stress

stress:

see strength of materialsstrength of materials,
measurement in engineering of the capacity of metal, wood, concrete, and other materials to withstand stress and strain. Stress is the internal force exerted by one part of an elastic body upon the adjoining part, and strain is the deformation or change in
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Stress (psychology)

Generally, environmental events of a challenging sort as well as the body's response to such events. Of particular interest has been the relationship between stress and the body's adaptation to it on the one hand and the body's susceptibility to disease on the other. Both outcomes involve behavioral and brain changes as well as psychosomatic events, that is, changes in body function arising from the ability of the brain to control such function through neural output as well as hormones. One problem is that both environmental events and bodily responses have been referred to interchangeably as stress. It is preferable to refer to the former as the stressor and the latter as the stress response. The stress response consists of a cascade of neural and hormonal events that have short- and long-lasting consequences for brain and body alike. A more serious issue is how an event is determined to be a stressor. One view is to define a stressor as an environmental event causing a negative outcome, such as a disease. Another approach is to view stressors as virtually any challenge to homeostasis and to regard disease processes as a failure of the normal operation of adapative mechanisms, which are part of the stress response. With either view, it is necessary to include psychological stressors, such as fear, that contain implied threats to homeostasis and that evoke psychosomatic reactions. These are reactions that involve changes in neural and hormonal output caused by psychological stress. Psychosomatic reactions may lead to adaptive responses, or they may exacerbate disease processes. Whether the emphasis is on adaptation or disease, it is essential to understand the processes in the brain that are activated by stressors and that influence functions in the body. See Homeostasis, Psychosomatic disorders

Among the many neurotransmitter systems activated by stress is noradrenaline, produced by neurons with cell bodies in the brainstem that have vast projections up to the forebrain and down the spinal cord. Stressful experiences activate the noradrenergic system and promote release of noradrenaline; severe stress leads to depletion of noradrenaline in brain areas such as the hypothalamus. This release and depletion of noradrenaline stores results in changes at two levels of neuronal function: phosphorylation is triggered by the second-messenger cyclic AMP and occurs in the presynaptic and postsynaptic sites where noradrenaline is released and where it also acts; synthesis of new protein is induced via actions on the genome. Both processes enhance the ability of the brain to form noradrenaline when the organism is once again confronted with a stressful situation. Other neurotransmitter systems may also show similar adaptive changes in response to stressors. See Noradrenergic system

Stress also activates the neurally mediated discharge of adrenaline from the adrenal medulla and of hypothalamic hormones that initiate the neuroendocrine cascade, culminating in glucocorticoid release from the adrenal cortex. Thus, the activity of neurons triggered by stressful experiences, physical trauma, fear, or anger leads to hormone secretion that has effects throughout the body. Virtually every organ of the body is affected by stress hormones. The hypothalamic hormone (corticotrophin-releasing hormone) that triggers the neuroendocrine cascade directly stimulates the pituitary to secrete ACTH. In response to certain stressors, the hypothalamus also secretes vasopressin and oxytocin, which act synergistically with corticotrophin-releasing hormone on the pituitary to potentiate the secretion of ACTH. Various stressors differ in their ability to promote output of vasopressin and oxytocin, but all stressors stimulate release of corticotrophin-releasing hormone. Other hormones involved in the stress response include prolactin and thyroid hormone; the metabolic hormones insulin, epinephrine, and glucagon; and the endogenous opiates endorphin and enkephalin. See Endorphins

Of all the hormones in the endocrine cascade initiated by stress, the glucocorticoids are the most important because of their widespread effects throughout the body and in the brain. The brain contains target cells for adrenal glucocorticoids secreted in stress, and receptors in these cells are proteins that interact with the genome to affect expression of genetic information. Thus, the impact of stress-induced activation of the endocrine cascade that culminates in glucocorticoid release is the feedback of glucocorticoids on target brain cells. The effect is to alter the structure and function of the brain cells over a period of time ranging from hours to days.

