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Stress is a person’s physical and mental response to
environmental pressure. The body has a built in physical
reaction to stressful events. When a person encounters
pressure, challenge or danger, he needs to respond quickly and
the body elicits hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
This hormones form part of the so called “fight and flight”
response, which affects the rate of metabolism, heart beat and
blood pressure resulting to a heightened state, that signals
the body for optimum performance in engaging with stressful
situation.
It is necessary to distinguish between temporary stress that
will subside when a situation is settled and chronic or long
term stress. Oftentimes, an individual can adjust with short
term stress. It can be resolved by meditation, taking walks and
interaction with friend or simply rest/sleep. While chronic or
long term, on the other hand, is more difficult to deal, and
eventually result to physical and emotional imbalance.
Walter Cannon, (1896) advocate on stress, made use of an x-ray
instrument known as fluoroscope to observe the digestive system
of a dog under stress. He also observed that it causes hormonal
imbalance in the body. With this experiment, Cannon used the
term Homeostasis, an equilibrium state of the body.
A Canadian Scientist, Hans Selye (1907=961982), observed that
individuals who suffered from chronic diseases revealed some
symptoms related to it. This time, the experiment on rats was
done. When rats are exposed to various physical trauma factors:
shock, poison, high temperature, and noise, their glands
enlarged, and thymus gland and lymph nodes shrunken. Selye then
created the three Stages of Stress Response consisting alarm,
resistance and exhaustion.
Among the causes of physical or mental stress are unpleasant
events such as death of a loved one, divorce/separation,
imprisonment, injury or ailment, marital problem, loss of job,
pregnancy or change of ones financial condition.
Stress is mediated by the hormone, cortisol which is released
when a person is stressed over confrontation with other people
or their environment that is thought to overpower their
adaptation and threaten their welfare.
The perception elements of human beings and their reaction to
it differ in various aspects. It all depends on the physical
attributes, personality, coping mechanism and general health of
an individual.
When one suffers from this, it is important to identify the
aspect of life that causes it. Although it cannot be avoided,
simply changing ones lifestyle makes a difference.
About The Author: Learning self-hypnosis or meditation are two
great stress management tools. http://stress.y54.com
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