APP - 104 Stress and Causes of Death

8/12/2019 APP - 104 Stress and Causes of Death

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Stress and Causes of Death

Prolonged stress combined with unhealthybehaviors may increase our risk for one of

today's four leading diseases.


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Behavioral Medicine

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claim that halfof the deaths in the US are due to peoples

behaviors (smoking, alcoholism, unprotected sex,

insufficient exercise, drugs, and poor nutrition).

Psychologists and physicians have thus

developed an interdisciplinary field ofbehavioralmedicinethat integrates behavioral knowledge

with medical knowledge.


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Health Psychology

Health psychologyis a field of psychology thatcontributes to behavioral medicine. The field

studies stress-related aspects of disease and asksthe following questions:

1. How do emotions and personality factorsinfluence the risk of disease?

2. What attitudes and behaviors prevent illnessand promote health and well-being?

3. How do our perceptions determine stress?

4. How can we reduce or control stress?


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Stress can be adaptive. In a fearful or stress-causing situation, we can run away and save ourlives. Stress can be maladaptive. If it is prolonged

(chronic stress), it increases our risk of illness andhealth problems.

Stress and Illness


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The Stress Response System

Canon proposed thatthe stress response

(fast) was a fight-or-flight response marked

by the outpouring ofepinephrineand

norepinephrinefrom theinner adrenal glands,increasing heart and

respiration rates,mobilizing sugar and

fat, and dulling pain.


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The StressResponse

System

The hypothalamusand the pituitarygland also respond to

stress (slow) bytriggering the outeradrenal glands tosecreteglucocorticoids(cortisol).


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General Adaptation Syndrome

According to Selye, a stress response to any kind ofstimulation is similar. The stressed individual goes

through three phases.

EPA/YuriKochetkov/La

ndov


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Stress and Heart Disease

Frequent or chronic stress can cause damage to

the heart and blood vessels

Type A personality

Competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verballyaggressive, and anger-prone people

Respond to life events with impatience and hostility

Correlated with development of heart disease

Type B personality

Relaxed and easygoing


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Correlation?

FINDINGS: Of the original sample of 3200, 257 participants haddeveloped coronary heart disease during the 812 years

70% of them had been classified as Type A.

Type As were found to have higher levels of cholesterol, adrenaline,and noradrenaline than Type Bs.

A significant but moderate correlation was found betweenpersonality type and coronary heart disease.

CONCLUSIONS: The research shows that Type A behaviour patternis fairly strongly linked to CHD. Friedman and Rosenman concludedthat the Type A behaviour pattern increases the individualsexperience of stress, which increases physiological reactivity, andthat in turn increases vulnerability to CHD.

The high levels of the stress hormones suggest that they doexperience more stress than Type Bs. The stress response inhibitsdigestion, which leads to the higher level of cholesterol in the blood,and this places Type As at risk of CHD. Implications include theneed to reduce the harmful Type A characteristics.


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Stress and the Immune System

B lymphocytesfight bacterial infections, Tlymphocytesattack cancer cells and viruses, andmicrophagesingest foreign substances. During

stress, energy is mobilized away from theimmune system making it vulnerable.

LennartNilsson/BoehringerIngelheinInternationalGmbH


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Stress and Colds

People with the highest life stress scores were alsothe most vulnerable when exposed to an

experimental cold virus.


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Stress and AIDS

Stress and negative emotions may accelerate theprogression from human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) to acquired immune deficiency syndrome

(AIDS).

UNAIDS/G.Pirozzi


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Stress and Cancer

Stress does not create cancer cells. Researchersdisagree on whether stress influences the

progression of cancer. However, they do agreethat avoiding stress and having a hopeful attitude

cannot reverse advanced cancer.


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Stress and Immune Conditioning

If the immune system can be suppressed throughconditioning, researchers believe that immune-

enhancing responses can be inculcated to combatviral diseases.


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Health-Related Consequences

Stress can have a variety of health-relatedconsequences.

KathleenFinlay/

Masterfile

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APP - 104 Stress and Causes of Death