The Body’s Response to

Stress

What is Stress?Stress is your body’s

reaction to the physical and mental demands of daily life.

When You Experience Stress:

The adrenal gland releases the hormone adrenaline which can have both positive and negative effects.

Stages of StressI. Alarm Stage- Body prepares for immediate confrontation

- Helps you reach your goals- Body is alert and focused

Alarm Stage- Effects on the body-pupils dilate, hearing

sharpens, heart rate increases, digestion slows, breathing increases, muscles tighten (more blood flow)

Stages of Stress(cont.)

II. Resistance Stage

-body tries to return to normal

Resistance Stage- Effects on the body- pupils constrict, hearing

returns to normal, heart rate decreases, muscles relax (less blood flow)

Stages of Stress(cont.)

III. Exhaustion StageBody can no longer sustain its

resistanceThe risk of stress related disease

increases

Exhaustion Stage-Effects on the Bodyheadaches, depressed immune system, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, ulcers, gastritis, diarrhea, and even death

StressShort term Stress:- Emergency situations- Body changes to help deal with the

situation- Body returns to normal after the

incident - This is NECESSARY stress and

keeps you ALIVE!

StressLong Term Stress:- Continual problems- Does not help the body adapt to

the situation- Stress is not relieved so body

doesn’t return to normal- This is BAD for the body!

Plan

Managing Stress:www.vertex42.com

blogs.zdnet.com

Managing Stress:

Talk

Managing Stress:

RedirectPhysical

activity!

Managing Stress:

Relax

www.arielbravy.com

Managing Stress:

Laugh

www.sakthifoundation.org/ images/laughing1.jpg

Laughing helps arteries and boosts blood flow ･ 21:45 07 March 2005 ･NewScientist.com news service ･ Andy Coghlan

Laughing appears to be almost as beneficial as a workout in boosting the health of blood vessels, a new study suggests."Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week and 15 minutes of hearty laughter each day should be part of a healthy lifestyle," says Michael Miller of the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, US, whose team has shown that laughter relaxes arteries and boosts blood flow.He showed clips from the comedy movie King Pin to 20 volunteers. Before and afterwards, he made ultrasound measurements of blood flow and dilation in the brachial artery in the arm. The scans showed that in all but one of the volunteers, the volunteers' arteries relaxed and blood flowed more freely than usual for 30 to 45 minutes after the film.The opposite happened when the same people watched harrowing scenes from the war movie Saving Private Ryan. In 14 of the 20 volunteers, the artery wall constricted, reducing blood flow. Overall, blood flow decreased by 35% after the stressful clips and increased by 22% during laughter.Laughter liningsThe results suggest that laughter could help keep the lining of the arteries - the endothelium - healthy and thus reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. "At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium," Miller says."It's logical that positive emotions might have the opposite effect," says Andrew Steptoe of University College London, UK, whose studies in 2000 showed that acute mental stress impairs endothelial function. "There is increasing scientific interest in the possibility that positive emotional states are beneficial to health," he says.Miller, who presented his results to the American College of Cardiology meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Monday, now hopes to find out why laughter is beneficial. "We don't know if there's a direct effect by laughing, or an indirect effect by reducing stress.”

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7103