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The Inter-Relationship between Stress and the Human Immune System upon Health Outcomes The impact of stress on human immune system functioning and health outcomes is an area of recent interest. This investigation as to how health outcomes are affected by this inter-relationship will firstly operationalise all of the variables (health, stress, immune system); and secondly, by describing the functions and reactions of the immune system to clinically induced stressors, establish that there is a correlation between stress and immune response. The final area of investigation will discuss how the human body, when exposed to a variety of stressors, causes major changes within the immune system (which can be scientifically measured), and thus affect health outcomes. How groups are affected throughout the life span continuum will be discussed, with particular reference to women diagnosed with breast cancer, HIV+ gay men, and the impact of personality types deemed to be at greatest risk. Stress, as defined by Selye (1960), is namely "the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it; a stereotypical, phylogenetically old adaptation pattern, primarily preparing the organism for physical activity" (cited Gunderson and Rahe, 1979, p. 9). The current scientific paradigm asserts that stress has three distinct characteristics. External stress refers to any or environmental stimulus that causes a person to feel tense or aroused. Internal stress refers to the subjective mental state of tension or arousal, and involves the interpretive, emotive, defensive and coping processes occurring inside that person. The third characteristic of stress involves the body's physical reaction to demand or demanding intrusions (Rice, 1... ... middle of paper ... ...rt program, Bowman Gray School of Medicine Winston-Salem, URL: http://www. (http://www.newstimes.com/archieve/janl1896/lcgg.htm), 1-4. Rice, P. L. (1999). Stress and Help. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole. Seligman, M. and Buchanan, G. (1996), Learned optimism yields health benefits, American Psychology Association, URL: http://helping.apa.org/learned.html, (1). Wade, C. & Tavris, C. (1993). Psychology. New York: Harper Collins. Wolf, T., Cole, B. and Coyne. (1996). A canonical analysis of psychological and immune system interventions. Washburn University, URL: www://www.wuacc.edu/cas/biology/zzwolf.d/TIT.HTM, (1-24). Zakowski, S., Hall, M. H. and Baum, A. (1992). Stress, stress management, and the immune system. Applied and Preventative Psychology v1, 1-13, (From Advanced Biology Journal Article Summaries, URL: http://www.econ.uinc.edu/~hanko/Bio/stress.html,1995).
Discusses the premise that the psychological state affects the immune system with reference to the psychological state of persons with enhanced functioning immune states and those with suppressed immunity, HIV and AIDS. How stress affects the immune system; How psychological health assists the immune system; Advantages of intervention on the psyche and immune system of HIV and AIDS patients.
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.
Although gross medical advancements have allowed the human population to live longer and fuller lives without the threat of death from infectious diseases, it is apparent that we are now dealing with a different phenomenon that may be just as harmful to our health. The impact of psychological, social and environmental factors from our daily lives is having a drastic impression on the mental and physical wellbeing of our society. It has been shown in various studies that psychological and neurological factors influence the immune system and can have an effect on our health (Breedlove, Rosenzweig & Watson, 2010). As we allow various stressors, poisonous substances, unhealthy diets and lack of rest to overwhelm our existence, we are inevitably shortening our life span and killing our 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.
Scientific literature is replete with studies examining the relationship between stressful life events and the occurrence of compromised immune function as suggested by the presence of various illnesses. Forty college students answered questionnaires regarding the presence of stressful life events and the presence or absence of recent illnesses. The relationship between these scores was examined. Life stress scores were significantly positively related to scores indicating illnesses on a health inventory. As scores indicating the presence of stressful life experiences increased, scores suggesting the presence of illness also increased.
There are three accepted definitions of stress: 1. Stimulus model - Stress is an external stimulus that places demand on the individuals’ physiology. 2. Response model - Stress is regarded as the responses (both external behaviour and internal/ph...
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.
Kumar, Anil, Puneet Rinwa, Gurleen Kaur, and Lalit Machawal. "Stress: Neurobiology, consequences, and management." Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences, 2013: 1-7.
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).
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.
Naseem, Z., & Khalid, R. (2010). Positive Thinking in Coping with Stress and Health outcomes: Literature Review. Journal of Research & Reflections in Education (JRRE), 4(1), 42-61.
to the environment and social life. There are different types of stress and its stressors we face in our daily lives. A huge source of stress comes from the workplace. It is caused by work and workload. Many employees become victim of the stress in the workplace both physically and mentally. This is underlying the workplace stress. This essay will discuss internal and external stress.
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.
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.
The term “stress” has multiple meanings. As Richard Lazarus stated in his 1966 book “Psycho...