explain the nature and measurement of stress in about 500 words
Answers
Answer:
Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional, or psychological strain. Stress is your body's response to anything that requires attention or action. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way you respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to your overall well-being.
Answer:
The term ‘stress’ has several meanings and definitions. However, the theory proposed by McEwen had received general acceptance (see Figure 1). Stress involves a stressor and a stress response. The imminent or perceived stimulus that initiates the stress response is called the stressor. The stress response is controlled by the autonomic nervous system.
The brain works consciously and unconsciously. The unconscious brain, the autonomic nervous system, works 24 hours a day. It organized all bodily functions, as well as all conscious behavior related to these functions, including any physical, mental, emotional, psychological and social behavior.
The activity of the unconscious brain varies between being relaxed and tense similar to a mechanical spring; relaxed when we sleep and tense when be meet or anticipate a challenge or a threat.
When the brain works well, the shift between being relaxed and tense happens within seconds when needed, such as an unexpected event when driving a car: The brain resilience is normal, and the brain reacts to the challenge with an adaptive and transient stress response that is constructive and increases performance. This is positive stress and is called transient or acute stress. Afterwards, the relaxed state of homeostasis is re-established (see Figure 1).
If a person is under a TOO high stress load for a TOO long period, the unconscious brain loses resilience similar to the mechanical spring. This leads to dysfunction of the adaptive transient stress response – and to a variety of physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and social dysfunctions. This reduces overall performance and may affect health negatively. In this situation, stress has become negative and destructive, and is called persistent or chronic stress (see Figure 1). If the autonomic dysfunction persists, it may lead to diseases such as depression, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, hypertension, chronic pain, reduced fertility, diabetes, heart disease and/or stroke.
There is a close association between the autonomic nervous system, stress and the PPS measure as the Autonomic nervous system is controlling both the stress response and the PPS measure, and they change in parallel during transient and persistent stress (see Figure 1 and 2).
Persistent stress affects 1/3 of the working population, according to a recent EU report. Persistent stress has a bi-directional association to the non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases.