How Much Do You Know About Stress?

What is stress? Stress is the way you react physically, mentally and emotionally to various conditions, changes and demands in your life.

Research shows that some people are more sensitive to stress than others. Older adults, like women in general and especially working mothers and pregnant women, less educated people, divorced or widowed people, people experiencing financial strains from long-term unemployment, people who are targets of discrimination, and people who simply live in the cities seem to be particularly susceptible to health problems of stress.

People who are less emotionally stable and have high levels of anxiety tend to experience certain events as more stressful than healthy people. People who miss connecting with family and friends will probably have more stress to health problems, such as hearth disease and infection than others.

Job-stress is likely to be chronic, because so much of life. Stress reduces the efficiency of workers disturbance of concentration, causing sleeplessness and increasing the risk of illness, problems, accidents and lost time. At its worst extremes, stress that places the burden on our homes and circulation can often be fatal.

What stress does to the body? At the first sign of alarm, chemicals released by the pituitary and adrenal glands and nerve endings automatically trigger this reaction to stress. These include:

Your heart rate increases to move blood to your muscles and brain.
Your blood pressure goes up.
You can start to breathe faster.
Your digestion slows down.
You begin to sweat more.
Your pupils dilate.
You feel a rush of power.

Your body is tense, alert, and ready for action and will remain that way until you feel that the danger has passed. Then your brain signals all clear to your body, your body stops producing the chemicals that cause physical reactions, and gradually returns to normal.

Problems with stress occur when your brain does not give a clear signal to all. If the alarm condition lasts too long, you begin to suffer from the consequences of chronic stress. Change the way you react to stressful situations and finding ways to regularly relieve tension caused by stress, can reduce the risk of stress related health problems.