In the case of noradrenaline, glucocorticoids have several types of feedback effects that modify how the noradrenergic system responds to stress. Glucocorticoids inhibit noradrenaline release, and they reduce the second-messenger response of brain structures such as the cerebral cortex to noradrenaline. Glucocorticoid feedback also affects the serotonin system, facilitating serotonin formation during stress but at the same time altering the levels of several types of serotonin receptors in different brain regions, which has the net effect of shifting the balance within the serotonergic system. Taken together, evidence points to a role of glucocorticoid secretion in leading to restoration of homeostatic balance by counteracting the acute neural events such as increased activity of noradrenaline and serotonin, which are turned on by stressful experiences. Other neurotransmitter systems may also respond to glucocorticoid action. Moreover, the other hormones activated by stress have effects on the brain and body that must be considered. See Serotonin

In general, stress hormones are protective and adaptive in the immediate aftermath of stress, and the organism is more vulnerable to many conditions without them. However, the same hormones can promote damage and accelerate pathophysiological changes, such as bone mineral loss, obesity, and cognitive impairment, when they are overproduced or not turned off. This wear-and-tear on the body has been called allostatic load. It is based upon the notion that allostasis is the active process of maintaining stability, or homeostasis, through change, and allostatic load is the almost inevitable cost to the body of doing so.

Stress hormone actions have important effects outside the brain on such systems as the immune response. Glucocorticoids and catecholamines from sympathetic nerves and the adrenal medulla participate in the mobilization and enhancement of immune function in the aftermath of acute stress. These effects improve the body's defense against pathogens but can exacerbate autoimmune reactions. When they are secreted chronically, the stress-related hormones are generally immunosuppressive; such effects can be beneficial in the case of an autoimmune disease but may compromise defense against a virus or bacterial infections. At the same time, glucocorticoids are important agents for containing the acute-phase response to an infection or autoimmune disturbance. In the absence of such containment, the organism may die because of the excessive inflammatory response. See Immunology

Besides affecting the immune response, stressors are believed to exacerbate endogenous depressive illness in susceptible individuals. Major depressive illness frequently results in elevated levels of cortisol in the blood. It is not clear whether the elevated cortisol is a cause or strictly a result of the brain changes involved in depressive illness. See Affective disorders

Stress

Internal forces per unit area; when the forces are tangential to the plane, they are shear stresses; when they are perpendicular, they are called either tensile or compressive stresses, depending on whether they act toward or away from the plane of separation. The deformation caused by stress is called strain.

stress

a state of tension produced by pressures or conflicting demands with which the person cannot adequately cope. This is therefore subjective in that different people experience the same event differently, and what is experienced as stress by one, may not be by another.

Stress, induced by life events, for example, is relevant in a consideration of psychological disorders (see NEUROSIS), sociological studies of social phenomena (e.g. SUICIDE), and in physical illness (e.g. heart disease). The holistic approach of PERSON-CENTRED COUNSELLING and much of ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE aims to treat the person within the context of the life experience and current problems. To use the mechanical analogy, the aim would be to strengthen the person in order to enable him/her to resist damage from life's pressures.

Stress

(1) In engineering, an external force applied to an object and causing deformation.

(2) In psychology, physiology, and medicine, a state of mental tension arising in individuals who function under difficult conditions. The state can arise as a response to either everyday or highly unusual conditions, for example, those attending space flight. The concept of stress was introduced in 1936 by the Canadian physiologist H. Selye in describing the adaptation syndrome. Stress can have both positive and negative effects on behavior and in extreme cases can lead to a total breakdown. The study of human adaptation to complex (extreme) conditions seeks to determine these effects of stress on behavior. Predictions of human behavior, especially behavior under similar conditions, are also concerned with the effects of stress.

REFERENCES

Levitov, N. D. O psikhicheskikh sostoianiiakh cheloveka. Moscow, 1964.
Emotsional’nyi stress. Leningrad, 1970. (Translated from English.)

Stress

a term used in geology in the narrow sense to designate the one-sided stresses that cause tectonic deformations of rocks and lead to the development of cleavage, schistosity, and dynamic metamorphism. These phenomena in turn give rise to stress minerals (muscovite, chlorite, albite, glaucophane, jadeite, kyanite), which are stable under high pressure. The orientation of the fold axes and of the crystalline forms of the minerals makes it possible to determine the direction of the stress.

Stress

(also called accent), the emphasis of certain units of speech through phonetic means. Emphasis is generally placed on syllables, but words and word groups may also be emphasized.

The different types of stress include word stress, breath-group (syntagmatic) stress, and phrasal stress. These types of stress are associated with the linear structure of an utterance that is divisible into segments. A special type of stress—logical stress—is associated with the semantic emphasis of the most important word in a sentence. Stress may be manifested phonetically by increasing the intensity of the stressed syllable. This can be achieved by increasing muscular tension and the intensity of expiration, as in dynamic stress; by varying the voice’s pitch, as in musical accent; or by lengthening the sound, as in quantitative stress.

