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l l Stress and Health: The Effects of Everyday Life
Amy Yarbrough
Psychology 101 Section 176 Professor Bradshaw November 17, 2003
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Stress and Health: The Effects of Everyday Life
The baby’s crying, the phone’s ringing, the unfinished term paper is due tomorrow and the car broke down. All of these things and many others bring about stress in our lives. Nagging headaches, heartburn and indigestion, even difficulty sleeping can all be symptoms of the effects of stress. Stress is a fact of everyday life. Stress can take a toll on our mental and physical well-being and if not addressed, stress can lead to diseases that can lead to death. Learning to handle the effects of stress is an important life skill that can help to alleviate the negative impact of stress on the body and improve how we handle stressful situations in our daily lives. Stress, in its many forms, cannot be avoided; however, there are stress management techniques available that can help to combat the many negative effects of stress on health.
What is Stress? Stress is a bodily reaction that can occur in response to either internal, cognitive stimuli (stressor) or external, environmental stimuli (stressor) (Huffman, Vernoy, M., Vernoy, J., 1997, p. 410). Stress that is pleasant or desirable is known as eustress. When perceived as challenges, stressors can have positive effects, arousing and motivating people to conquer problems (Myers, 2004, p. 533). Stress that is unpleasant or objectionable is known as distress. Stressors can threaten our resources and experiencing severe or prolonged stress may be harmful (Myers, 2004, p. 533). When facing stress, the body undergoes a dramatic reaction that readies the body for a “fight or flight” from danger. The “fight or flight” response was essential thousands of years ago – when a fast response was the only guarantee of survival (Sifton, 2001). The human body’s response to stress is the three-stage general adaptive syndrome. In the first stage a person feels an alarm reaction due to a sudden activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the heart rate zooms, blood is diverted to the skeletal muscles and a person may feel the faintness of shock. The second stage is resistance where the body’s temperature, blood pressure and respiratory rate remain high and there is a sudden outpouring of hormones into the body. If stress persists, the last stage is exhaustion where the body is more vulnerable to illness or collapse or in extreme cases even death (Myers, 2004, p. 534). Stress has a daily impact on our health, so it is important to understand what brings stress into our lives.
What are the causes of stress? The causes of stress can include catastrophes, life changes, chronic stressors, daily hassles, and frustration. Catastrophes are an obvious stressor that occurs at one time or another many people’s lives. Catastrophes are unpredictable, large-scale events such as war and natural disasters that nearly everyone appraises as threatening (Myers, 2004, p. 535). In disaster’s wake, rates of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety rose an average 17 percent (Myers, 2004, p. 535). Life changes are another common occurring stressor. This type of stressor involves a significant life change – leaving home, death of a loved one, loss of a job, a marriage or a divorce (Myers, 2004, p.536). Chronic stressors could be a bad marriage, poor working conditions or intolerable political climate. Daily hassles include things that happen on a daily basis like not being able to find a parking space, losing your keys, missing the bus. Some authorities believe that hassles can be more significant than major life events. The reason people are so affected by major life events may be because the number of daily hassles increases greatly at such times (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 413). Over time, these little stressors can add up and take a toll on our health and well-being (Myers, 2004, p. 536). Closely linked with daily hassles is frustration. Frustration is a negative emotional state generally associated with a blocked goal (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 413). For example, if your goal was to get to class on time and your daily hassle was you could not find a parking space, then your goal was blocked and frustration ensues. All of these types stressors impact our lives, our well-being and eventually possibly our health.
