The effects of the hormones depend largely on their concentration in blood and extracellular fluid. Almost inevitably, disease results when hormone concentrations are either too high or too low, and precise control over circulating concentrations of hormones is, therefore, crucial.
Continue reading Stress Relief: Control Systems for Hormone Secretion
This strategy of breaking food into its simplest parts and reconverting it into complex forms for storage is precisely what our body should do when we have eaten plenty. And this is precisely what the body should not do in the face of an immediate physical emergency (stressor). First, the body turns down the parasympathetic nervous system and down goes insulin secretion. Second, the body makes sure that energy storage is stopped. With the onset of stress, the body releases glucocorticoids, which block the transport of nutrients into fat cells. This counteracts the effect of any insulin still floating around.
Continue reading Stress Relief: Energy Mobilization During a Stressor
The basic process of digestion comprises breaking down pieces of animals and vegetables so that they can be transformed into pieces of human body. This may seem facetious but that is the essence of digestion.
So far, in our discussion, we have emphasized how the body has a fairly generalized stress response to any stressor. A physical danger or a purely psychological stress and the response of the body is pretty much the same. Hidden in this generalization are many subtleties. Obviously, a lot of the technical details are beyond the scope of this treatise. However, we will look at some of the aspects that will give an idea of the complications.
Continue reading Stress Relief: Subtleties of the Stress Response
Repeated stress will cause extra work for the heart, the blood vessels and the kidneys. In simple terms, this will cause wear and tear of the system. Thus, repeated activation would cause fatigue and damage the heart and other major systems. Logically, we should then experience heart problems after many years and very late in life. We are all familiar with anecdotes about the incidence of heart diseases in younger people. In India, the incidences of cardiovascular diseases have gone up dramatically during the last two decades and this rise has been blamed on the modern lifestyle and stress.
An important aspect of our body’s stress response is the increase in cardiovascular output. The reason for this is not far to see. From the point of view of evolution, in the face of a physical stressor, oxygen and energy need to be diverted to muscles for flight or fight. The heart is the transport system pump; the delivery routes are the blood vessels. Using blood as the transporting medium, the heart propels oxygen, nutrients, wastes, and other substances to and past the body cells. Naturally, this (cardiovascular) output needs to be increased when faced with a stressor.
If mobilization of energy in response to stress works so wonderfully, why should it make us sick in face of chronic psychological stress? For many of the same reasons that constantly running to the bank and drawing cash from the savings accounts is a foolish way to handle your money.
In 1983, an Australian pathologist named Robert Warren discovered a bacterium called helicobacter pylori. He enlisted the help of his colleague Barry Marshall, who stated that this bacterium turned up consistently in the stomachs of people suffering from duodenal ulcers and stomach inflammation. He took a daring step and theorized that the bacterium actually caused the inflammation and the ulcer. He announced his findings at an international conference on gastroenterology and was promptly laughed out of the hall.
The Digestive System
Before we discuss the effects of stress on the formation of ulcers, we will take a brief look at the mechanical processes involved in digestion. Recall from our discussion on the digestive system from previous article, that it takes a huge amount of energy in terms of muscular movement to digest a stomach full of lunch. The food in the stomach is broken down mechanically and chemically. The stomach muscles contract violently on one side and the food is flung against the far sidewall of the stomach.
In my errant youth, I was fascinated by a TV serial called ‘Star Trek’ and repeatedly watched the episodes of that show. For those uninitiated in the field of junk science fiction TV shows, the story line of Star Trek is roughly as follows—a group of intrepid space travellers use a space ship propelled by novel technology to explore the universe. The captain is a human and he has a diverse bunch of aliens acting as his crew. The first officer of the ship is a Vulcan—a human-like species. The Vulcans though human in appearance have com¬plete control over their emotions.