The most common type of stress is dynamic stress, which exists in many languages, including Russian, English, French, Polish, Hungarian, and Arabic. Musical accent occurs in many languages as well, including Lithuanian, Serbian, the Scandinavian languages, Burmese, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese. Quantitative stress probably does not occur in its pure form, but the feature of length is an important constituent of other types of stress. In Russian, for example, a stressed syllable is emphasized first and foremost by its greater length in relation to the length of unstressed syllables, which may be indistinguishable from stressed syllables in terms of intensity. When a Russian hears long vowels in Czech, in such words as dovésti (“to bring”) or motyl (“butterfly”), he perceives them as stressed vowels, although in actuality stress in Czech always falls on the first syllable. Languages in which length characterizes the vowel phonemes themselves do not use length to achieve stress; in such languages, however, the long vowels in unstressed syllables differ in length from the long vowels in stressed syllables.

Some languages combine all the features by which stress is manifested. In French, for example, a stressed syllable is both more intense and is longer and higher in pitch. Few languages have different types of stress. In Swedish, for example, dynamic stress falls on the first syllable of polysyllabic words, and musical accent falls on one of the succeeding syllables. Danish has, in addition to ordinary dynamic stress, a unique type of stress with a glottal stop (Stød), which, according to many scholars, is a vestige of an earlier musical accent. Dynamic stress may be expressed in the alteration of vowels in unstressed syllables—vowel reduction—which occurs in such languages as Russian and English.

In some languages, for example, Russian, English, and German, primary and secondary stresses may exist within a single word. This often makes it possible to distinguish compound words from combinations of two words with equal primary stresses, as in German Rote Banner (“red banner”) and Rotgardist (“Red Guard”).

Important morphological properties of stress are its mobility and immobility. Mobile stress may be associated with a word’s syllabic structure, as in Polish, or with its morphological structure, as in Russian and English. Russian has mobile stress, that is, some forms of a given word may have stem stress, and others, stressed endings. Mobile-stress paradigms are parallel to declensional and conjugational morphological paradigms and to patterns of word formation.

Stress performs different functions. It can have a distinguishing (significative) function, as in Russian zámok (“castle”) and zamók (“lock”). It can have a demarcative function, as in Czech and Hungarian, which have a special fixed stress that indicates a word boundary, that is, a word’s beginning or end. Stress may also have a unifying (cumulative) function, uniting the elements of a word into a whole.

Stress may alter as languages change over the course of time, and one type of stress may replace another. For example, in most of the Slavic languages, the earlier musical accent, which interacted in a complex manner with acute and circumflex syllabic intonation and with vowel length, became dynamic stress. The law of Fortunatov and de Saussure, in operation during the Balto-Slavic period, regulated stress shifts within word forms and led to the appearance of mobile-stress patterns in morphological paradigms.

REFERENCES

Meillet, A. Obshcheslavianskii iazyk. Moscow, 1951. (Translated from French.)
Avanesov, R. I. Fonetika sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo iazyka. Moscow, 1956.
Zinder, L. R. Obshchaia fonetika. Leningrad, 1960.
Red’kin, V. A. Aktsentologiia sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo iazyka. Moscow, 1971.

V. A. VINOGRADOV

stress

[stres] (biology) A stimulus or succession of stimuli of such magnitude as to tend to disrupt the homeostasis of the organism. (mechanics) The force acting across a unit area in a solid material resisting the separation, compacting, or sliding that tends to be induced by external forces.

STRESS

[stres] (computer science) A problem-oriented programming language used to solve structural engineering problems. Derived from structural engineering system solver.

stress

The internal forces set up at a point in an elastic material by the action of external forces; expressed in units of force per unit area, e.g., pounds per square inch or kilograms per square millimeter.

stress

Types of stresses.Any load applied to a unit area of material. It is the force exerted between two bodies or parts of a body in contact with each other. The various types of stresses are tension (or stretching), compression (or crushing), torsion (or twisting), shear (or cutting), and bending. See also strain.

stress

1. such emphasis as part of a regular rhythmic beat in music or poetry 2. Physicsa. force or a system of forces producing deformation or strain b. the force acting per unit area

STRESS

STRuctual Engineering Systems Solver.

