Stress: Impact on Health and Brain Cells, Summaries of Psychology

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F. Monte Nkouedjeu, K. Naiker,

Introduction to psychology

Stress: Portrait of a killer (25 pts) This assignment must be done on a word processor with 12 - point font and 1 - inch margins. Make sure to upload it into Canvas by the due date! The original purpose of stress was survival. However, what once helped us survive may now be shortening our lives. Research shows that chronic stress is associated with obesity, ulcers, heart problems, and the shrinking of our brains. In our society, we don’t value stress reduction, we tend to value the opposite. We admire the multitasker. But how is stress related to poor health? Learning objectives :

1. The belief that stress is related to ulcers has changed over the years. What do we know now about how stress is related to ulcers? Now, researchers know that when the body is stressed, it will begin to shut down non-essential systems, including the immune system. After years of research, it has been proven that ulcers are not caused by stress, but are actually bacterial diseases. When this happens, stomach bacteria may start to grow and cause stomach ulcers. It can prevent the body from recovering from the damage of bacteria doctors once thought that stress would cause ulcers. It also establishes a body related to stress. When stress weakens the immune system and becomes more susceptible to bacterial infections, it loses the ability to fight infections and diseases.

5. Researchers in Holland wanted to know how the stress of hunger impacted pregnant women and the babies they were carrying at the time. What did the researchers find out about how a mothers’ stress impacts her baby? It increases their risk of various diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and high cholesterol in the body. They are more sensitive and able to cope with stress than others and are more likely to get sick.
6. Recent research has looked at how stress affects telemeres. How does stress impact telemeres and how is that related to longevity, or how long you live? Pressure can cause a contraction signal to shorten faster than necessary. Shortened telemeres can lead to accelerating aging, cancer, and a higher risk of death. If telemeres are aging as they should and shortening as normal, then these effects do not take place.
7. How do we reduce the effects of stress? Discuss 2 - 3 ways specifically. Managing your time effectively can reduce the amount of stress in our life. Categorizing things as what is urgent and what can wait, it can reduce the amount of stress and make life easier. Adjusting our lifestyle can reduce a great amount of stress in someone's life. If people spend too much time on one thing, they are going to begin to stress about the other one. Manage what is necessary and important to you, and then create a time for the things that still need to be done, but are not important to you. Stress can be reduced by helping others, which tends to give people a good feeling also known as dopamine. Other ways in which people can help in reducing stress is doing the things that they might enjoy and working in a job they do not mind.

Reference Heminway, J. (Director), Heminway, J. (Writer), & Heminway, J., & Mayer, S. (Productor). (2008). Stress Portait of a killer [Motion picture on TV Film/Documentary]. USA/Australia: National Geographic.