How Does Cortisol Affect The Body During Times Of Stress? Essay

Stress is very well known for just what it means: STRESS. Its effect on human beings from a local and a global standpoint is far greater than any of us imagine. Stress can overtake one’s body physically, mentally, emotionally, as well as behavioral aspects. This is not something to take lightly. This is actually very serious. If you notice, it’s not just older people that die this day and time with heart attacks, suicide, and things of this nature. People of all ages. Older people, younger people, and even really young people. Children, yes, I said children. Don’t automatically think that stress only affects older people that have lived a longer

In an acute stressor, the immune system is heightened. But is suppressed in a chronic stressor. In this situation the cortisol levels rise, and weaken the immune system. This weaken system can make the human body more susceptible to serious disease, infections

The biological purpose of the stress response is to help the body to survive either some sort of attack or a serious illness like a stroke or heart attack. During the stress response glucocorticoids divert the bodies energy to the areas necessary for survival like the muscles and the brain and it shuts down the areas that are not necessary for survival like the digestive and immune systems (Sopolsky, 2009). Chronic Stress in this context, is to experience this physical effect on regular or long term basis. This has become a public health issue for humans because we experience this chronic biological response on a too frequent a basis for psychological reasons (Stress, 2008).

Stress is natural and not necessarily a negative issue. Stress is a signal of change, whenever there is some significant change in one's life; it results to some level of stress in the body system. According to Smith (2008), Stress is a natural biological response to threat or luck of control in ones life. When the human brain perceives a threat, it sends messages to the adrenal glands, which in turn releases hormones that cause the body to be alert. One of these hormones is cortisol. Cortisol is a home that helps the body by reestablishing energy supplies, enhancing memory as well as the immune system. This hormonal activity in the body halts digestion and raises blood sugar level,

Stress is known to negatively impact health. Psychological responses, such as mood, emotion and coping, influence the way we perceive stress and the impact it has on the physiological response (Chida & Hamer, 2008). Past studies have used the hormone cortisol to test the stress response(Dickerson &

Most people have heard about cortisol and that it is related to both stress and to weight gain, but not a lot of people understand much about it beyond that. It is actually a hormone that is released naturally by your adrenal glands. This happens naturally when you are under stress. The point of it is to help your body respond to what is going on around you. The trouble occurs when the levels stay high for too long. When people remain in a constant state of stress, they have increased cortisol levels. This, in turn, can cause health problems. Some of the problems that this can cause or exacerbate are weight gain, disrupted sleep, high blood pressure, low energy, and a bad mood.

Cortisol is vital in maintaining bodily homeostasis. Some roles of cortisol include, maintaining blood pressure, slowing down the immune system 's inflammatory response and helping the body to respond to stress.

Cortisol also can cause insulin resistance, leading to diabetes mellitus. Osteoporosis and pathological fractures result from cortisol’s catabolic effect on bone. (Williams, L., & Hopper, P.,

Stress can get bad enough to where it starts to affect your body system. Things like depression, heart attacks, diseases, rashes and a low immune system can all occur to people dealing with stress bad enough. The number of common signs and symptoms is outrageous and is depressing to see that there are so many people dealing with this and how it’s such a common thing in this world. On stress.org, they talk about the different body systems and how they’re affected. The nervous, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastro and reproductive systems are all affected in some way and in many ways to say the least. If your stress ever gets so bad, I consider seeing a doctor or specialist seeing how dangerous this can get.

A person suffers from Cushing’s syndrome when there are large proportions of cortisol in his body. Cortisol is a hormone, which is created by the adrenal glands. Cortisol is very helpful for the human, but big amounts of her can damage the human body. It has the ability to help people in stressful circumstances, such as a trauma or illness. It is generated at varying rates during the day, with higher amounts in the morning and less during the night. Cushing’s syndrome produces high cortisol levels whatever the cause or time.

Getting sick is another negative factor of being overly stressed. Chronic stress compromises your immune system and stress hormones affect the body’s ability to fight off illness due to the fact that thymus’s ability to stimulate and coordinate the white blood cell activity.

The obvious negative side effects of stress and high levels of cortisol have been illustrated time and time again. Unfortunately, many of these health issues can lead to a state of severe emotional stress which can turn into a dangerous downward spiral that may lead to self harm or even suicide.

Chronic stress can also interfere with the body’s immune system directly through hormonal changes. Glucocorticoids-a hormone

Psychological and physical well-being and the overall quality of life are under a constant threat of stress and thus, psychological and medical sciences have long been concerned with studying stress response. Cox (1979) claimed that because of the poor understanding and defining it, the concept of stress tends to be rather elusive. The term, “stress”, commonly describes any physchological or physical alteration that deranges the organism’s homeostasis (or balance). This essay reviews some of the biological factors involved in stress and it has been organized in the following way. The paper begins by briefly introducing the concept of stress. It will then go on to discus and describe the automatic response (fight or flight reaction),

      Stress can cause many things that affect a healthy body.  Stress causes quick yet shallow breathing in which case, the body's cells are being deprived of oxygen.  Stress will increase cholesterol levels and can also cause indigestion, heartburn, a decreased sex drive, and also arteriosclerosis (the hardening of the arteries).  While these symptoms may seem minimal, stress can decrease the activity of white blood cells.  Since the white blood cells fight off sicknesses and diseases, the immune system is affected by stress and can make the body more susceptible to colds, viruses, flues, and diseases (Morrison 2).