A system for structural analysis problems in CivilEngineering. STRESS was superseded by STRUDL.

["STRESS: A User's Manual", S.J. Fenves et al, MIT Press1964].

[Sammet 1969, p. 612].

stress

Stress

Definition

Stress is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures. When stress was first studied in the 1950s, the term was used to denote both the causes and the experienced effects of these pressures. More recently, however, the word stressor has been used for the stimulus that provokes a stress response. One recurrent disagreement among researchers concerns the definition of stress in humans. Is it primarily an external response that can be measured by changes in glandular secretions, skin reactions, and other physical functions, or is it an internal interpretation of, or reaction to, a stressor; or is it both?

Description

Stress in humans results from interactions between persons and their environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capacities and threatening their well-being. The element of perception indicates that human stress responses reflect differences in personality, as well as differences in physical strength or general health.Risk factors for stress-related illnesses are a mix of personal, interpersonal, and social variables. These factors include lack or loss of control over one's physical environment, and lack or loss of social support networks. People who are dependent on others (e.g., children or the elderly) or who are socially disadvantaged (because of race, gender, educational level, or similar factors) are at greater risk of developing stress-related illnesses. Other risk factors include feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, extreme fear or anger, and cynicism or distrust of others.

Causes and symptoms

Causes

The causes of stress can include any event or occurrence that a person considers a threat to his or her coping strategies or resources. Researchers generally agree that a certain degree of stress is a normal part of a living organism's response to the inevitable changes in its physical or social environment, and that positive, as well as negative, events can generate stress as well as negative occurrences. Stress-related disease, however, results from excessive and prolonged demands on an organism's coping resources. It is now believed that 80-90% of all disease is stress-related.Recent research indicates that some vulnerability to stress is genetic. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin and King's College London discovered that people who inherited a short, or stress-sensitive, version of the serotonin transporter gene were almost three times as likely to experience depression following a stressful event as people with the long version of the gene. Further research is likely to identify other genes that affect susceptibility to stress.One cause of stress that has affected large sectors of the general population around the world since 2001 is terrorism. The events of September 11, 2001, the sniper shootings in Virginia and Maryland and the Bali nightclub bombing in 2002, the suicide bombings in the Middle East in 2003, have all been shown to cause short-term symptoms of stress in people who read about them or watch television news reports as well as those who witnessed the actual events. Stress related to terrorist attacks also appears to affect people in countries far from the location of the attack as well as those in the immediate vicinity. It is too soon to tell how stress related to episodes of terrorism will affect human health over long periods of time, but researchers are already beginning to investigate this question. In 2004 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on the aftereffects of the World Trade Center attacks on rescue and recovery workers and volunteers. The researchers found that over half the 11,700 people who were interviewed met threshold criteria for a mental health evaluation. A longer-term evaluation of these workers is underway.A new condition that has been identified since 9/11 is childhood traumatic grief, or CTG. CTG refers to an intense stress reaction that may develop in children following the loss of a parent, sibling, or other loved one during a traumatic event. As defined by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), "Children with childhood traumatic grief experience the cause of [the loved one's] death as horrifying or terrifying, whether the death was sudden and unexpected (for example, due to homicide, suicide, motor vehicle accident, drug overdose, natural disaster, war, terrorism, and so on) or due to natural causes (cancer, heart attack, and so forth). Even if the manner of death does not appear to others to be sudden, shocking, or frightening, children who perceive the death in this way may develop childhood traumatic grief. In this condition, even happy thoughts and memories of the deceased person remind children of the traumatic way in which the deceased died." More information on the identification and treatment of childhood traumatic grief can be obtained from the NCTSN web site, 〈http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=hom_main〉.

Symptoms

The symptoms of stress can be either physical or psychological. Stress-related physical illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, heart attacks, arthritis, and chronic headaches, result from long-term overstimulation of a part of the nervous system that regulates the heart rate, blood pressure, and digestive system. Stress-related emotional illness results from inadequate or inappropriate responses to major changes in one's life situation, such as marriage, completing one's education, becoming a parent, losing a job, or retirement. Psychiatrists sometimes use the term adjustment disorder to describe this type of illness. In the workplace, stress-related illness often takes the form of burnout—a loss of interest in or ability to perform one's job due to long-term high stress levels. For example, palliative care nurses are at high risk of burnout due to their inability to prevent their patients from dying or even to relieve their physical suffering in some circumstances.