How does stress affect the body? Stress has many effects on the human body. Symptoms of stress include back pain, tiredness, headaches, heartburn, upset stomach, shortness of breath, high blood pressure and weight gain or weight loss. Many office visits to family doctors are for conditions related to stress (Carter, 2001, p. 1861). When a stressor is encountered, the sympathetic nervous system, activated by the hypothalamus, causes the body to increase the heart rate, increase the force with which the heart contracts, dilate coronary arteries, constrict abdominal arteries, dilate pupils, dilate bronchial tubes, increase strength of skeletal muscles, release glucose from the liver, increase mental activity, dilate arterioles deep in skeletal muscles and significantly increase metabolic rates (Greenberg, 1999, p. 25). [When under stress] autonomic functioning mobilizes the body’s energy resources for immediate survival by releasing hormones, such as cortisol, that put all of the body’s long-term processes – tissue repair, immunity, digestion, reproduction – on hold, thus making more energy available to the brain and muscles (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 421). When the stress is short-term then the body will soon return to normal functioning. A person under prolonged stress, such as a bad marriage that lasts for years, is constantly in a state of heightened autonomic activation and may have reduced immune system response for an extended period (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 418). Steven Maier, Ph.D., professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, said recently “the research indicates that stress appears to tap into the same immune system-nervous system loop that triggers the symptoms of the common cold. In a real, true sense, stress makes you physically sick” (Azar, 2001). This research is a part of psychoneuroimmunology – a field of scientific inquiry that studies the chemical basis of communication between the mind and body – in particular, the links between the nervous system and the immune system (Greenberg, 1999, p. 36). To summarize, the physiological changes brought about as a result of stress, suppress the immune system and leave the body susceptible to a variety of diseases. The health conditions affected by stress include heart disease, hypertension, cancer, AIDS, migraine and tension headaches, backaches, rheumatoid arthritis, allergies and ulcers. Heart disease is a general term for all disorders that eventually affect the heart muscle and lead to heart failure. The “fight or flight” response releases hormones that increase heart rate and remove fat from the body’s stores to give muscles a quick source of energy. If no physical action is taken the fat become fatty deposits on the walls of blood vessels (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 422) a process known as atherosclerosis. These fatty deposits are often the cause of major blood supply blockages that cause heart attacks (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 422). Hypertension is a state of chemically elevated blood pressure. The chemicals that elevate the blood pressure are often released into the bloodstream as a byproduct of stress. With hypertension, the extra pressure can cause weakened or clogged brain blood vessels to burst (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 422). Hypertension also causes the heart to work harder, which could ultimately lead to a heart attack. Cancer is another disease affected by stress. Stress does not create cancer cells, rather it affects their growth by weakening the body’s natural defenses against a few proliferate, malignant cells (Myers, 2004, p. 544) which are present but normally controlled in people (Greenberg, 1999, p. 415). Unless the spreading cancer cells are destroyed or removed, the cancer forms a tumor that will eventually damage organs and cause death (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 419). Although cancer is not caused by stress, high stress levels promote its development and growth. Reducing stress levels may be beneficial in the fight against cancer. AIDS is an immune disorder – and acquired immune deficiency – caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is spread by the exchange of bodily fluids (Myers, 2004, p. 543). AIDS is also not caused by stress, but as stress suppresses the immune system it promotes the growth of the AIDS virus. HIV-infected men faced with stressful life circumstances, such as the loss of a partner, exhibit somewhat greater immune suppression and faster disease progression (Myers, 2004, p. 543). The same immune system suppression caused by stress that affects AIDS also affects patients with rheumatoid arthritis and allergies. The number of T-lymphocytes in the bloodstream, the workforce of the immune system that destroys antigens, is reduced during stress (Greenberg, 1999, p. 46). People with a genetic predisposition to rheumatoid arthritis will develop the disease if their immune system malfunctions as a result of high stress (Greenberg, 1999, p. 47). The T-lymphocytes in the bloodstream fight off foreign antibodies, or irritating substances that can cause allergic reactions. The reduced number of T-lymphocytes during stress can decrease the allergic threshold (Greenberg, 1999, p. 46) and increase the body’s reaction to allergens. Common complaints of stress include migraine headaches, tension headaches, backaches and ulcers. Migraine headaches are the result of a constriction and dilation of the carotid arteries of one side of the head (Greenberg, 1999, p. 43). Predominant thought on the cause of migraines pertains to emotional stress and tension (Greenberg, 1999, p. 43). Tension headaches and some backaches are cause by muscle tension, often a result of stress. Backaches have been found more frequently in people who have experienced a good deal of stress (Greenberg, 1999, p. 48). Ulcers are fissures or cuts in the wall of the stomach or other parts of the intestine (Greenberg, 1999, p. 42). Stress can exacerbate the conditions in the digestive tract to make ulcers more likely to occur (Greenberg, 1999, p. 43). Stress results in an increase of hydrochloric acid in the intestinal tract and stomach and a decreased effectiveness of the immune system that combats the effectiveness of the immune system that combats the invasion of ulcer-causing bacteria, H. pylori (Greenberg, 1999, p. 42). Stress is an unavoidable, unchangeable part of life. But you can change how you handle the stresses of life. If stress is not handled in a way that is acceptable to your body over a long time, diseases and breakdowns in body function are more likely to occur (Cooper, 2001, p. 1860).
