How Stress Affects Your Heart Essay

Stress and anxiety in the average college student. Selye (1936) defined stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change” (The American Institute of Stress, 2017). Stress can lead to feelings of anxiety. Anxiety is a normal part of life, but can be considered a type of worry or fear that can inhibit everyday life. College students show higher stress/anxiety than average individuals. Major sources of stress are from new responsibilities, campus living, money issues, and classwork (Ross, Niebling, & Heckert, 1999). There have been a number of studies circled around how stress can affect college students. Females and males show differences in anxiety/stress in college. (Misra and McKean (2000)) found that females

Stress as defined by Dr. Laura A. King is “the response of individuals to environmental stressors”. The biggest types of environmental stressor that a majority of adults are facing, will face, or have faced, are college and work. College is a time in someone’s life where they are faced with what the “real world” truly is. It can be a great time in one’s life where they have the opportunity to meet new people, experience new things, and find themselves for who they truly are. It is also a time where people are spending hundreds of dollars, they don’t have, on books, housing, rentals, classes, and so much more; they are also being shoved into a room with possibly fifty other young adults, they have never met, to learn new things or ideas and

The effects of stress and heart disease is explained in a study Chida and Steptoe (2009), in which investigators looked at populations of people in healthy known areas, and assessed in total twenty five different studies. Anger and hostility has a positive relationship with coronary heart disease and was greater in men compared to women. Their findings also showed that individuals who had cardiac arrest and were resuscitated, twenty five percent admitted to feeling extremely stressed with work and family instances just twenty four hours before they had cardiac arrest. Daily activities that provoked moderate, acute stress demonstrated lower levels of blood supply to the hearts muscle. Deanfield et al. (1984)

Stress exists in every aspect of our lives. College students are overwhelmed with the acute and chronic stressors of college life. There are myriad factors that contribute to these stressors, but what’s important are the students’ ability to cope with stress in healthy ways and lower their cortisol levels strategies. Mental health is at a delicate stage during the college years (18-22). Students must meet their psychological and physiological needs, which pull them in many uncomfortable directions. Students must maintain a social life, academic standing, and personal hygiene to name a few. It is important that we know the affect of perceived happiness on cortisol levels.. We will assess the effect of perceived happiness on cortisol levels

Although gross medical advancements have allowed the human population to live longer and fuller lives without the threat of death from infectious diseases, it is apparent that we are now dealing with a different phenomenon that may be just as harmful to our health. The impact of psychological, social and environmental factors from our daily lives is having a drastic impression on the mental and physical wellbeing of our society. It has been shown in various studies that psychological and neurological factors influence the immune system and can have an effect on our health (Breedlove, Rosenzweig & Watson, 2010). As we allow various stressors, poisonous substances, unhealthy diets and lack of rest to overwhelm our existence, we are

Like many of the questionnaires utilized for research in the articles used for this literature review, it was anonymous, and administered and collected during class. This form of data collection provided high turn in rates allowing researchers to have a wide study scale. According to Hicks, T., & Heastie, S., contrasting levels of stress and coping mechanisms were present in these students. It was noted that traditional college students experience more psychological stress than their nontraditional student counterparts. In addition, during the first year of college, the amount of stress experienced by students is the highest in comparison to stress in the remainder of the years. These results are especially important because it stresses the need for a strong health and wellness center within colleges and universities.

That feeling of walking back from an exam or staying up all night cramming information is well known to any student who has been through college. It leaves one feeling overwhelmed like the week will never end. The feelings are held inside while friends and roommates accuse moodiness which leads to the meltdown that is inevitable. These times are a result of a common state known as stress. Stress is a condition in which the body responds to any kind of demand or threat caused by life factors which include pressure, work, school, major changes, and lack of sleep. This factor is very common in colleges, especially freshmen and can also be seen here at Trine University. Stress can affect both physical and mental conditions in the body, such as sleep patterns, eating habits, anxiety,

Stress is no new phenomenon. It’s been around as long as man and has captivated scholars and physicians alike. With the growing demand for degrees in the professional world comes the growth of the number of college students. The relationship between stress and college students has become the subject of on-going research. Several studies show that stress in college students is increasing with time and the authors of those studies are attributing this to an increased number of students. Other research seems to indicate that it isn’t necessarily the stress that is increasing but the awareness of it. Increased awareness of stress, and its unique toll on individuals, allows colleges and students to recognize

