb fat so readily. It is stored, easily available for the next emergency. But if the next emergency does not use up the glucose just created, it adds to the storehouse, if it can. You’ve heard of compound interest? Will this is a similar idea, but it’s doing it with stored fat in a human body — YOUR body.

Now the fatty cells have limits. You can fill them up. But then they send out signals to other cells to take over the fat absorption. Ouch!

This is just one aspect of your body’s response to stress. Overweight is the result.

Now overweight is often considered the “cause” of diabetes. But this would be wrong. Overweight is a sign of stress. Like diabetes, it is a symptom of a much broader problem.

Before you let worry kill you, remember that there are things you can control and things that are beyond your control. Knowing the difference and responding accordingly just might prolong your life much longer than you thought possible.