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. In the documentary I learned a lot about how dominant male baboons has lower stress levels which in turn, made these baboon relativity healthier compared to their other members of their group. The baboons who had higher stress levels also has high blood pressure, not as good immune system, and a poor reproductive system. This just goes to show the position the baboons held in their hierarchy related to their health and ultimately, their life span. This idea that stress is related to poor health and life expectancy is not only true for baboons, but for human beings as well. I know from prior experiences when i get stress I tend to get really sick. When the end of the semester comes around, I get overwhelmed with papers, last minute assignments, and finals to study. I was
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
Dr. Sapolsky’s research also shed light on the relationship between hierarchy and stress. Some baboon troops have over 100 members; baboons have also evolved large brains that allow them to navigate complex social interactions, so hierarchies within troops developed as a result. Cunning, aggressive males dominate the top positions. Overall, one’s place in the social ladder dictated whom they could mate with, kill and torture. Naturally Dr. Sapolsky’s blood samples revealed that a baboon’s rank determined the level of stress hormone in his blood. So if a baboon is a dominant male, his stress hormones were low; submissive baboons had high levels of stress hormones. Low ranking baboons had increased heart rates and higher blood pressure, as well as poor immune and reproductive
The film “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” shows how dangerous if stress stay longer in our life that will can effect on our health in many different way. Today people have a hard time to turning stress off as they have to cope with their daily life. This film points out the effect of stress on our body. It will shrink our brain, add fat to our belly, and unravel our chromosomes. So if we understand how stress work can help us figure out ways to protect our health and avoid the danger of stress.
The National Geographic film, A Portrait of a Killer, examines the types of stress that living beings can endure, and how it can thus affect the rest of their bodies. Severe chronic stress can lead even lead to the destruction of brain cells. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a neurobiologist of Stanford University who has been researching stress for over thirty years. In order to study stress and its implications upon nonhumans, he went to Africa to study baboons. This species has only three hours of stress caused by eating, and the rest of their daily routine is consumed by about nine hours of free time. Much like Western society, baboons socially stress out one another, as they have social hierarchies to regulate how them interact with one another.
The documentary, Stress, Portrait of a Killer, examined how stress is known to kill, yet humans still believe they are invincible. Dr. Robert Sapolsky studied primates in Africa in order to learn about what effects stress has on the body. Interestingly, he found that the baboons who were considered to have a higher rank actually had lower stress hormones in their blood. Conversely, the baboons who were considered to be low rankers actually had elevated stress hormones, increased heart rate, and a higher blood pressure—all of which lead to deteriorating health. Furthermore, the documentary uncovered that weigh and weight distribution is directly related to stress which is unfortunate because the more weight you gain, the more you stress! More
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.
People are increasingly facing more stress since the Human-Being society became developed and complicated, by ignoring the physical influence to our body, Human’s health suffered considerably from stress. Many people was suggested to solve the stress problem by using psychological approaches, however, the research in recent decades has identified a significant awareness gap between the benefits of physical activities and stress relief. The following paper is aiming at exploring how stress affects physical health and how to relieve stress physically.
Stress is a very common everyday thing. People have stress so much that most of the time they don’t even know how much it’s affecting them. Stress can really affect your body, mind, and behavior. It is a normal response to situations that make you feel upset or threatened in a way. Stress is the body’s way of change. The change can either be good or bad.
