Stress as a Social Determinant of Health

1765 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: essay introduction to what is stress.

A) Can stress ever be a positive social determinant of health?

Stress a term used to describe the human response to pressure when faced with challenges or even dangerous situations, resulting in an increase in our energy and alertness, a prolonged exposure to stressful stimuli can lead to harmful effect on health, a functional definition of stress may be hard to establish, the research of stress probably started with Selye Hans (1956) using the term “stress” in his book “the stress of life” referring to stress as the unpleasant environmental events and the physiological reaction toward it, examining the effect of anxious but different physical and emotional stimuli on laboratory animals, suggesting that persistence exposure to stress caused these animals to develop diseases similar to those seen in humans.

The Solid facts document of the World Health Organization (2003) identifies stress as a powerful social determinants of health, indicating the harmful effect of the prolonged hormonal, physiological response to stressful stimuli, on the cardiovascular and immune systems of the human body.

Eustress

When Selye first defined stress he has carefully distinguished between the stressors and the physiological and emotional reaction toward the stress (stress reaction), differentiating between the cause and consequence, the term eustress, was developed by Selye to describe the positive and healthy cognitive response to stress, providing the humans with the drive and motivation to achieve tasks and accomplish goals, when the challenge is addressed, eustress is correlated with positive life satisfaction and well-being.

Eustress is how stress can have a positive impact on our health and well-being, by overcoming the stressor and...

... middle of paper ...

...rs, (2006). Work stress in the etiology of coronary heart disease a meta-analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 32(6), 431--442.
Lupien, S., McEwen, B., Gunnar, M., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behavior and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 434--445.

McLeod, S. A. (2010). Stress, Illness and the Immune System. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/stress-immune.html

Selye, H. (1956). The stress of life (1st ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Shonkoff, J., Garner, A., Siegel, B., Dobbins, M., Earls, M., McGuinn, L., Pascoe, J., Wood, D. and others, (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress. Pediatrics, 129(1), pp.232--24

Wilkinson, R. and Marmot, M. (2003). The solid facts. 2nd ed. Copenhagen: World Health Organisation, Regional Office for Europe.

Show More
Related

  • Katy Crisis Case Studies

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, prolonged stress included adverse psychological and physical health effects as well as the increased risk of premature death (Denollet, J., et al.

    Read More

  • What Is The Effects Of Adverse Childhood Experiences?

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) was a proposed by Van der Kolk and D’Andrea (2010). The premise of DTD is based on research data of individuals involved in several research studies. According to Van der Kolk and D’Andrea (2010), DTD is the result of living in a fear-based environment which includes, poor treatment by primary caregivers, instability, and neglect. This type of inadequate treatment is often hidden, meaning it is may not be visible on the surface. Neglectful caregiver-infant relationships perpetuate DTD. These interactions relay the message to the infant or child that the world is not safe, is threatening, and is unreliable. This lack of emotional safety is often as damaging as lack of physical safety (Van der Kolk & d’Andrea,

    Read More

  • The Positive Effects Of Stress: Portrait Of A Killer

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • What is Stress

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions. Most people have a response to events that challenge or threaten them. Stress good and bad. Good stress is called eustress.

    Read More

  • What Stress Is

    2588 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Acute Stress vs. Chronic Stress

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stress once served as a lifesaving response to threatening events such as being hunted by a predator or hunting prey. The stress response helped our ancestors survive and stress provide important benefits, muscles are be primed, attention is focused, and nerves are ready for action, all of which give us the capacity to fight or to run away from danger. While stress once served a role in our ancient lives, the effects of stress in our modern world take a toll on our bodies and health. The impact of stress can be seen in all major systems of the body, while it may be impossible to avoid stress, there are steps people can take to reduce the negative impacts of stress.

    Read More

  • THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIFE STRESS AND HEALTH INVENTORY SCORES IN A COLLEGIATE POPULATION

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently, studies of stress have shifted from demonstrating relationships between psychological factors and somatic outcomes, to investigations of the mediational pathways involved in these associations. For example, (Cohen and Williamson, 1991) have built on the work of Lazarus’ model by suggesting that once an environmental event is encountered, it is appraised, and an affective response is made. After this response is made, a cascade of behavioral and physiological processes is activated. Behavioral factors such as increased alcohol use, reduced exercise, changes in sleep quantity/quality, and changes in diet, have shown to be related to stress. In turn, stress-related changes are associated with many hormonal fluctuations known to influence susceptibility to disease (Schedlowski and Tewes, 1999).

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between the Transactional Model, and the General Adaptation Syndrome

    1591 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jones, F, Bright, J, Clow, A (2001). Stress: myth, theory and research. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. p. 10.

    Read More

  • Environmental Stressors

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    Considering the effect of stress on human functioning may be an effective way to understand the relationship between behavior and environment; it can help one begin to identify the environmental qualities that interfere with human functioning (Evans & Cohen, 1987). Most researchers agree that the concept of stress is “a state that occurs when people are faced with demands from the environment that requires them to change in some way” (Vetch & Arkkelin, 1995, p. 118). However, it is unclear whether that demand is stress or if stress is a person’s response to the demand. Therefore, there are several theoretical perspectives regarding the concept of stress. Below are just two of the theoretical perspectives (Veitch & Arkkelin, 1995).

    Read More

  • Stress Management

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stress is defined as “any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 72). Stress is a natural event that exists literally in all areas of one’s life. It can be embedded in the environment, culture, or perception of an event or idea. Stress is a constant burden, and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. However stress can also provide beneficial effects; it can satisfy one’s need for stimulation and challenge, promote personal growth, and can provide an individual with the tools to cope with, and be less affected by tomorrow’s stress (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 93).

    Read More

  • Stress, Stressors and Stress Responses

    3964 Words  | 8 Pages

    Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.

    Read More

  • Signs of Stress

    2215 Words  | 5 Pages

    "Forty-three percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress; 75 to 90 percent of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints; stress is linked to the six leading causes of death--heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide." (Miller, 1993, p.12) " Stress plays havoc with our health, our productivity, our pocketbooks, and our lives, but it is necessary, even desirable." (Oxford, 1998, p.29)

    Read More

  • Stress: Causes And Effects

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, stress is defined as an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well being (Patel, 14). Stress is a universal feeling to everyone but the word stress means different things to different people. Some people define stress as events or situations that cause them to feel tension, pressure or negative emotions such as anxiety or anger (Patel, 15). Other people may view stress as a process involving a person’s interpretation and response to a threatening event. In any case, stress has many facets of how one perceives and responds to the certain predicament that is ailing them.

    Read More

  • Essay On Effects Of Stress On The Body

    1606 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hans Selye defined stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” He later defined it as “the rate of wear and tear on the body.” Stress can be good because the pressure placed on someone can motivate them to complete the tasks ahead of them. From this, small amounts of stress can be positive. However, long periods of stress wear the body down and begin to have negative effects on the body which could be long term.

    Read More

  • The Four Types of Stress

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first type of stress is eustress which is a positive stress. Positive stress may enhance the good feelings of stressors. According to Meenakshisundaram (2012), eustress is an interesting stress and keep us more essential. Indeed, this type of stress can energize, motivate and raise stressors up in difficulties instead of improve their health. For example, events such as getting married, having a child may increase the motivation of the stressors to the pleasureable.

    Read More

More about Stress as a Social Determinant of Health

Open Document