Herpes outbreaks and stress
Herpes, be it genital or oral, is a type of illness that manifests itself periodically in the form of outbreaks. There can be absolutely no symptoms between the outbreaks, giving the illusion that the trouble is gone. The herpes virus, however, remains in the body and, as soon as the conditions are favorable again, triggers another outbreak.
Among the causes leading to an outbreak, stress is the most likely. Of course, there are other factors to consider, such as dietary or weather, etc, but stress is the most obvious of them all. Given that stress itself is a complex phenomenon, we should consider what it means in this case. Generally speaking, there are two major aspects to it, both of them causing the body's immune system to slack and thus allowing the herpes virus to trigger another outbreak.
1. Stress as irritation
Under this category we could include all those negative feelings that annoy or irritate the person, such as frustrations at work or in the family. Perhaps fear and anger should also be classified here but only if they last ¨C getting angry at the post office would not cause a herpes outbreak. Part of the reason for this is that you can resolve the cause of your anger or frustration by walking out of the post office. But there are plenty of situations in life where the issues cannot be easily resolved and that is when one experiences stress.
2. Stress as fatigue
Being tired is another important factor that can lead to a herpes outbreak. Fatigue does not include physical exhaustion after jogging or a tennis match, but refers to a chronic feeling of not being able to rest. This can be a few days or even months.
Of course, often these two factors appear together in real life. For example, when one is working around the clock and just cannot get to the end of it, one becomes frustrated and tired at the same time. And this is the time when a herpes outbreak would occur. Of course, this aggravates the problems because now there is one more thing to be upset about.
It would be an easy solution to say that in order to minimize herpes outbreaks, one should eliminate stress. Don't get tired, don't worry too much about things. However, this can hardly be done in real life, since one is almost always busy and frustrated with something. This is modern life, especially in big cities. Still, a herpes outbreak might be useful in telling one to stop and let some steam off.
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