The Effects Of Stress On Stress And Health

Stress Is the body’s way of responding to the hectic lives most of us live, whether good or bad. The body releases chemicals into the bloodstream, which creates a rush of energy and strength If an individual is feeling stressed. This energy can prove useful if an individual is in physical danger. Because it enables a person’s survival instinct kicks in; it is often described as ‘fight or flight.’ In addition, stress can also have a negative effect on the body, for example: suffering from stress and leaving it unchecked can contribute to health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

The human body reacts externally or internally in the way of physiological responses. When we experience one of these stressors the physiological responses job is to prepare the body to deal either by adapting to it or simply surviving it. This can promote a functional alteration in the organs normal function.

When put under stress, both humans and baboons have cortisol and adrenaline found in their blood. These hormones are critical for survival, and other physical changes in the body such as a racing heart, increased blood pressure, and quickly responding muscles are all present when the body is put under stress. However, in regard to humans, these same physical responses can occur when the body is not in a life in death situation. Instead, it is common for psychological stresses such as public speaking, taking a test, paying taxes, or driving a vehicle to invoke the same physiological responses as someone in a critical situation. This can be unhealthy for the human body, as many people can get worked up over multiple stressors in one day,

Stress affects health in a number of ways. It is defined by James (2011) as pressure or tension that comes in many shapes and forms and furthermore the body and mind in particular reacts psychologically and even emotionally.

Animals and Humans have a biological stress response intended to facilitate survival in the case of a life threatening attack or severe illness. This is commonly referred to the “fight or flight” response. Some primates, including humans have developed the unhealthy propensity to trigger this response for psychological or social reasons. Humans in particular experience the stress response exponentially more often for psychological reasons than for the purpose of survival (Stress, 2008). For example, we are may feel “stressed out” about work or school and if we think about it too much and get upset, we may experience a stress response Just by thinking about something that is bothering us, we can trigger the biological “fight or flight”

Our bodies are in homeostatic balance and the addition of stress causes an imbalance. Recall the issues that arise when our bodies deviate from homeostasis.

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.

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 documentary “Stress the Portrait of a killer” was quite interesting. This documentary teaches you about stress and the effects it has on both animals and humans. Stress plays a huge factor on our daily lives. There are two hormones that are the workhorses of the whole stress response. These hormones are the adrenaline and glucocorticoids and they tend to come out along with each other. However, there happens to be positive and negative stress. For instance, roller coaster rides are considered to be positive stress. In addition, fat can be considered as negative stress because fat that is brought on by stress is known as dangerous fat. Ultimately, there are different levels and outcomes of stress.

Stress is the body’s way to respond to the environment we live. Stress can be both good and bad. For example physical stress the stress you feel in a dangerous situation when something or someone is going to harm you. This is the good stress. This stress sends signals to the brain so the body can release that adrenal pumping energy to run this is called fight or flight.

Stress is the body’s way of responding to any sort of demand or threat. When one feels intimidated, the nervous system react by releasing an enormous amount of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which awaken the body for emergency response. The heart pounds faster, breath fastens, blood pressure increases, and the senses sharpen. These physical changes increase the reaction time, strengthen the focal point, and increase the stability and endurance. This is known as the “fight or flight” response and is the body’s way of protecting oneself.

This is because when corticosteroids are released into the body they stop the production of lymphocytes, which leads to the thymus gland shrinking. The thymus gland is then unable to produce t-cells which play an important role in the immune system and preventing illness (T. Fowler 2015). Short term immunosuppression is not dangerous to the body, when someone is stressed short term they are more likely to fall ill with not so serious illnesses such as catching a cold or flu, suffering with headaches, and even just generally feeling run down. These are an indirect effect of stress because of immunosuppression. However long term immunosuppression will leave the body open to infections and diseases (Cardwell, Clark and Meldrum 2000) such as coronary heart disease, ulcers, and other stomach problems. This has been proven by a study conducted on medical students, they were required to give blood sample 1 month before and immediately after their exams. The results were that the naturel killer (NK) cell activity was dramatically reduced in the blood samples taken after the exams, this was even lower for participants who reported stressful life events and loneliness. This study is

Stress affects the body in many different ways. Many doctors estimate that stress is involved in more than half of all illnesses (Sapolsky, 21). Stress may cause or prolong an illness or increase its severity. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are hormones that are released during a stress reaction that affect organs throughout the body. As a result from the hormones being secreted, the heart begins to beat more rapidly, muscle tension increases, blood pressure raises, and heavy breathing may occur. This reaction is known as the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight response energizes the body to either confront or flee from a threat. Heredity, learning, and injuries all play a role in determining where or when a stress related illness may occur in a particular individual (Sapolsky, 22).

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,

      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).