Stress Essays - Stress, Acute Stress Reaction, Norepinephrine

Stress This research paper explains stress and its causes and cures. The research paper will attempt to determine whether there is an effective way to cure stress. Stress is an integral part of life. The complete absence of any stress results in death. Stress plays a key role in daily life, influencing - if not governing - happiness, productivity and health. Stress is known to cause various psychiatric disorders involving anxiety and depression, including posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression, generalized anxiety, and multiple personality disorders.This research will also attempt to explain ways to cure the illness's caused by Stress. The more stress one puts on thereselves the weaker one's immune system becomes. With a weakened immune system we become susceptible to disease and injury. Stress is an adaptive response. It's the body's reaction to an event that is seen as emotionally disturbing, disquieting, or threatening. To prepare for an event, the body increases its heart rate and blood pressure; more blood is then sent to your heart and muscles, and your respiration rate increases. . In the first stage of stress, alarm, the body mobilizes its "fight or flight" defenses, either to resist the stress-causing factor or adapt to it. In this stage, the pituitary-adrenocortical system pours hormones into the bloodstream. The pulse quickens, the lungs take in more oxygen to fuel the muscles, blood sugar increases to supply added energy, digestion slows, and perspiration increases. In the second stage of stress, resistance, the body begins to repair the incidental damage caused by the arousal in the alarm stage. If the stressful situation is resolved, the stress symptoms vanish. If the stressful situation continues, however, a third stage, exhaustion, sets in, and the body's adaptive energy runs out. This stage can continue until some vital organs are affected, and then disease or even death can occur. There are three types of stress, mental, physical, chemical. These different variations of stress all cause similar effects to one's body. Each of these stresses can come from many sources. Most of these have appeared as a primary threat in our environment. Mental stress occurs from a shock as severe as the death of a loved one or from a simple thing like a faulty alarm clock making one late for work. Physical stress on the body can be caused by anything from not getting adequate sleep to a severe whiplash injury from a car accident. In addition, there is a chemical stress which may come from environmental pollution, the side affects of medications or even consumption of overly refined food. Compounding all this is the tension cycle, in which mental stress triggers physical stress or vice versa, leading to a downward spiral of health and happiness and an increasingly painful series of symptoms. Mental stress and Physical Stress are linked due to the fact that if one has mental stress it can cause physical stress. Man's response to psychological stress differs little from sources of potential physical harm (i.e., with surges of adrenaline, a rise in blood pressure and heart rate, and a 4x increase in blood flow to the muscles needed to fight or run away.) Physical symptoms may include a headache, upset stomach, muscle tension, neck or backache, rapid breathing, sweaty palms, and exhaustion. Mentally, you may feel distracted, have trouble concentrating, be illogical or forgetful, or you may have scary thoughts or feel suspicious. You may become easily irritated and impatient, or you may feel tense, depressed, angry or alone. You may have difficulty sleeping. Chemical Stress, however, is cause from manmade substances or objects. our body to make a certain number and quality of enzymes, antibodies, and hormones. These are the end products. The raw materials to make these end products come from our foods. Lack of a suffiecient diet can cause chemical stress. Chemical stress can also come from pesticides, insecticides, polluted air and water, heavy metals such as mercury or lead, asbestos and artificial food additives. Stress in general causes the immune system to weaken to a great extent. There are many health problems related to diminished immune systems including allergies and susceptibility to different diseases such as fungus and yeast infections. With the premature degeneration the stress will cause an acceleration in the aging and the break down of tissues. Physical consequnces such as cellular damage is caused by highly unstable molecules called free radicals. Because of the highly unstable nature of the "free radicals", they can be extremely toxic and are a primary result of stress that undermine the immune system and threaten health. Ironically, the body's immune system