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Stress

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Submitted By dpvirk
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Deepinder K. Virk

Nearly everyone experiences stress at some time. Stress produces changes in many body systems; examples include increased heart rate and blood pressure and altered immune function. Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best, but excessive stress, left untreated, can lead to anxiety and illness. When you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price. Stress can affect all aspects of your life, including your emotions, behaviors, thinking ability, and physical health. No part of the body is immune. But, because people handle stress differently, symptoms of stress can vary. Low energy, headaches, upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation, aches, pains, and tense muscles, rapid heartbeat, frequent colds and infections, cold or sweaty hands, dry mouth and grinding teeth are some of the physical responses to stress.
When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections. Hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of the brain, sets off an alarm system in our body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts our adrenal glands, located top of the kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.

Adrenaline increases heart rate, elevates blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.

Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in fight or flight activation which is activation of the sympathetic adrenal-medullary (SAM) system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPAC) system, and other endocrine systems.
When the natural stress response goes haywire, the body's stress-response system is usually self-limiting. Once a perceived threat has passed, hormone levels return to normal. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.
But when stressors are always present and you constantly feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. The long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all your body's processes.

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