Diagnosis

When the doctor suspects that a patient's illness is connected to stress, he or she will take a careful history that includes stressors in the patient's life (family or employment problems, other illnesses, etc.). Many physicians will evaluate the patient's personality as well, in order to assess his or her coping resources and emotional response patterns. There are a number of personality inventories and psychological tests that doctors can use to help diagnose the amount of stress that the patient experiences and the coping strategies that he or she uses to deal with them. A variation on this theme is to identify what the patient perceives as threatening as well as stressful. Stress-related illness can be diagnosed by primary care doctors, as well as by those who specialize in psychiatry. The doctor will need to distinguish between adjustment disorders and anxiety or mood disorders, and between psychiatric disorders and physical illnesses (e.g., thyroid activity) that have psychological side effects.

Treatment

Recent advances in the understanding of the many complex connections between the human mind and body have produced a variety of mainstream approaches to stress-related illness. Present treatment regimens may include one or more of the following:

Medications. These may include drugs to control blood pressure or other physical symptoms of stress, as well as drugs that affect the patient's mood (tranquilizers or antidepressants).
Stress management programs. These may be either individual or group treatments, and usually involve analysis of the stressors in the patient's life. They often focus on job or workplace-related stress.
Behavioral approaches. These strategies include relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, and physical exercise programs including walking.
Massage. Therapeutic massage relieves stress by relaxing the large groups of muscles in the back, neck, arms, and legs.
Cognitive therapy. These approaches teach patients to reframe or mentally reinterpret the stressors in their lives in order to modify the body's physical reactions.
Meditation and associated spiritual or religious practices. Recent studies have found positive correlations between these practices and stress hardiness.

Alternative treatment

Treatment of stress is one area in which the boundaries between traditional and alternative therapies have changed in recent years, in part because some forms of physical exercise (yoga, tai chi, aikido) that were once associated with the counterculture have become widely accepted as useful parts of mainstream stress reduction programs. Other alternative therapies for stress that are occasionally recommended by mainstream medicine include aromatherapy, dance therapy, biofeedback, nutrition-based treatments (including dietary guidelines and nutritional supplements), acupuncture, homeopathy, and herbal medicine.

Prognosis

The prognosis for recovery from a stress-related illness is related to a wide variety of factors in a person's life, many of which are genetically determined (race, sex, illnesses that run in families) or beyond the individual's control (economic trends, cultural stereotypes and prejudices). It is possible, however, for humans to learn new responses to stress and, thus, change their experiences of it. A person's ability to remain healthy in stressful situations is sometimes referred to as stress hardiness. Stress-hardy people have a cluster of personality traits that strengthen their ability to cope. These traits include believing in the importance of what they are doing; believing that they have some power to influence their situation; and viewing life's changes as positive opportunities rather than as threats.

Prevention

Complete prevention of stress is neither possible nor desirable, because stress is an important stimulus of human growth and creativity, as well as an inevitable part of life. In addition, specific strategies for stress prevention vary widely from person to person, depending on the nature and number of the stressors in an individual's life, and the amount of control he or she has over these factors. In general, however, a combination of attitudinal and behavioral changes works well for most patients. The best form of prevention appears to be parental modeling of healthy attitudes and behaviors within the family.

Resources

Books

Beers, Mark H., MD, and Robert Berkow, MD., editors. "Psychiatry in Medicine." In The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. Whitehouse Station, NJ: Merck Research Laboratories, 2004.Pelletier, Kenneth R., MD. The Best Alternative Medicine, Part I, "Spirituality and Healing." New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Periodicals