How can you handle stress? To help reduce the negative impacts of stress on the body a person can learn stress management techniques. The most helpful techniques used for coping with stress are aerobic exercise, biofeedback, relaxation and social support. These techniques are not only helpful in relieving the negative impacts of stress but also for maintaining general health as well. When the body reacts to stress with the fight or flight response, the body is preparing to take physical action. Exercise, specifically aerobic exercise, counteracts the body’s stress response. Exercise reduces the negative effects of stress in several ways. First, it uses up the hormones secreted into the bloodstream during stress, thereby helping the immune system return to normal functioning sooner. Second, exercise can help work out tension that has built up in the muscles. Third, exercise increases strength, flexibility and stamina for encountering future stressors and increases the efficiency of the cardiovascular system (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 429). Not only does exercise relieve the negative effects of stress, but it also increases the body’s fitness level making it stronger and healthier and better able to deal with stress. Another technique used to combat the effects of stress is biofeedback. Biofeedback is a system of recording, amplifying and feeding back information about physiological responses (Myers, 2004, p.548) to stress. By reflecting the results of a person’s own efforts, this allows the person to learn techniques for controlling a particular physiologic response (Myers, 2004, p. 548). If a person’s heart rate increases as they become stressed, a biofeedback machine will indicate this reaction and the person can then learn techniques to counteract this effect and combat the stress. A 1995 National Institute of Health panel declared that biofeedback works best on tension headaches (Myers, 2004, p. 548). However, there is also a belief that other techniques can accomplish the same results as biofeedback in a more cost effective and accessible manner. One of the most simple and effective ways to deal with stress is to learn to recognize the signs of stress and then learn to relax in a stressful situation. Relaxation techniques include meditation, progressive muscle relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing. While these techniques do not require any equipment, practice of the techniques is necessary to make them useful in stressful situations. The practice of meditation to relieve tension and stress has been around for hundreds of years. Stress worsens pain, infertility and insomnia and it suppresses the immune system, however meditative relaxation counteracts all these effects (Myers, 2004, p. 549). The purpose of meditation is to gain control over your attention so that you can choose what to focus upon rather than being subject to the unpredictable ebb and flow of environmental circumstances (Greenberg, 1999, p. 141). Meditation is simply a mental exercise that affects body processes. The lasting effects of meditation are decreased respiratory rate, decreased muscle tension, decreased heart rate, better ability to cope with stress and to have a more stable autonomic response system (Greenberg, 1999, p. 143). Once meditation skills are learned, these skills can be used regularly to gain the benefits of relaxation. Another relaxation technique that can be easily used to decrease stress and tension is the progressive muscle relaxation technique. This technique involves concentrating on relaxing the muscles progressively, making it difficult to think about problems and events that cause stress and anxiety (Cooper, 2001, p. 1859). To use this technique you begin by focusing on specific muscle groups, one at a time, tensing and relaxing each group while breathing slowly and deeply (Cooper, 2001, p. 1859). This technique promotes a deep state of relaxation. The progressive muscle relaxation technique is effective in treating tension headaches, migraine headaches and backaches (Greenberg, 1999, p. 165). Diaphragmatic breathing is another stress management technique that is easy to learn, easy to use and requires no additional equipment. In diaphragmatic breathing, the diaphragm [located in the belly area] is expanded when a person breathes deeply, which is effective as an immediate response to stress (Greenberg, 1999, p.180). To learn this technique people must become aware of how their chests expand when they breathe. Expansion of the upper portion of the chest does not allow for deep breathing. The goal is to breathe slowly and deeply, expanding the belly area while feeling a calming, relaxing effect. Once learned, a person can use this technique by simply taking a few second to focus on their deep breathing and relaxing the tension and stress away. Another important stress management technique is to create social support in the personal environment. Social support includes feeling liked, affirmed and encouraged by intimate friends and family, which promotes not only happiness, but also health (Myers, 2004, p. 551). Environments that support our need to belong also foster stronger immune system functioning (Myers, 2004, p. 552). When we are faced with stressful situations, our friends and family help us by making sure we take care of our health and by providing stability to offset the changes in our lives (Huffman et al, 1997, p. 428). Friends and family provide the support we need to deal with the stress in our everyday lives and during times of crisis. Combining a good network of social support with relaxation techniques, exercise and if necessary biofeedback is the most effective way to alleviate the negative impact of stress on our lives. Stress is a part of everyday life that cannot be avoided. There are many types of stressors including catastrophes, life changes, chronic stressors, daily hassles and frustrations. Stress has an impact on many of the body’s systems, and the effects of stress on health can be significant. Stress influences everything from heart disease to tension headaches to ulcers to allergies. The best way to combat stress is to develop stress management techniques to help each individual cope with their daily stress. By handling stress before it causes physical problems, people can greatly improve their health and quality of life. |
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References
Azar, B. (2001) A new take on psychoneuroimmunology. Monitor on Psychology [On-line] Volume 32, No. 11, December 2001 Available: http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec01/anewtake.html Carter, A. (2001) Stress. Clinical Reference Systems. Annual 2001, p 1861, McKesson Health Solutions LLC. Cooper, P.G. (2001) Stress Management. Clinical Reference Systems. Annual 2001, p 1860, McKesson Health Solutions LLC Cooper, P.G. (2001) Stress Management: Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Clinical Reference Systems. Annual 2001, p 1859, McKesson Health Solutions LLC. Greenberg, J.S. (1999) Comprehensive Stress Management (6th ed). Boston, CT: WCB/McGraw-Hill. Huffman, K., Vernoy, M., Vernoy, J. (1997) Psychology in Action (4th ed). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Myers, D.G. (2004) Psychology (7th ed) Holland, MI: Worth Publishers. Sifton, D. (Ed.) (2001) Best Bets When You’re Stressed Out. The PDR Family Guide to Nutrition and Health. Montvale, NJ: Medical Economics Company.
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