The Stress Reaction

The Stress Reaction
Stress is a part of every human's life, and has been quite
frankly since humans first came to be. Stress serves
important functions in certain situations, but chronic
stress or excessive stress can be quite damaging. The
problem is that in modern life, it's not at all difficult
to fall into patterns of being frequently stressed. Many of
us feel overburdened and underappreciated, and this
perspective alone is enough to cause a stress reaction.

A frequent cause of a stress reaction is anxiety. Anxiety
in a general sense is a worry or apprehension about some
event, often something in the future. Anxiety isn't the
only cause of stress, to be sure: stress can result from
anger, sadness, loss, and various other emotional outlooks.
There's also the stress that comes from eager anticipation,
sometimes referred to as good stress.

When a person experiences stress, the body typically
releases cortisol into the bloodstream. Cortisol is a
hormone that causes physical changes in the body's
response. Specifically, cortisol increases blood pressure
and blood sugar. Cortisol is so frequent in the human
body's stress reaction that it's often referred to as the
stress hormone. From a biological standpoint, cortisol's
function is to prepare the body to physically respond to an
imminent danger. The increasing of blood pressure and blood
sugar provides the body an energy solution that can be used
in defense or to flee. Cortisol's origins likely go back to
the times when our human ancestors faced regular predatory
threats.

What makes cortisol an asset to the human body equally
makes it a detriment. Increases in blood pressure and blood
sugar, when they should occur frequently, cause
degenerative wear on vital body organs. Increased blood
pressure puts strain on the heart, the kidneys, the
arteries, brain, and other significant areas of the body as
well. High levels of sugar in the blood can literally
destroy bodily tissue. From a health standpoint then, we
want cortisol to kick in when we absolutely need it, but
not otherwise: the effects are potentially too damaging to
the body, especially where they occur consistently over
time.

Mainstream medicine has come to appreciate the detrimental
effects of stress, and entire medical programs are now
dedicated to reducing the stress reaction. The reality is
that most modern human beings very rarely if ever face
predatory threat, but the stress reaction remains in place
just the same. Turning this stress reaction off in all but
the rarest of cases would be a big boost to any person's
health.

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Zinn Jeremiah is a freelance author. For help with stress
anxiety, visit
http://www.hubonline.biz/feel-better-today.htm or
http://www.hubonline.biz/healthy-mood.htm .