Stress Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AfgR8gPXnU

Full Transcript
Hi everyone! Today I will be discussing one of the “pillars” of health: stress. So you’ve heard people say “be healthy” over and over again; it’s become cliché at this point. However, what does that really mean? Many peoples’ concepts of staying healthy are simply “eat healthy food and exercise”. However, there is so much more to a healthy lifestyle. In fact, there are five major “pillars”, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress, and social behavior.

So firstly, what is stress? Stress can be defined as “any event or demand that causes a predictable physiological response aka stress response”. You have probably felt stress when being faced with a difficult situation or predicament, like a tricky assignment or test.

There are two kinds of stress: Eustress and Distress. Eustress is positive; it gives you extra energy and momentum, boosts productivity, and can help you react to a sudden crisis. Distress, on the other hand, is when the reaction to a stressor remains even when the stressor is removed, persisting throughout daily life. This is negative.

There are three stages to stress: alarm phase, resistance phase, and exhaustion phase.

In alarm phase, activated during physical or emotional stress, your body undergoes what is called the “fight or flight” response, in which the body becomes ready for immediate physical activity. The hypothalamus secretes a hormone called CRH, which stimulates the pituitary gland, which releases ACTH. This then stimulates the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and noradrenaline. Your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure increase. Your senses are increased, and blood flow to your muscles and brain increase. This phase is meant to be a short term reaction.

If the stress continues, however, stage 2 kicks in: resistance phase. This is where high levels of cortisol are released by the adrenal glands, which causes increased blood sugar, impaired immunity, and eventual weigh gain in the abdomen, which can continue for months or even years.

In stage 3, exhaustion phase, health takes a major toll, with feelings of lethargy and absence of energy, and death can occur. In general, prolonged stress has a very negative effect.

Now that you know what stress does to you, it’s important to know how to counteract it.  A healthy diet, exercise, strong social behavior, and sufficient sleep are all ways, and they are also the other four pillars of health! As you can see, all facets of health are integrated, and you must focus on all 5 in order to truly maximize your health.

Another way is through meditation. When you are feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and practice “one minute of meditation” to calm and stabilize yourself. On a personal note, as I am closing up my high school career, I can definitely say that there were times junior and senior year where I felt extremely stressed and overwhelmed, and I know, especially here are Saratoga High, the environment can feel highly stressful with trying to balance extracurriculars, difficult classes, friends, family, and such, and the best advice for lessening stress is time management.

Stressors will always be present, but it is up to you to respond to them wisely.