Over the recent decades the emerging importance that nutrition has on stress management in college students along with others has become a controversial topic all across different Universities and Public Institutions. Hence, for years, society has suspected that stress and nutrition are linked and now after so many years, scientific research has found evidence to support this connection. In an article by Fysekidis & Kouacou (2015), research suggest to help explain this link and, as more individuals become more aware of and gain a better understanding of these reasons, they may be better able to address the effects of stress and nutrition epidemic facing the United States. Amidst this obesity epidemic there has been many findings that support how stress and nutrition can be directly linked to obesity and what one can do to avoid eating unhealthy when times are tough. In article, by, Fysekidis & Kouacou (2015), cleverly presented their findings in four sections. Kathleen Smyth and Harold Koenig presented their first section by briefly sharing that by combining stress management and spiritual principles can be a healthy outlet for self-growth and learning to handle anything that comes one’s way which in turn helps reduce obesity levels and how it can be an important factor in reducing stress. Along with how it is also alarming since these practices are not commonly used. Kathleen Smyth and Harold Koenig, also goes into depth suggesting how college students that transition from

The effects of constant stress on a student’s body are devastating and may have long-term consequences. When stress escalates without coping with it, numerous troublesome psychological and physiological conditions may occur. First, the stressful life of college students may result in such physical problems as sleeping disorders, breathing difficulties, headaches, and a loss of appetite. In addition, fatigue, colds, weight change, teeth grinding, increased alcohol and drug use are also common. Unfortunately, stress is often linked to the immune system suppression. It increases the chances of altering any existing disease.

Psychological stress is pressure placed on a person to adapt, cope, or adjust to a situation (Rathus, 2016, p.284). The result of prolonged stress can affect a person’s mood, pleasure experience, and have harmful effects on physical health (Rathus, 2016, p.284). Society in the twenty first century places high demands on people. Technology makes it very difficult to separate work life, school life, and home life. Today, society places a high value on a busy lifestyle for individuals. For example, many places of business are open twenty-four hours a day. In addition to societal pressures, attending a university adds to the stressors a person may experience. Going to school not only includes classroom time but it also includes homework,

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),

The impact of stress among college students may have a negative impact on the student’s psychological health. Research indicates that depression rates in college students have been increasingly rising over the years. In 2012, a study was conducted by the National Survey of Counseling Centers which resulted in 91% of the researchers found an increase in students with psychological needs. To resolve college students’ stressors, Surgeon General and additional research studies propose that students who are more active exhibit a decrease in stress, anxiety, and depression. In order to improve and retain a healthy lifestyle, physical activity

Which collects the health statistics of students from universities all around the world every second year, reported that 40.2 percent of Santa Clara University students identified that stress affected their individual academic performance during the last 12 months of their studies (Temple,2011). Temple (2011) reported a survey conducted in 2004 that assessed the overall well-being of 47,202 undergraduates nationwide. The findings were that 32.4 percent of students recognized stress as the main obstacle to their academic performance. This was said to be above the common cold, depression, death of a relative, sexual assault and eating disorders. Stress is “once considered as the nation’s number one health epidemic; prolonged stress can lead to ulcers, heart disease, stroke, major depression and to a shorter life span” (Temple, 2011).

The aim of this study is to outline the relationship between life stress and lifestyle habits in under graduate students enrolled in first year psychology at Brock University. It is apparent that an increase in stress levels is related to a decrease in healthy habits and behaviours. To conduct the study, 823 psychology students filled out the Lifestyle and Habits Questionnaire-brief version (LHQ-B) and the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRSS) to develop a perception of their lifestyle habits and to calculate their total Life Change Unit (LCU) based on major life events that occurred within the last year. The results of the LHQ-B and the SRSS indicate that there is a very weak positive correlation between stress levels and unhealthy behaviours, therefore the relationship is not significant. Due to the outcomes of the data collection, further research is encouraged to develop a more detailed survey to determine the specific levels of stress that students are under, and to prevent self-evaluation bias that may have impacted the results of this study.