Stress: What It Can Do to Us, What We Can Do About It
And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we talk about an emotional or mental influence commonly called stress. We also tell about the effects of stress on people's health.
Many people in the United States suffered emotional or mental problems after the terrorist attacks on September eleventh, two thousand one. Terrorism creates fear and fear often leads to severe stress. Studies suggest that stress can reduce the body's ability to fight disease and can lead to serious health problems.
Stress affects everybody every day. It is your body's reaction to physical, chemical, emotional or environmental influences. Some stress is unavoidable and may even be good for us. Stress can keep our bodies and minds strong. It gives us the push we need to react to an urgent situation. Some people say it makes them more productive at work and gives them more energy.
Too much stress, however, can be harmful. It may make an existing health problem worse. Or it can lead to other illnesses or disease if a person is at risk for the condition.
For example, your body reacts to stressful situations by raising your blood pressure and making your heart work harder. This is especially dangerous if you already have heart disease or high blood pressure. Stress is more likely to be harmful if you feel helpless to deal with the problem or situation that causes the stress.
Anything you see as a problem can cause stress. It can be caused by everyday situations or by major problems. Stress results when something causes your body to act as if it were under attack. Causes of stress can be physical, such as injury or illness. Or they can be mental, such as problems with your family, job, health or finances. Many visits to doctors are for conditions connected with stress.
The tension of stress can interfere with sleep or cause uncontrollable anger or sadness. A person may become more forgetful or find it harder to think clearly. Losin
g one's sense of humor is another sign of an unhealthy amount of stress.
Stress can lead to other health problems if people try to ease it by smoking, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or by eating more or less than normal.
Chronic stress lasts a long time or happens often. Chronic stress causes the body to produce too much of the hormones cortisol and adrenalin.
Cortisol is called the "worry" hormone. It is produced when we are afraid. Adrenalin is known as the "fight or flight" hormone. It prepares the body to react physically to a threat.
Persons under chronic stress produce too much of these hormones for long periods. Too much cortisol and adrenalin can result in physical problems and even changes that lead to stress-linked illnesses.
Cortisol provides high levels of energy during important periods. However, scientists have become concerned about the hormone's long-term effects on our he
alth.
Evidence shows that extended periods of cortisol in the body weakens bones, damages nerve cells in the brain. It also can weaken the body's defense system against disease. This makes it easier to get viral and bacterial infections.
Chronic stress has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. Studies suggest that people who are easily stressed develop blockages in blood passageways faster than people who are calm. A few years ago, a study of women was carried out in Japan. It found that women who reported high levels of stress were more than two times as likely to die from stroke and heart disease as other women.
High stress levels have been found to cause asthma attacks that make it difficult to breathe. Stress also is linked to mental conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders.
react to后面加什么Studies also have shown that chronic stress reduces the levels of the hormone estrogen in women. This might put some women at greater risk for heart disease or the bone-thinning disease, osteoporosis.
Experts say long-term stress also can weaken your resistance to infections such as colds and influenza, as well as your ability to recover from these diseases. Extended periods of stress are also linked to headaches, difficulty sleeping, stomach problems and skin problems.
Mental and health experts believe personality is an important part in how we experience stress. Personality is the way a person acts, feels and thinks. Many things influence the development of a person's personality, including genetics and experience.
Some people, for example, are aggressive and always in a hurry. They often become angry when things do not happen the way they planned. They are called "Type A" personalities. Studies suggest that these people often get stress-related illnesses.

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