Stress, Portrait Of A Killer

The Science of Stress is an informative video by National Geographic detailing the body response to stress. Stress is the body’s way of getting itself prepared to face a challenge. It is constant problem that everyone has to deal with. It was originally meant to aid our survival, but over time it has become dangerous and lethal to our well being. National Geographic’s video gives us a scientific view of what goes on in our bodies when experiencing stress and its effects on it.

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

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.

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers is a book about the physiology of stress. It gets into great detail about what exactly is going on inside the body during periods of high stress, and also what short and long term affects are caused by that stress. The first chapter give a brief description of each chapter in the rest of the book. Each subsequent chapter explains different stressors, levels of stress, and hormonal responses to stress. Many of the chapters also include research and discoveries on how stress affects the human body, many of which are somewhat recent discoveries, only occurring in the last one hundred years or so. Robert Sapolsky is able to explain to his readers much about the physiology of stress and how endocrinology plays the most

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 video “Stress Portrait of a Killer” was enlightening. The correlation between each individual’s placement in the hierarchy and their level of stress was not surprising. In fact, it made a great deal of sense. When one is on the lower end of the spectrum, it is a reasonable to anticipate higher levels of stress than when one is at the higher end. The latter, has more control over what is happening in their lives which in turn eliminates that stress. What I found most interesting, is that stress lowers the body’s immunity. I had no idea that the brain cuts non-essential systems like the immune system when stress is present. I found this fact fascinating and rather concerning. For as long as I can remember, I have been very susceptible to

Kelly McGonigal discusses the importance of viewing stress as positive, as opposed to negative, by detailing three specific studies and findings about stress. In the first study, it was discovered that people with a significant amount of stress had a higher mortality rate; however, this was only statistically significant if the subject viewed stress as harmful. If the overly-stressed subject didn’t view stress as harmful, they were actually at the lowest risk of dying, even compared to those with a minimal amount. Therefore, it is important to change a person’s perspective of stress. In particular, McGonigal emphasizes that stress is important for a person’s body: it energizes and prepares them to meet whatever challenge they are facing. Furthermore, it helps the blood vessels remain relaxed, thereby allowing the heart to remain healthy.

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

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

If a large majority of individuals view stress as their enemy, this can severely take a toll on their health throughout their lifetime, and even cause their life to be shortened prematurely. As the lecture illustrates, 43 percent of people who believe stress as harmful had an increased risk of dying. An obstacle or barrier that might hinder this improvement would be human nature, because it’s easy for human to get stressed and be clouded with thoughts to be able to solve the issue of handling stress. On the other hand, to solve the obstacles the society needs to be educated on how to make stress their friend. Also, introducing mechanism within their life to reduce stress, and urge others to see stress as a positive thing rather than a negative. Thus causing society to live a healthier physical and mental lifestyle in the

Perceived stress may have an impact on an individual’s overall health. Many believe higher perceived stress would lead to more detrimental health impacts or vice versa. However, previous studies have presented mixed results.

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 one of the number one causes that contribute to people’s health problems. According to Weber.edu, “in Healthy People 2000, a report from the U.S.

The last chapter we read from Sapolsky was about managing stress. It's interesting to me because as I was reading this my thought process revolved around that there are many many ways to manage stress. the key is you really just need to find what works for you. Sapolsky points out that if you're the lowest on the totem pole it's going to be harder to manage stress. He also points out that if you live in poverty it's going to be harder. However, it isn't impossible. You just need to find what works for you. At the beginning of this class, my boss was working insane hours, she was taking work home, and it seemed to be stressing her out. At that time, I started making remarks about her self-care and how I was hoping she was taking care of herself.