The Physiological Aspects of the Stress

Abstract

Generally the term stress refers to experiences of endangering one’s physical or psy­chological wellbeing. Physiological stress refers to bodily adaptation processes and the maintenance of body’s balance. Selye defined stress as a function of elevated corticosteroid levels and used the term stress to refer to the effects of any agent that threatens the homeostasis of the organism. The term allostasis which refers to the body’s ability to achieve stability. The allostatic load is assumed to be caused by frequent stress, lack of adaptation to repeated stress, and inability to shut down the allostatic response when the stress is over and inadequate response or dysfunction of the stress systems Thus, psychological stress can be defined as a discrepancy between personal capacities and environmental demands. Somatic stress symptoms are related to both physiological and psychological stress. The different types of stressors are likely to elicit divergent stress reactions. The multifaceted nature of stress and various sources of stress must also be taken into account. It is important to define the stress precisely in epidemiological studies. Consequently, stress has been determined here in terms of stressful life events, experience of chronic stress, experimentally induced mental and physiological stress reactions and work stress. The work stress models that are presented here have been used extensively in studies of occupational and cardiovascular health. The inheritance of stress refers here to an innate temperament. Rationale is as follows: temperament a) has a biological basis, b) is highly inherited, and c) explains what one experiences as a stress and partly determines what the health consequences are. The common assumption in several temperament theories is that temperament plays important role in moderating stress. In the end we presented the comparative analysis between the eustress and distress.