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How Stresses Affect Our Health People feel stressed very frequently. The majority of stresses are connected with our working activity, family life or emotional connections. Stresses can be caused by hundreds of different reasons, starting with rainy weather or vapid food and ending with marital separation or loss of a relative. Everything, which causes stress, is called stressor. According to this, there are external (physical) and internal (emotional) stresses. Also, it is important to distinguish acute and chronic stresses.
Acute stress is singular reaction of our mind on probable threat or disturbance, like noise, crowd, infection, danger, etc. Chronic stress is a chain of stressed conditions, which can be caused by permanent disturbance, like increasing pressure at work or long-lasting emotion crises, etc. (Stress, September, 2001) Of course, stresses affect our health, mind and body a lot. First and simple signs of stress are anxiety, short-temper, low moral, temperature rise, change of pressure, stomachache, headache, etc. If the stress is not very deep and the stressed person is quite resistive, stressed condition will soon end with total relaxation. Specialists suggest that light stresses are useful, because they can refresh our minds, mobilize and activate us. But sometimes acute stresses can be strong and sudden.
They can be caused by very distressing reasons, like, for example, information about sudden death of somebody close. In such cases stress can bring very strong effect on body and mind of a person, and result in hard nervous breakdown, hysteria, panic or dead faint, etc. In the worst conditions some physical damages can take place, as heart attack or heart disease. Chronic stresses, as a rule, affect our health deeper. They are more likely to result in serious mental disorders or physical diseases. Affect of chronic stresses is mostly associated with inability of human organism to adapt to permanent disturbing conditions.
It makes sense to analyze groups of physical and mental reactions of our body and mind on chronic stresses. Chronic stresses can cause numerous physical disorders and illnesses. First of all, those are gastrointestinal (diarrhea, stomach ulcer, etc) and cardiovascular disorders (arrhythmias, raising blood-cholesterol levels, etc) (Tennen, March 2000). Stresses can also cause serious disorders of immune system, and even create favorable environment for developing cancer (as recent tests on animals have demonstrated). (Stress, September, 2001) Insomnia and depression are among the most regular psychological effects of stresses. Long lasting chronic stresses can cause permanent anxiety and depression, which may bring to real clinical mental disorders, like mood and personality disorders, dissociation, different phobias, etc. Along with tend to suicide, such scenarios are the worst results of permanent stress conditions. (Tennen, March 2000) It is impossible to estimate for sure, which stressors are more dangerous.
Some people can get stressed easily with traffic jam or unfriendly behavior of a colleague, and at the same time they can courageously survive divorce or loss of the job. It is strictly individual and specific for every person. The clearer point is: our psychological reactions on stress are more dangerous and harmful. For example, depression and anxiety in stressed situation become obvious reasons of headache and heart disorders, etc. (Stress, September, 2001) Some specialists suppose that women are more sensitive to stresses. Moreover, researchers discovered that men and women react on stresses in different way. Increase of testosterone in male organism interrupts formation of oxytocin, which brings calming effect.
That is why stressed men are mostly aggressive and angry. Female body produces oxytocin during the stress, therefore, stressed women are usually calmer than stressed men, they aspire for care and more likely to befriend. (Women's Health Center, August 2004) Stress is one of the biggest social problems of our modern society, along with obesity, AIDS and drugs. It is important to learn at least essential information about this issue and be prepared to fight with stresses, which frequently accompany our daily life. Bibliography: Stress. (2001, September). Reuters Health, the Premier Supplier of Health and Medical News. Nidus Informational Services, Inc.
New York. Stress and Your Health. (2004, August). The National Women's Health Information Center. U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Retrieved December 1, 2005, from < web >. Tennen, M. (2000, March 7). How Stress Affects Your Health. Health at A to Z. Family Health Site. Retrieved December 01, 2005, from < web >.
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Research essay sample on How Stresses Affect Our Health
