The Nervous System, Cardiac Electrophysiology And The Brain

There are three different theories that are used when talking about how we react to stress through the physiological aspect or the psychological aspect. The first is part of the physiological aspect of stress called the Cannon Fight or Flight theory which was proposed in 1914. Fight or Flight response is a physiological stress response that evolved to help organisms to survive immediate danger. The theory states that when an organism, human being or animal, faces imminent danger (acute stressor) the body arouses quickly and is ready to act via two different systems. They are the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla which is part of the endocrine system and is the region that produces the hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones increase heart rate, blood flow, and glucose levels to prepare the body for an emergency. This response from the body suggests that the body knows how to protect itself and reach homeostasis. These two systems work together to either fight against the danger or flight away from the danger. Lord, King and Pfister in 1976 studied the Fight or Flight response in animals through a very unethical study. They administered chemicals on male hooded Wistar rats which inhibited the neurotransmitters from functioning normally. This made it very difficult for the rats to escape an electric shock. The results of the study suggest that the Flight or Fight response

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,

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between various psychological responses (mood, emotion and coping) and the sympathetic nervous system response to an acute stress challenge. This will help understand the underlying mechanisms in the stress-ill-health relationship and will increase the knowledge about how psychological aspects may reduce physiological responses. Therefore, the collected knowledge will help form future interventions.

By providing an example of patients who have several mental disorders such as depression, bipolar, and neurotic problems, “were twice as likely to have a stroke or experience heart disease that the general population” (Gregorie). She also added, “cardiologist showed how stress can trigger neurological and psychological changes that create the conditions for heart attacks” (Gregorie). With providing this information, Gregorie painted the basic overview of how depression and heart disease can cause one

Every behavior begins with biology. Our behaviors, as well as our thoughts and feelings, are produced by the actions of our brains, nerves, muscles, and glands. In this chapter we will begin our journey into the world of psychology by considering the biological makeup of the human being, including the most remarkable of human organs—the brain. We’ll consider the structure of the brain and also the methods that psychologists use to study the brain and to understand how it works.

Once your brain has decided there’s a danger, in stressful situations, it sends immediate nerve signals down your spinal cord to the pituitary gland and all the ways to the kidneys where your adrenal gland resides, which is how adrenaline is released. Once released, adrenaline increases the amount of sugar in your blood, increases your heart rate and raises your blood pressure. The brain’s hypothalamus also sends signals to your pituitary gland, which allows the body to release Cortisol: Cortisol is a stress response that allows the blood and sugar pressure to remain high, which helps when escaping from danger. For instance, in an interview, which presents a challenge, simulated the same biological reaction that a threat to your life does.

Although a range of previous findings on stress physiology suggest that stress may have ameliorating or detrimental capacities, the possible connections between stress and diseases remain hotly debated despite its wide acceptability (Esch, 2002). Based on this premise, researchers have in recent years intensified investigation on the role of stress in various diseases such as neurological, mental, epidemiological, and cardiac diseases to mention but a few. Particularly, researchers in the field of stress research have been more concerned about the underlying mechanisms and pathophysiological pathways by which the onset of diseases are potentially influenced by stress, this domain however continues to be widely studied. For instance, it is believed that stress represents a major complicating factor in neurological illness and

Chapter 6 covers the fundamentals of stress disorders. After reading this chapter discussing the fight and flight response, psychological stress disorders and physical stress disorders, I have a better concept of this subject itself. Our fight and flight response is trigger by our hypothalamus, which sends off neurons and chemical for our mind and bodies to react. As discussed in class, the autonomic nervous system control the involuntary activities like heartbeat and breathing. The sympathetic nervous system is aroused when we face danger (THE FIGHT). For example, the sympathetic nervous system makes our heart beat faster when we are scared. The parasympathetic nervous system (THE FLIGHT) help make us calm, like regulating our heartbeats.

In an effort to increase cardiac output, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, through baroreceptors in the aortic arch, as an early compensatory mechanism which provides inotropic support and maintains cardiac output (Cadwallader, 2013; Yelle & Chaudhry, 2016). These compensatory mechanisms include increased heart rate, myocardial remodeling, and increased fluid volume. Chronic sympathetic activation eventually increases the stress placed on the heart and causes further weakening in cardiac function (Markaity, 2012; Yelle & Chaudhry, 2016).

In the 2015 JACC: Heart Failure paper, Finocchiaro et al. investigated the effects of stress-induced cardiomyopathy (SCM) on right ventricular function. SCM is a reversible type of cardiomyopathy observed in patients without significant coronary disease. It is most observed in postmenopausal woman and is triggered by acute emotional or physical stress. They conducted a

The primary purpose of the article was to discuss how stress affects the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex. According to Watson and Breedlove, there are changes evident in the amygdala if they suffer from recurrent panic attacks. The article specifically stated the role of amygdala when the prefrontal cortex shut down, introducing an entirely new perspective to the role of the amygdala in the brain when the brain is stressed. The article suggests that the amygdala takes over when the prefrontal cortex shut down due to stress, while the textbook simply provides a cursory explanation that explains the correlation between panic attacks and the amygdala. Moreover, the article specifically describes the role of the pyramidal cells in the brain, ultimately contributing to the overarching theme of the article.

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)

The heart is one of the most important organs in an organism’s body, no matter if they are aquatic, amphibian, or a mammal. This super organ works automatically, able to pump massive amounts of oxygen rich blood through the body by means of electrical impulses and the opening and closing of valves within its many layers. It is what keeps us and every other creature on this earth alive; so it is only natural for one to fear when there might be a problem with one’s heart. A cardiac arrhythmia can happen to anyone, no matter the age, race, or gender, and as such, doctors and scientist have spent years trying to better understand the heart and the way it functions so that they can try to prevent these problems and save millions of lives.

Patients with the cardiovascular disease tend to have a weak heart muscle. Wahlstrom and Colleagues (2017) explored the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) in patients with the cardiovascular disease. Generally, atrial fibrillation is provoked by stress and anxiety. They found that yoga practiced by their 80 participants for 12 weeks showed an improvement in the heart rate, decreasing the progression of arrhythmia and the remodeling of atria. By performing yoga regularly, these participants were able to maintain their stress level low by activating the parasympathetic system. After 12 weeks post study, the patients who performed yoga afterwards were found to have 24% decrease conducting atrial fibrillation than those who did not do yoga on regular basis. Their conduction of atrial fibrillation was only six percent. Yoga practice was shown to decrease blood pressure, improve endothelial function, and reduce inflammation (Lakkireddy, 2013).