Stress and Its Effects on Human Health Essay

Introduction

Stress refers to events, situations or conditions that put pressure on human beings. This may be at times when people have a lot to attend to and think about, or have little or no control over what happens to them or around them. Stress also refers to people's reaction(s) to being placed under pressure: The feelings that arise when many demands are placed on us as humans that we are unable or find it difficult to cope with. Being in situations that pressurize us is normal in life and this can help an individual to take the necessary action. The problem comes when feelings of stress start to develop (Allan et al., 2016). Stress has many effects both positive and negative. Stress can cause mental health problems and worsen the existing health conditions in a human being. On the other hand, mental health problems can cause stress. This essay, therefore, aims at explaining how stress can affect our health, and whether stress has positive effects on individuals.

How Stress Affects Our Health

It's common for individuals to find themselves with sweaty hands on the first date, or have one's heart pound when watching a scary movie. This implies that stress can be felt both in one's body and mind. Stress is, therefore, a natural reaction to external stimuli. When one encounters a threatening situation or danger, the body is flooded with hormones that increase the heart rate, boosts the body's energy levels to deal with the problem. People face different situations such as meeting deadlines, paying utility bills and parenting duties all of which make the body to react similarly. All these circumstances may cause your body response system to be stuck and cause serious health problems (Lovallo, 2015).

It's important to note that even the minor stress can have significant impacts on an individual, for instance, one may develop some stomach ache before giving a presentation. Natural occurrences like earthquakes, landslides and other earth movements as well as terrorist attacks or even a fight have a bigger effect on an individual as a result of the stress they cause. Sudden emotional stresses like anger trigger serious health effects like heart attacks, arrhythmias and even sudden death (de Frias & Whyne, 2015). This is accelerated by people who have pre-existing conditions of heart disease. This is realized when the stress is acute and has caused a heart attack or a worse situation like sudden death.

Stress is said to have reached a chronic level when it starts to interfere with a person's normal life. The longer the stress is in an individual, the worse it becomes both in the mind and body of the victim. Someone feels fatigued, irritated and unable to concentrate on a particular task more often. Chronic stress a lot of wear and tear on the body. This becomes worse when the victim has had a pre-existing health condition which is worsened by the stress (McEwen et al., 2015).

Stress also makes it difficult for one to visit the toilet. Chronic stress impacts on the hormones released by the thyroid glands, which regulates the body metabolism. When these hormones are interfered with, it may lead to constipation. In some instances, an individual may lose her hair. The hair sheds more than usual in a period of three to six months after an experience of a super stressful event. Stress causes a backache. When a person is stressed, the heart rate and the blood pressure rise and the body respond by pumping out hormones that help the individual to fight or fright. This may cause the muscles to tighten up and magnify the aches one gets while sitting on a working desk. This will lead to a severe backache. Lastly, stress messes up with one's libido. Chronic stress has the effect of impacting on the body's production of estrogen, which keeps a woman's reproductive system in working order. This will negatively impact on the sex drive of the affected individual (Amsten, 2015).

Other forms of chronic stress like depression and low levels of social support are associated with increased chances of cardiovascular risks. Once a person is sick, stress makes it harder for that person to recover.

Positive Effects of Stress

Stress is motivating when it is well applied to our day to day life experiences. For instance, some students prepare for exams very early while others wait until the very last night of the exam. Some students may also opt to skip the revision part and just hope to remember concepts from classroom discussion with teachers and lecturers (Dhabhar, 2014). The students who revised harder and longer would be expected to perform better and are the ones more affected by stress. Stress makes one try and fix the problem through prior preparation. A famous psychologist Hans Seley is regarded as the father of stress due to his extensive research and contributions towards this topic. He referred to the small amounts of stress as eustress.

Stress also enhances our cognitive abilities. Stress can work to boost several aspects of individual's mental prowess and help them in their professional and academic capabilities. This is because stress helps human brain to be focused. Stress helps the individual to focus on the issue at hand and deal with it conclusively. In some instances, stress helps increase memory and recall, so some stress when revising will help a student to remember what he or she studied before the exam. This is attributed to slightly higher levels of cortisone, in moderate levels (Nakos & Whiting 2018).

Stress can increase an individual's physical performance and endurance. Stress causes the release of adrenaline, which increases a person's heart rate and metabolism. These results into increased reactions and reflexes, making one have more endurance. This can still help people in activities like sports. Some levels of adrenaline for an athlete is good because it helps to fight tiredness and fatigue (Silva et al., 2018).

Experts in stress related issues argue that stress is a burst of energy that advises an individual what to and what not to. When the stress is mild, it has a couple of benefits. To start with, stress can help the victim to meet day to day challenges and meet daily challenges. Further research has found out that stress can help someone accomplish tasks more efficiently and effectively. Stress acts as a memory booster. This only works when the stress is in small doses or mild.

Stress also acts as a critical warning system, accelerating the fright or fight response. This happens when the brain perceives some stress; the brain starts flooding the body with some chemicals like epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. This then creates a series of reactions like an increase in blood pressure and heart rate. This makes the senses develop a laser-like focus so that the individual avoids the physically stressful situations and be on the safer side.

Some researchers also believe that some little stress can help fortify the body's immune system. For instance, some stress can work to improve how one's heart works and protect one's body from infection. One research conducted found out that patients who suffered from moderate stress levels recovered faster than patients who had low or high levels of stress.

Conclusion

In conclusion, therefore, it is important to note that stress has both positive and negative consequences. Stress yields positive results when it is moderate or in mild forms. When it is accelerated to high levels or when it becomes chronic, it has many effects that are harmful to an individual's health. Stress can also be controlled. This is done by identifying what is causing the stress. The causes are analyzed by examining the events of the day and writing them down, and once you get them, develop a plan to address them. Also, build strong relationships that will impact positively in your life.

Bibliography

Allan, B.A., Douglass, R.P., Duffy, R.D. and McCarty, R.J., 2016. Meaningful work as a moderator of the relation between work stress and meaning in life. Journal of Career Assessment, 24(3), pp.429-440.

Lovallo, W.R., 2015. Stress and health: Biological and psychological interactions. Sage publications.de Frias, C.M. and Whyne, E., 2015. Stress on health-related quality of life in older adults: The protective nature of mindfulness. Aging & mental health, 19(3), pp.201-206.

McEwen, B.S., Gray, J.D. and Nasca, C., 2015. Recognizing resilience: Learning from the effects of stress on the brain. Neurobiology of stress, 1, pp.1-11.

Arnsten, A.F., Raskind, M.A., Taylor, F.B. and Connor, D.F., 2015. The effects of stress exposure on prefrontal cortex: Translating basic research into successful treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. Neurobiology of stress, 1, pp.89-99.

Dhabhar, F.S., 2014. Effects of stress on immune function: the good, the bad, and the beautiful. Immunologic research, 58(2-3), pp.193-210.

Nakos, G. and Whiting, A., 2018. The role of frequent short exams in improving student performance in hybrid global business classes. Journal of Education for Business, pp.1-7.

Silva, J.A.S., Bahamondes-Avila, C., Hernandez-Mosqueira, C. and Navarrete, L.A.S., 2018. Biology of Stress and Physical Performance. In Sport and Exercise Science. InTech.