Stress As A Determinant Of Health Essay

Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., & Siegel, S. D. (2005). STRESS AND HEALTH: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1,

“The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life” (World Health Organisation (WHO), 2009). The social determinants of health can be divided into 5 categories, age, sex and hereditary factors, individual lifestyle factors, social and community networks, living and working conditions and general socioeconomic, cultural and

Society defines stress as anything which forces us to change. Through technical terms stress is defined as “a negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as taking or exceeding a person’s resources or ability to cope.” To explaining stress researchers came up with the “Cognitive appraisal model”, this system works to tell us whether we believe we have enough resources to deal with the situation without becoming stressed. For instance as a now college student those who have had previous experience taking finales in high school can have less stress than those who have not taken it. This is because they have previous experience with taking the tests and learning how to study while those who have never taken one can become extremely stressed over the unknown of the test. Stress is one of the sub branches that is attached to the world of health psychology. Health psychology is a quickly growing branch that deals with the way the mind and body work together. Psychologists that work in the health field came up with the biopsychosocial model. This model explains the complex interaction with biological, psychological, and social factors.

When thinking about Evicted and the different chapters we have learned about in class, the first chapter that came to my mind as relating most to Evicted was the chapter Stress and Health. Many topics in that chapter appeared in the book and related to many of the problems that the characters were facing in Evicted. The characters in the book had stressors that affected them in their daily lives, which also caused many health problems in the long run.

Substantial progress has been made by academic researchers to gain insight into social determinants of health. Consequently, the Centre for Urban Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe approached the International Centre for Health and Society at University College Hospital London to help summarise research work on social determinants of health in ten messages with the main aim of translating research advances into action (Marmot and Wilkinson, 2005). The ten messages were subsequently published as The Solid Facts (Wilkinson and Marmot 2005) which include stress, social gradient, early life, social exclusion, work, unemployment, social support, addiction, food and transport. The aim of this brief essay is to demonstrate the impact of stress as a social determinant of health.

Causes of Stress Introduction So, what causes the stress that can be so bad for you? Some people may have a nervous system that goes into a stress reaction more readily than others. This could be due to individual differences in genetics and brain chemistry.

Stress is a physiological reaction of the body where different defense mechanisms get into it to affront a difficult situation that could be perceived as threatening or critical by the body.

Existence of distinct links between psychological stressors and a persons’ overall health have been proven through various objective studies. The degree of the stress response can also be directly linked to the severity of its effects. Specific research indicates that stress is related to increased risk of improper immune system functioning, liver disease, and coronary artery disease.

Stress has significant effect on physical health especially our heart. Studies have proven time and again that the chronic stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system which happens in ‘flight or fight response’ has far reaching consequence on the neuro endocrine system. The stress hormone alter the way blood clots, increasing rates of atherosclerosis which block

Can stress affect a person’s health? It’s a very good question. There have been a lot of studies done on the effects of stress on health. Stress comes in so many forms and can affect people differently. Some short-term types of stresses can actually benefit the immune system while other long-term types of stresses can be detrimental to it. The long-term types of stresses are what will be focused on. Learning how to deal with stress in better ways can help prevent the damage it can have on your body and your mind.

The aim of the present study was to analyse both UCMS and CRS paradigms and to compare possible behavioural differences between these models of chronic stress. The changes in the anxiety-like and depressive behaviours were evaluated using the open-field test, elevated plus maze test, novelty suppressed feeding test, tail-suspension test (TST), forced-swim test (FST) and sucrose preference

When looking at stress as it pertains to health and wellness, one must have a clear understanding as to what stress is and how it can affect a person. Stress can be caused due to something physical, psychological, or behavioral that the person has encountered. A person can experience stress that is both good and bad. Good stress can help a person boost their energy and give them more alertness. A baseball player may experience good stress. This stress can make them more alert and actually help them make a better play. Unfortunately, not all stress is good and if the bad stress goes untreated, it can be very harmful. If a person allows stress to go untreated, it can make the person develop health problems such as heart disease and/or anxiety problems.

Psychological stress is a result of many factors and should be dealt with very carefully. Stress can be defined as “An excess of demand made upon the adaptive capabilities of the mind and body”.(Joseph 1). Another way of putting it, is that there are some things that put certain demands on us. The effects of stress should not be limited to unpleasant emotional states. Many studies have concluded that the effects on our physical health from stress can be extremely detrimental. These adverse physical effects include heart disease and formations of cancer. There are also some societal issues that psychological stress can hamper.

As we learned in class, stress is any force that changes the body’s natural state, known as homeostasis. Stress does not always have to be viewed as a bad thing. For example, stress can motivate someone to study for an exam or plan ahead in his or her agenda to stay organized. Its only when stress manifest out of control and is not addressed properly that it can have very negative effects on both our mental and physical health. Reflecting on the document we watched in class, Stress: Portrait of a Killer, I was surprised to learn more about baboons correlating to human beings stress management and how you position as individual in the hierarchy of life has in effect on the levels of stress you may endure.

      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).