Blumenthal, J. A., M. Babyak, J. Wei, et al. "Usefulness of Psychosocial Treatment of Mental Stress-Induced Myocardial Ischemia in Men." American Journal of Cardiology 89 (January 15, 2002): 164-168.Cardenas, J., K. Williams, J. P. Wilson, et al. "PSTD, Major Depressive Symptoms, and Substance Abuse Following September 11, 2001, in a Midwestern University Population" International Journal of Emergency Mental Health 5 (Winter 2003): 15-28.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Mental Health Status of World Trade Center Rescue and Recovery Workers and Volunteers—New York City, July 2002–August 2004." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 53 (September 10, 2004): 812-815.Gallo, L. C., and K. A. Matthews. "Understanding the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Physical Health: Do Negative Emotions Play a Role?" Psychological Bulletin 129 (January 2003): 10-51.Goodman, R. F., A. V. Morgan, S. Juriga, and E. J. Brown. "Letting the Story Unfold: A Case Study of Client-Centered Therapy for Childhood Traumatic Grief." Harvard Review of Psychiatry 12 (July-August 2004): 199-212.Hawkley, L. C., and J. T. Cacioppo. "Loneliness and Pathways to Disease." Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 17, Supplement 1 (February 2003): S98-S105.Latkin, C. A., and A. D. Curry. "Stressful Neighborhoods and Depression: A Prospective Study of the Impact of Neighborhood Disorder." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 44 (March 2003): 34-44.Ottenstein, R. J. "Coping with Threats of Terrorism: A Protocol for Group Intervention." International Journal of Emergency Mental Health 5 (Winter 2003): 39-42.Ritchie, L. J. "Threat: A Concept Analysis for a New Era." Nursing Forum 39 (July-September 2004): 13-22.Surwit, R. S., M. A. van Tilburg, N. Zucker, et al. "Stress Management Improves Long-Term Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes." Diabetes Care 25 (January 2002): 30-34.West, P., and H. Sweeting. "Fifteen, Female and Stressed: Changing Patterns of Psychological Distress Over Time." Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 44 (March 2003): 399-411.White, K., L. Wilkes, K. Cooper, and M. Barbato. "The Impact of Unrelieved Patient Suffering on Palliative Care Nurses." International Journal of Palliative Nursing 10 (September 2004): 438-444.

Organizations

The American Institute of Stress. 124 Park Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10703 (914) 963-1200. Fax: (914) 965-6267. http://www.stress.org.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 1600 Clifton Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30333. (800) 311-3435, (404) 639-3311. http://www.cdc.gov.National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, 5600 Fishers Lane, Parklawn Building, Room 17C-26, Rockville, MD 20857. (301) 443-2940. http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=hom_main.National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8184, MSC 9663, Bethesda, MD 20892-9663. (301) 443-4513. http://www.nimh.nih.gov.

Other

National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Department of Veterans Affairs. Fact Sheet: Survivors of Human-Caused and Natural Disasters. http://www.ncptsd.org/facts/disasters/fs_survivors_disaster.html.National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) news release, July 17, 2003. "Gene More Than Doubles Risk of Depression Following Life Stresses." 〈http://www.nimh.nih.gov/events/prgenestress.cfm〉.

stress

[stres] 1. forcibly exerted influence; pressure.2. in dentistry, the pressure of the upper teeth against the lower.3. a state of physiological or psychological strain caused by adverse stimuli, physical, mental, or emotional, internal or external, that tend to disturb the functioning of an organism and which the organism naturally desires to avoid. stress reactions are elicited but should these reactions be inappropriate or inadequate, they may lead to disease states. The term is also used to refer to the stimuli that elicit such a state or stress reactions. Just as a bridge is structurally capable of adjusting to certain physical stresses, the human body and mind are normally able to adapt to the stresses of new situations. However, this ability has definite limits beyond which continued stress may cause a breakdown, although this limit varies from person to person.
Physical Stress. There are many kinds of physical stress, but they can be divided into two principal types, to which the body reacts in different ways. There is emergency stress, a situation that poses an immediate threat, such as a near accident in an automobile, a wound, or an injury. There is also continuing stress, such as that caused by changes in the body during puberty, pregnancy, menopause, acute and chronic diseases, and continuing exposure to excessive noise, vibration, fumes, chemicals, or other agents.

The body's reaction to emergency stress is set off by the adrenal medulla. The medulla of each adrenal gland is directly connected to the nervous system. When an emergency arises, it pours the hormone epinephrine into the bloodstream. This has the effect of speeding up the heart and raising the blood pressure, emptying sugar supplies swiftly into the blood, and dilating the blood vessels in the muscles to give them immediate use of this energy. At the same time, the pupils of the eyes dilate. (See also alarm reaction.)
The reaction of the body to continuing stress is even more complex. Again the principal organs are the adrenal glands, but after the first phase of alarm, the glands continue to produce a steady supply of hormones that apparently increase the body's resistance. This is in addition to specific defenses such as the production of antibodies to fight infection. If the stress is overwhelming, as in the case of an extensive third-degree burn or an uncontrollable infectious disease, the third phase, exhaustion of the adrenal glands, sets in, sometimes with fatal results.Psychologic Stress. The emergency response of the body comes into play when a person merely foresees or imagines danger, as well as in real emergency situations. The thought of danger, or the vicarious experience of it in a thrilling story, play, or film, may be enough to cause the muscles to tense and the heart to start pounding. Psychologic situations can have the same effect. One of the best-known examples of this is “stage fright,” often characterized by tensed muscles and an increased heart rate. At times the person may not even be aware of the unconscious thought that produces this dramatic reaction.Stress and Disease. In recent decades, there have been numerous attempts to find a direct correlation between certain diseases and a stressful environment or a personality type that responds to the environment in a certain way. However, while inappropriate activity and a hectic lifestyle can cause illness in some persons, a busy and productive person can actually be subject to less stress than one who feels trapped in a limited position with no hope for release or a sense of accomplishment.

