STRESS!!!!

FEELING STRESSED OUT? How often do you experience stress in your daily life? Never? Rarely? Sometimes? Is it frequent? In a 2007 Gallup Poll over half of the people under the age off 55 said that they did not have enough time to do the things that they wanted to do.

SEINFELD Studies of stressors have shown that people’s number one fear is speaking in public. Second to this is the fear of dying. Citing this finding, comedian Jerry Seinfeld has joked that people are more afraid of giving the eulogy at a funeral than being in the casket.

What is Stress? Stress: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Stress comes in 2 Types DistressEustress Stress perceived as being negative—those events we typically think of when we think of “stress.” Stress perceived as being positive, but which still carries heightened arousal.

With both types of stress… They can (over time) lead to harmful physical effects, even though eustress is more pleasant to endure.

One Key in Understanding Stress Stress is not just a stimulus or a response. It is the process by which we appraise and cope with environmental threats and challenges. Stress arises less from events themselves than from how we appraise them. For example—a creaking sound in an empty house may cause stress in one person and NOT in another.

STRESS AND HEALTH Experiencing prolonged stress can lead to chronic disease. Those who came back from Vietnam with PTSD went on to suffer greatly elevated rates of circulatory, digestive, respiratory, and infectious diseases.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME Concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. 1) Alarm Reaction: sudden activation of sympathetic nervous system. Heart rate zooms, Blood is diverted to skeletal muscles. You feel the faintness of shock. 2) Resistance: Your temperature, blood pressure, and respiration remain high. Sudden outpouring of hormones. This is draining and leads to… 3) Exhaustion: Makes you more vulnerable to illness and possibly death.

STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS CATASTROPHES SIGNIFICANT LIFE CHANGES DAILY HASSLES

STRESS AND THE HEART Coronary Heart Disease: the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in North America. Associated Factors: obesity, smoking, high-fat diet, physical inactivity, elevated cholesterol level, STRESS and PERSONALITY.

TYPE A AND TYPE B PERSONALITY Type A: Competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people. Type B: Easygoing, Relaxed People

THINGS WE CAN DO TO CONTROL OUR HEALTH 1) Get your 7-8 hours of sleep per night 2) Eat breakfast 3) Keep weight to a normal level 4) Don’t smoke 5) Get regular physical exercise 6) Wear seat belts 7) Don’t drive at excessive speeds 8) Learn good diets and follow them 9) Find a physician with whom you can communicate

Questions for You Do you feel most stressed out around exam time? Why or why not? How could you personally reduce your stress level at exam time? How do your teachers and administrators try to reduce the stress of exam time? What other things could be done to make exam time less stressful?

STRESS AND COLDS In an experiment by Sheldon Cohen people with the highest life stress scores were also most vulnerable when exposed to an experimentally delivered cold virus.

STRESS AND AIDS If stress weakens the immune system does it exacerbate an autoimmune disease such as AIDS?

STRESS AND CANCER Stress is linked to the progression of cancer.