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The causes and effects of stress
The causes and effects of stress
The causes and effects of stress
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Stress is part of our lives. We live with it; deal with it, and above all worry about it. Our way of life, where we live, the state of the economy, daily life and our jobs can cause a great deal of stress. Not everyone deals with the same level of stress and there are several factors that can impact our lives and cause us to have higher or lower stress levels. The body's stress response can enhance a person's ability to perform well under pressure if it is functioning properly, however, the stress response can also be hazardous, causing serious problems if it overreacts or fails to reset itself properly. Many physiologists today also define stress as the body’s reaction to a stressor. However, what most people do not know is the negative effect of stress on the immune system. According to American Institute of Stress, 77% of the United States population experience physical symptoms caused by stress. Often times most of the people experiencing stress do not have a clue the “stress” (no pun intended) it is putting on their immune system. The immune system is a huge, complex system tha...
As most of us have experienced in our lives, especially in college, when we are most stressed out we all of a sudden seem to get sick easier and react to pain in more extreme ways. In this case, our psychological state seems to have much control over the functioning of our bodies (and immune system). For another example, consider the case of Mr. Wright as reported by Dr. Bruno Klopfer:
To a great extent, stress can be a helpful response, especially for prehistoric humans. During this era, our species needed to react quickly to outside stimuli through a response of “fight or flight”. Through stress, certain hormones are released to help the individual resist the stressor, which may have meant running away from a natural predator. Thus, stress is a positive response that ensures the survival of the species. However, stress over a prolonged period of time causes exhaustion in the individual. Consequently, although stress can be helpful for individuals today, many often experience chronic stress, inflicting varying degrees of damage to their bodies.
The purpose of this paper is to define stress and how it effects the body's physiological systems. This paper will include the normal functions and organs involved in the following five physiological systems, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, immune and musculoskeletal. This paper will also include a description of a chronic illness associated with each physiological system and how the illness is affected by stress.
There is overwhelming evidence that daily stress may be harmful to the overall health of humans (Cohen, Tyrrell, and Smith, 1991; Glaser, Rice, and Sheridan, 1987; and Schleifer, and Keller, 1991). The mechanism by which stress influences health outcomes is thought to involve the immune system.
Stress can come from any event or thought that makes us feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. All of us experience stress and usually cope with it well. Stress is an omnipresent part of life and is a reaction to external stimuli that disturb our physical or mental equilibrium. It is a system in our body that helps us to deal with real danger and / or perform at our best. Any event or happening that induces stress is called stressor.
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.
Initially, I had no idea what this course was about. From its title, I gathered that it would teach us how to help children develop social skills. During the summer, I decided to enroll in it because it was the last bridge course that I needed to take, in order to move onto Miami Dade College’s bachelor program. Yet, I had no idea how many great strategies I would learn and how many of my beliefs about education and children would change.
What is stress really? Is it just a chemical imbalance we have when “not wanting to do something” for the first or last time or maybe even the hundredth time? Stress like how we feel when we are running late stuck in traffic behind all these hundred cars trying to go to the same place. How we feel when life happens and we get sick the day before we have to go back to school or work. What we get anxiety about because we didn't do something to our fullest effort because we were “stressed” and had no time to do what we actually wanted or didn't fulfill the picture that was set in our head. What is being stressed? Is it today or tomorrow, next week, or for a few seconds, is stressed forever or is it just life?
Stress is “the body’s reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment or response.” Many people realize that stress has a great impact on psychological health; however, they do not realize that physical health can be compromised as well. When the body is put under stress, physiological changes take place, such as increased heart rate or blood pressure. Many individuals do not know the extent to which stress can impact their bodies because they cannot see the changes taking place. If stress is prolonged, physical symptoms may begin to arise. These symptoms are real; however, they may or may not be due to some sort of physical disorder. Stress-induced anxiety may begin to form within the individual because of a constant fear that they have a serious medical condition. The cycle will repeat itself with potentially worsening symptoms.
The relationship between stress and illness is intricate. People get stressed over various reasons. Some of the factors include adapting to a new environment or a group of people with different personalities, lack of social support during such situations can cause stress. Stress can have both negative and positive impacts to our health. "Some kinds of stress can be very short-term, that last only a matter of minutes, actually redistribute cells in the bloodstream in a way that could be helpful," says Suzanne Segerstrom (2012), an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky who has conducted studies on stress and the immune system (para.4).
Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.
Suppression of the Immunity System: stress causes the immune system of the body to be weakened because it fights of the stress from the stressor. This makes the body even more vulnerable to certain infections, like multiple sclerosis and arthritis. It has been discovered that stress slows the body’s rate of recovery from infections.
Despite that many don 't realize the dangers, stress is one of the most significant problems of modern times, causing serious problems on physical and mental health. Stress symptoms may be affecting a patients health, even though a doctor may not realize it. Don 't assume that an illness is to blame for that excruciating headache or your sleep deprivation. Let 's face it, everyone copes with stress. Sometimes stress is in our favor, but other times it could feel like stress is taking over. " Stress is a normal physical response your body uses to protect itself from challenges life throws at it each day"(Stress and Health: How Stress Affects Your Health) Stress affects everyone differently, so it 's important to understand what may be causing
Stress is something that everyone has to deal with in life, whether it is good or bad stress. Stress management techniques are a great way to deal with stress. Some of the stress management techniques that I learned from this course are prioritization, scheduling, and execution. Using these techniques has effectively helped me deal with my own stress. When it comes to dealing with stress I still have many strengths and weaknesses that I will explain. Some stressors I have in my life that I will discuss are psychointrapersonal, social, life events, and daily hassles. Next, I will give my opinion on my post-course survey, and compare and contrast it to my pre-course survey scores. Finally, I will explain my last goals for this stress management course.
Due to recent research on stress, it has shown that stress can be good for the body’s immune system. Having a good, strong immune system is very important to the body because it helps fight off sickness. Stress can also help with the brain. Some researchers say that by having stress, the brain can go through temporal boost in memory which can help with learning abilities (Department of Health & Human Services). By temporarily improving learning abilities, it can allow that person to become motivated to succeed with the task in hand. With stress, people can also accomplish their tasks more efficiently. This is because they have so much on their mind they need to get done and they do it with a since of urgency. Stress has both positive and negative situations depending on how it is looked at, but it can have positives in the end (5 Weird Ways Stress Can Actually Be Good for