Relation between Physical Illness and Stress - Research Paper Example

Cox (1985) believes that stress is the result of the unevenness between an individual's ability and the actions that are required to be done by an individual, demanded by a certain situation (as cited in Biddle et al., 2000, p. 11). Stress materializes when the person is in an emotional state, which then triggers the physiological, psychological, and behavioral reactions of the human body (Biddle et al., 2000, p. 11). The body is composed entirely of cells; each cell has a tiny clock called telomere.

Whenever there is cell division, the telomere becomes smaller in size, so once this happens the body becomes vulnerable to serious ailments, like the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease, and aging. An enzyme inside the cell which is the telomerase aids in the preservation of the telomere keeping the immune cells young. Based on the study conducted by the UCLA scientists, the stress hormone cortisol interrupts a cell from stimulating its telomerase, and because of these individuals who are experiencing chronic stress obtain smaller telomeres making them susceptible to physical illnesses (Schmidt, 2008).

Too much stress can truly cause health risks to an individual. This notion on the bad effect of stress to the human body is already known to most people as early as the 1930's. During the year 1950, a disorder called psychosomatic disease was discovered. It is a disease that is stimulated by stress and things that highly affect a person’s emotional wellness (Weiten, Lloyd, Dunn, & Hammer, 2009, p. 92). Although the connection between the mind and body is already ideal to most individuals, the truth is that there are still a lot of things to be uncovered to finally arrive at a conclusion that proves that the two are really connected.

For instance, when a child encounters something traumatic during the childhood days like getting abused, it is already perceived that as the child grows, complications will arise in both the physical and the emotional aspects. There is a great probability that abused children will be addicted to vices like smoking or drinking alcohol when they reach the age of puberty and continue as they become adults (Souhami & Moxham, 2002, p. 234). In relation to the connection of the mind and body, scientists have established a study that is referred to as Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI).

This field of study was formulated to broaden their knowledge on the interconnection between an individual's mind and body. PNI has been able to provide evidences on the correlation between stress and some physical illnesses and the physiological effect that it brings to the human body (Lorentz, 2006, p. 1). It would seem hard to identify the positive things that are obtained from stress. The reason for this maybe is because it is usually labeled as something that brings harmful effects to the body.

Still, there are three possible things that may be considered as a positive effect of stress. Firstly, stress helps to encourage positive psychological change. Tedeshi and Calhoun (1996) refer to it as post-traumatic growth. Post-traumatic growth is common among those people who usually encounter stressful and unpleasant events in their lives. This includes death, having serious illnesses like cancer, sexual molestation and family troubles (as cited in Weiten et al., 2009, p. 92).