This episode features Stanford University’s Neurobiologist, Robert Sapolsky, who has a high understanding of stress and how it affects our not just our health, but our bodies. The main point Robert is conveying to the audience states that stress leads to serious health consequences, such as high blood pressure, weakened immune system, fatigue, development of fat and even the shortening of life expectancy. Robert Sapolsky researches the science behind human stress by exploring non-human primates, the baboons in their natural habitat in Kenya, Africa. After thirty years of research, Sapolsky believes that baboons are apparently the perfect source of exemplifying human stress because they are naturally aggressive toward one another, including their offspring, and the pain and stress factors appear to be the same in humans; especially dealing with stressful jobs and verbally abusive bosses. In the baboon’s case, if you are a full-controlled male, you can expect lower stress levels, and if you are the submissive, abused baboon, the stress level can be much higher. The only way Robert can take a look at the serious health consequences related to human stress in the baboon is by taking the unsuspecting submissive monkey’s blood and examining the stress hormones in the lab. The results of a submissive baboon revealed high blood
In the documentary Stress: Portrait of a Killer, neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky explores the drastic effects of stress on your body and brain. Sapolsky shows how sustained, excessive stress causes not only mental deterioration but also compromises the immune system and consequently your ability to fight off diseases. Sapolsky has studied wild baboons in Kenya for over a decade and has made several groundbreaking discoveries about the correlation of stress and overall health. By monitoring baboon behavior and analyzing their hormone levels, Sapolsky has found that high stressed baboons have higher levels of adrenalin and glucocorticoids. Interestingly enough, Sapolsky also discovered that social hierarchy had a direct correlation to the amount of stress
It is one thing to want to get a rush of adrenaline from riding a rollercoaster but another thing to be bogged down by loads of paper work, deadlines, and constant worry. In the film “Stress, Portrait of a Killer” a researcher shows exactly how stress can lead to an unhappy/unhealthy lifestyle resulting in a quicker death. This film focuses on showing the impact stress on the body. Dr. Sapolsky studies baboons for over 20 years and with careful research shows how stress causes weight gain and even unravel your chromosomes. He points out that stress is not only affecting the human race but also baboons and other animals. A key finding discussed in the film is how hierarchy/social rank has a relationship with stress level. Being lower on the
Human beings are more complex than any other creatures in the world. We need to ruminate about almost everything that we do in our lives. As a result, our stress level are much higher than any other primates. Even though we know that stress is very harmful for our body, but we simply cannot avoid the stress. In the film, Stanford University neurobiologist Dr. Sapolsky shows the hazardous effects of prolonged stress in our everyday lives. Dr. Sapolsky’s baboon study help us understand the complex human society. By changing our attitude toward our stress can make a huge difference in positively dealing with our stress.
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,
A substantial amount of Canadians experience stress in their lives. In fact, nearly one-quarter of the population over the age of 15 are stressed on a daily basis (Statistics Canada, 2013). Stress can be defined as a mental and emotional state of tension, in which one perceives the environment around them to be strenuous and overwhelming. Although some stress is necessary for survival, it can adversely affect both the physical and mental health. Its detrimental effects include but are not limited to: lack of confidence, concentration, motivation, decision making and increased heartrate, sweating, tension, as well as other physical and psychological problems such as headaches and insomnia (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2015). These health complications strongly emphasize the need for further research in ways to cope with, and reduce stress. Henceforth, the purpose of this paper is to use established research to better understand stress, then propose my own study that would investigate another stress-reduction method.
Stress is also linked low fertility in one’s reproductive organs, and can cause problems during pregnancy or one’s menstrual cycle (www.everydayhealth.com). This happens when one is overwhelmed with the stress he or she is going through in their lives. No one person is the same, meaning stressors as well as stress levels differ for each individual. This is why it is hard for scientists to reach the core because it is a subjective sensation related with a variety of symptoms that differ for each of us. Because of this, stress is not always a synonym for distress. Situations like a steep roller coaster ride that cause fear and anxiety for some can prove highly pleasurable for others (www.stress.org). Each person also responds to stress differently. There are numerous physical as well as emotional responses to stress. Stress can cause an ocean of different emotions that are often times unpredictable. It can have wide ranging effects on people’s emotions, mood and behavior (www.stress.org). Stress has said to have been America’s number one leading health problem. It has been shown that stress levels have escalated in children, teenagers, college students and the elderly for reasons that of which have lead to: increased crime, violence, and other threats to personal safety; pernicious peer pressures that lead to substance abuse and other unhealthy life style habits; social isolation and loneliness; the erosion of family and religious