The diseases most often associated with a stressful environment are, according to some scientists, coronary artery disease and “heart attack,” high blood pressure, and cancer. Studies of laboratory animals have demonstrated a connection between isolated and specific stimuli such as electric shock and separation from mates and the development of heart disease in these animals. The stressful variables in the human environment are, however, much more complex, and a stressful environment can be related to heart disease only as a risk factor (see type a behavior).
The postulated relationship between stress and the development of a malignancy is based on the theory that destructive emotions affect and in some way weaken the body's surveillance system, causing its immune response to fail to recognize and destroy malignant cells.
Although relaxation techniques can reduce blood pressure in persons with mild hypertension, there is no evidence that tension and stress cause the blood pressure to rise and stay at levels above normal.
Other diseases considered by some researchers to be related to stress include asthma, allergies, colitis, migraine headaches, and peptic ulcers. Even though the relationship is not clear and there are currently no hard data to support this, most health care providers are convinced that stress contributes to the worsening of symptoms and influences the impact a disease will have on the lives of some patients while other patients adapt to stress and seem to have no long-term deleterious reaction to it.Coping Mechanisms. Unhealthy ways to cope with psychologic stress include drug abuse and alcoholism, smoking, abusive and violent behavior, and working harder to accomplish unrealistic or poorly defined goals. In order to deal with stress in an effective and healthy way, one must first identify sources of stress, either within oneself or in one's environment.

Job stressors are frequently related to disorganization in the work place, poor time management, and unrealistic or uncommunicated expectations of the employer. Another source of stress for the working person may be the lack of time for family and recreation because of job demands. Once job stressors are identified, some options are to change the stressful situation, modify the way one responds to stressors, or seek another job that is less stressful. In some instances learning to be more assertive and better able to communicate with supervisors and coworkers can reduce job-related stress.
Stressors in the home environment include negative self-concept; inadequate physical, cognitive, or behavioral resources; poor problem-solving skills; marital discord; ineffective parenting or lack of parenting skills; and lack of family support. Effective coping may require strategies to improve self-concept and build self-esteem, develop problem-solving skills, learn effective parenting, and establish a network of people who can give support. Exercise, improving one's nutritional status, making time for recreational activities, and utilizing relaxation techniques to relieve tension can also be healthy ways to cope with stress.oxidative stress any of various pathological changes seen in living organisms in response to excessive levels of cytotoxic oxidants and radicals" >free radicals in the environment.stress reaction any of the biological reactions to adverse stimuli, physical, mental, or emotional, internal or external, that tend to disturb the organism's equilibrium; should these compensating reactions, physiological or psychological, be inadequate or inappropriate, they may lead to disorders. See alarm reaction, acute stress reaction, general adaptation syndrome, acute stress disorder, adjustment disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

stress

(stres), 1. Reactions of the body to forces of a deleterious nature, infections, and various abnormal states that tend to disturb its normal physiologic equilibrium (homeostasis). 2. In dentistry, the forces set up in teeth, their supporting structures, and structures restoring or replacing teeth as a result of the force of mastication. 3. The force or pressure applied or exerted between portions of a body or bodies, generally expressed in pounds per square inch. 4. In rheology, the force in a material transmitted per unit area to adjacent layers. 5. In psychiatry and psychology, the abnormal mental and emotional state in response to a physical or physiologic stressor. 6. Stressor, in the sense that psychological stress can be a stressor to a person physically and the physical stress of illness can also be a psychological stressor. 7. In endocrinology, state of threatened homeostasis in which stressors are the threatening forces and adaptive responses are the forces of the organism that reestablish homeostasis. [L. strictus, tight, fr. stringo, to draw together]

stress

(strĕs)n.1. An applied force or system of forces that tends to strain or deform a body.2. A condition of metabolic or physiologic impairment in an organism, occurring usually in response to adverse events and capable of causing physical damage.3. A condition of psychological strain occurring usually in response to adverse events and capable of causing symptoms and signs such as increased blood pressure, insomnia, and irritability.

