Prolonged stress is bad for us in many ways. It produces toxic chemicals such as cortisol that kills brain cells, and I presume is toxic for neurons elsewhere in the body, but I don't know that for a fact. Stress also pulls blood away from the extremities toward the core of our body. This depletes peripheral nerves of oxygen and other nutrients.

The purpose of all this--When you are being attacked, a legitimate time for stress, you want the blood supplying the brain, heart, lungs, etc. but away from the extremities where wounds are likely to occur. But when this is chronic, not a good thing.

To combat stress, looking into some relaxation techniques such as Yoga, guided imagery, meditation, etc. You might go to your local library or search your library online for CDs with keywords "meditation, "guided imagery", etc. Dr. Andrew Weil has a few of these that I have listened to. There are also gobs of videos on youtube, but not sure of their quality.

When you relax your body, blood flow will increase to your extremities and their temperature will actually rise. A psychologist came to our of our PN support group meetings and demonstrated this.

Good luck.
Ron