Effect of Stress on Illnesses - Report Example

Effect of Stress on Illness Introduction: Stress describes the toleration capability of a human being and implies a force or influence that is created on the body or mind of the individual pressurizing him/her to suffer. Although certain levels of stress might be acceptable since no one lives stress free lives; however too much of the stress factor might create difficulty for an individual to acclimatize to the pressure on the body or the mind (Humphrey, 2003, p.4). Stress has been significantly associated with the development of illness in human bodies. It has been observed that although viruses, germs or bacteria may actually cause an illness in humans, stress too plays a key role in enhancing the effects and severity of the illness. Stress causes both biological and psychological changes increasing the possibilities of human beings to acquire illnesses more than otherwise. The body’s reaction and immune systems towards diseases get affected due to stress and thus existence of stress for a long time might create disability in the human being to minimize the effects of the illness in lesser amounts of time (Despues, 1999). The present study focuses on the effect of stress on illness by discussing researches and evidences. Stress and Illness: An Overview: The relationship between stress and illness has been observed to be two-way. While on one hand, stress has the ability to worsen the ill-health of an individual; on the other hand, illnesses can also cause stress. Studies reveal that if stress exists for a long period of time, it tends to affect the functioning of the human body thus evidently causing illness (Wheatley, n.d., p.6). Stress has been known to influence diseases of the heart, the brain as well as affect the immune system of the body. If stress becomes persistent in the body, the different parts of the body tend to get chronically affected thereby impacting their normal levels of activity. If stress becomes chronic as mentioned, it might cause harm to the physical or psychological activity of the human being. If stress is acute in nature, it is equally harmful particularly for individuals suffering from heart diseases (Stress-Complications, 2011). Understanding the Effects of Stress on Illness: Stress can affect and aggravate illnesses through several means like increasing heart rate, increasing blood pressure, restraining the immune system, or even disturbing the digestive system of the body (Stress, n.d.). In this section of the study, the effects of stress on different illnesses would be discussed for evidences towards a suitable understanding. Stress and the Heart: Stress often has more to do with the mental demands thereby increasing the normal blood pressure and heart rate in an individual. This in turn creates instability in the stream of blood within the body increasing the pressure on the walls of the arteries. In the process, damage might occur in the lining of the arteries that is capable of blocking the heart passages. The hormones involved in stress increase the pumping of the heart. If blood flow becomes unstable, it becomes difficult for the arteries to support the increasing pump of the heart. Altogether, the heart gets prone to severe attacks (Burg, n.d., pp.97-98). It can be understood from here that individuals who have a weaker heart or heart diseases in some form would be drastically affected under the influence of high stress. Studies have determined that in America, around 1.2 million people suffer from heart diseases resulting in death in about 40 percent of these people. Stress has been found as one of the most significant cause of heart attacks evident from the death of Tim Russert at the age of 58. Tim had been overstressed owing to his career life that was to a great extent found to be responsible for the heart attack that led him to death (Lloyd, 2008). Stress and the Skin: Several skin diseases might also result from the stress prevalent in one’s life. Skin problems like psoriasis- skin cells growing fast creating sores, eczema- skin becoming, inflamed, red and uncomfortable, acne and hives are known to het aggravated due to stress. This is primarily because skin gets more sensitive and reactive owing to different chemical reactions caused by stress. Thus skin related diseases tend to get worsen in individuals who lead a stressful life. It has also been obtained that while stress affects the diseases of the skin; if such diseases become uncontrollable, stresses might further increase as well (Effects of Stress on Your Skin, 2012). In the words of Rama Kant Mishra, a popular ayurvedic dermatologist, “Ongoing day-to-day stress adversely impacts your immune system. This makes your body susceptible to attack, like fertile ground in which seeds take root easily. The skin is an organ, widely connected to the rest of the physiology as well as the mind. It is natural that like the rest of you, your skin is also affected by stress” (Nargundkar, 2002). Stress and Cancer: It has been obtained through different studies that stress has the capability to induce growth and spread of tumor in human body. The direct mechanisms of this impact of stress could not be analyzed though, but it could be associated with the fact that the effect of stress on the immune system results in the inability of the body to resist the growth of tumor or the aggravation of cancer disease. Stress hormones however have been found to be directly affecting the functions of cancer cell in the body. The development of cancer can be more associated with the psychological factors of the body (Psychological Stress and Cancer: Questions and Answers, 2008) which in turn can be related to the impacts of stress on the human mind and body. Research has evidently found that although stress may not directly cause cancer but it leads to activities like smoking, stopping of exercise, having unhealthy foods that are factors causing cancer. According to Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, “there are a lot of things that have to happen for cancer to develop. I think it’s fair to say that stress could be one of the many components in lowering immune systems and therefore making us more susceptible to cancer and a faster progression of the disease” (Kozarovich, 2012). Stress and Its Effects on the Immune System: It has been obtained that stress has the ability to have immunosuppressive impact on the immune system in human body. If a person is under the influence of some stress, the immune system tends to get distressed for the moment that allows pathogens to enter the body easily and thus grow within the body leading to higher probabilities of the individual becoming ill. Cortisol which is a stress hormone has a significant role to play in this regard. During a sudden stress condition, levels of cortisols increase and the immune system gets suppressed. The pathogens are also allowed at that point of time. The mental stress combined with the exposure to pathogens lead to effects on immunity of the body reflected through different symptoms like fever or other immune-associated diseases (Lim, 2011). A research study conducted by the team under Carnegie Mellon Universitys Sheldon Cohen determined that “chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing its ability to regulate the inflammatory response” which in turn has the ability to “promote the development and progression of disease” (How Stress Influences Disease: Study Reveals Inflammation as the Culprit, 2012). Stress and Its Effects on Mental Illness: Mental disorders have been found to be significantly associated with stressful events in one’s life. It has been observed and studied by different sociologists that a person under stress tends to be more prone to mental illnesses than a person without stress. Such disorders might also make an individual violent in nature. The effects of stress on mental disorders have been found to become more evident when studies on acute life incidents have been conducted (Silver & Teasdale, 2005, pp.63-64). If an individual remains under the influence of stress on a regular basis and if that stress is found to affect the normal life activities of the person, then mental illnesses might be associated with the stress. Abnormal stress has been found to be different from normal stress in the way that the symptoms of abnormal stress tend to be continuing. Thoughts of suicides or abnormal thoughts are some of the related symptoms leading to mental illnesses as a result of stress (How is Stress Related to Mental Illness, n.d.). Stress and Gastrointestinal Problems: Functional gastrointestinal disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, and peptic ulcer disease are some of the chronic disorders of the human digestive system that have been associated with stressful events occurring in one’s life. Such an association has been able to be determined based on surveys conducted on patients of gastrointestinal problems. It has also been obtained that, individuals undergoing through stressful life threats like rape that causes post-traumatic stresses have an impact on the digestive system within the body. Although certain studies do not focus on the issue of stress affecting digestive system, however evidences reflected that “more than 80% of H pylori infected individuals (and the majority of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) users) never develop an ulcer, while at least 10% of non-NSAID related peptic ulcers are not infected with H pylori” implying that stress factors have a significant association with the gastrointestinal illnesses (Mayer, 2000, pp.861-869). Research studies have obtained that one in five adults in the United States suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, particularly the cases being frequent for those whose colons are more susceptible to certain types of food and stress (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, 2012). Stress and Diabetes: Although some of the studies remained inconclusive in nature, but stress factors have been found to have effects on individuals who have already been under the influence of diabetes disease. Several reasons of stress have been identified through studies that include losses within family or stress at the workplaces that can activate the types- 1 and 2- diabetes in humans (Lloyd, Smith & Weinger, 2005, p.121). Studies do not actually reveal the initiation of diabetes as a result of stress. However stress has the capability of increasing the level of glucose in the body. Thus when a person is already has diabetes disease, the effect of stress on increasing glucose levels affect the augmentation of the disease. Stress often being long term in nature more affects the response system of the body which is already weakened in individuals having diabetes (Mitra, 2008, p.133). Stress and Pain: The present lifestyles of human beings including factors like rapidity of life, the habits of eating, the impacts of greenhouse gases have been obtained to affect the human body by causing such stress that the body tends to break down. Such breakdowns in the body might lead to several illnesses either acute or chronic in nature, of which pain is also one of the forms (Menezes, 2004, p.6). It has been observed that there is a significant association between the states of mind of an individual with his/her physical state. When a person is already suffering from pain in some form, his/her state of mind, if under stress, tends to enhance the feeling of the pain. Pain itself has the ability to cause stress and more stress enhanced further pain in the body leading to feeling of desperation in the individual to get rid of the pain, as reflected through different studies (Relationship Between Stress and Pain, n.d.). Research has obtained that chronic stress has the ability to affect chronic pain in such severity that even the regions of the brain responsible for memory might be shrunk and destroyed (Carlson, 2007). Sleep Disorders and Effects of Stress: Different experiments have determined that stress factors affect the normal required sleep of an individual which in turn might result in different health problems or illnesses. Studies conducted on children as well as adults have obtained that different conflict within families or any issue affecting the psychological environment of the individual causes stress leading to insomnia or sleep disorder (Hanson & Chen, 2010, p.395). Studies have revealed that stress is capable of keeping individuals stay awake and alert (Sleep and Mood, 2008). Stressful incidents in one’s life have also been associated with the onset of depression that results following significant disorders in the normal sleeping activity (Morin & Espie, 2012, p.178). Conclusion: The study has been focused on the effects of stress on the illnesses in human beings. From the study it can be understood that stress has been significantly associated with several illnesses within the human body. Although in several cases, the disease may not be a direct result of the effect of stress, however it can be concluded that stress has the capability to enhance the effects of a particular disease that an individual is already suffering from. This has been observed through different researches conducted on patients of heart diseases, skin diseases, cancer, immunity, mental illnesses, gastrointestinal problems, diabetes, pain and sleep disorders. From the study it can be realized that in all these illnesses stress plays a significant role in increasing the severity of the illness thus affecting the patient more than otherwise. In all these cases of human body illnesses, evidences through studies have been obtained proving the effect of stress that lengthens the duration of the disease. However, at this point of the study it can also be suggested that stress is a factor that might be controlled. Hence if the effects of stress on illnesses can be realized by individuals, then they might consider the significance of having a lesser stressed life in order to have lesser negative impacts of illnesses. References 1) Burg, M.M. (n.d.). Stress, Behavior, and Heart Disease, MED, Retrieved on April 5, 2012 from: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/heartbk/8.pdf 2) Carlson, S. (April 19, 2007). Chronic Pain and Chronic Stress, sylvia-carlson, Retrieved on April 6, 2012 from: http://sylvia-carlson.suite101.com/chronic-pain-and-chronic-stress-a19203 3) Despues, D. (1999). 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