stress

A force that causes a change in physical or mental health. See Biotic stress, Oxidative stress, Physical stress, Stressor Psychology A noxious physical or mental stimulus that may cause a loss of self-control Clinical Depression, over/undereating, too tired for sex, anger, crying, physical Sx fatigue, headache, backache, insomnia, anxiety, palpitations, ↑ colds/flu, nervous stomach, skin complaints; feeling of disorganization, loss of concentration. See Chronic stress, Job stress, Mental stress, Physician stress, Shear stress, Social stress, Workplace stress.

STRESS

Cardiology A clinical trial–Stent Restenosis Study comparing outcomes of coronary stent placement to balloon angioplasty in treating CAD. See Balloon angioplasty, Coronary angioplasty, Coronary artery disease, Stenting.

stress

(stres) 1. Reactions of the body to forces of a deleterious nature, infections, and various abnormal states that tend to disturb its normal physiologic equilibrium (homeostasis). 2. dentistry The forces set up in teeth, their supporting structures, and structures restoring or replacing teeth as a result of the force of mastication. 3. The force or pressure applied or exerted between portions of a body or bodies, generally expressed in pounds per square inch. 4. rheology The force in a material transmitted per unit area to adjacent layers. 5. psychology A physical or psychological stimulus such as very high heat, public criticism, or another noxious agent or experience that, when impinging on a person, produces psychological strain or disequilibrium. [L. strictus, tight, fr. stringo, to draw together]

stress

Any physical, social or psychological factor or combination of factors that acts on the individual so as to threaten his or her well-being and produce a physiological, often defensive, response. The response to stress may be beneficial, distressing or, occasionally, dangerous. Responses such as the production of ADRENALINE and CORTICOSTEROIDS, raised heart rate and blood pressure, increased muscle tension and raised blood sugar, are natural; but persistent civilized suppression of the natural physical concomitants (fight or flight) may be damaging. Most medical scientists view with scepticism the proposition that many human diseases are caused by stress. There is, however, no questioning the fact that overwhelming stress can cause physical and psychological damage. See POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER.

polariscope

An instrument for examining substances in polarized light. It consists of a polarizer and an analyser with their planes of polarization at right angles to each other. In the regions where the material is stressed (such as an ophthalmic lens tightly mounted in a metal frame) it becomes birefringent and the observer sees a system of dark fringes in that region. When used to detect strain in glass or plastic it is called a strain tester. Safety glass (except the chemically strengthened type) displays a characteristic strain pattern when viewed in a polariscope. See safety glass; strain.

stress

(stres) 1. In dentistry, forces set up in teeth, their supporting structures, and structures restoring or replacing teeth due to force of mastication. 2. Reactions of body to forces of a deleterious nature, infections, and various abnormal states that tend to disturb its normal physiologic equilibrium (homeostasis). [L. strictus, tight, fr. stringo, to draw together]

Patient discussion about stress

Q. How to not be stressed from my job? I have a very stressful job. I stay up all night thinking about my assignments for the next day. During work hours I barely eat and my boss yells at me all the time. What to do? This is affecting my family life since I take all my stress out on them?A. If you like where you’re working but your job is too stressful, ask if the company can tailor the job to your skills or move you to a less pressured slot. If that doesn't help and the level of stress at your job is harming your health and your relationships, and you don’t see any prospect of real change, it may be time to move on.

Q. How to deal with stress before exams? I am a college student and get very stressed out before tests. Are there good methods to relieve stress?A. Have you tried aromatherapy? the scents of the essential oils can activate the limbic system of your brain, helping to relieve stress and increase alertness before your exams.
This articles recommends a good custom blend of essential oils when using Aromatherapy for Stress:
http://www.altmd.com/Articles/Aromatherapy-Essential-Oils-for-Stress

Q. Can stress really affect your health?? I’ve been having a stressed period at work in the past three months. I heard a lot of times:” don’t stress up-it’ll kill you eventually..” but is it physically true?A. defenitely true, it's been proven that stress might cause gastrointestinal desorders.

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