Impacts of Stress
Impacts of Stress
Impacts of Stress
Name
Institution
Course
Instructor
Due Date
2
In the early 19th century, the French physiologist Claude Bernard introduced a theory
suggesting that, as organisms become more independent of their surroundings, they develop
more complex ways of stabilizing their internal environments to counter the changes in their
series of coordinated responses organized to enhance the probability of survival. These collective
renin. Stressful experiences can precipitate depression and anxiety, and stress-induced changes in
physiology include an immune component. Individuals vary in their ability to cope with stressful
life events, and differences in perceptions of stress, mood (e.g., depressive symptoms), and
adverse life events can modify the magnitude to which stressors exnegatively influence immune
function.
required activation of the immune system and vice versa. As such, the endocrine and the immune
subserves vital functions such as regulation of energy allocation, reproduction, learning, mood,
and behavior. Preventing and managing long-term stress can lower your risk for other conditions
like heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and depression. This paper aims to demonstrate
that stress negatively affects the immune system. Research over the past three to four decades
has established that psychological stress affects clinically relevant immune system outcomes,
including inflammatory processes, wound healing, and responses to infectious agents and other
immune challenges.
3
Although the concept of stress has earned a bad reputation, it is important to recognize
that the adaptive purpose of a physiological stress response is to promote survival during a fight
or flight. While long-term stress is generally harmful, short-term stress can be protective as it
prepares the organism to deal with challenges. Stress responses help your body adjust to new
situations. Stress can be positive, keeping us alert, motivated, and ready to avoid danger. Stress
does not always affect memory. Sometimes, under special conditions, stress can improve
aspects of imposed stimulation. Under these specific conditions, stress can temporarily improve
the function of the brain and, therefore, memory. In fact, it has been suggested that stress can
sharpen memory in some situations. The process of strengthening memory is usually reinforced
after stress.
Various studies on animal and human models have shown that administration of either
glucocorticosteroids or stress shortly after learning has occurred facilitates memory. Thus, short-
term stress can enhance the acquisition and/or expression of immunoprotective (wound healing,
term (i.e., lasting for minutes to hours) stress experienced during immune activation enhances
enhancement include changes in the dendritic cell, neutrophil, macrophage, and lymphocyte
trafficking, maturation, and function as well as local and systemic production of cytokines.
4
The central nervous system (CNS), endocrine system, and immune system are complex
systems that interact with each other. Stressful life events and their negative emotions can
dysregulate the immune response by disturbing the sensitive interplay among these systems. The
autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are two
and marked influence of psychological stress on immunity and infection resistance, and the
likely shared mechanisms by which psychological stress and exercise stress alter immunity; i.e.
been hypothesized that psychological stress can play a role in the decrease in immunity with
prolonged heavy exercise and heavy training. Unfortunately, exercise immunologists rarely
report measures of psychological stress in their studies and so there is little by way of empirical
A primary focus of the field of psychoneuroimmunology has been to understand the link
are detrimental to health. Chronic inflammation secondary to long-term stress has been causally
linked with risk for numerous diseases, including infectious illnesses, cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, certain cancers, autoimmune disease, and general frailty and mortality. Animal models
have provided compelling evidence that biobehavioral stress mechanisms and their molecular
and cellular pathways can cause illness behavior and the illness itself. These experimental studies
The brain is the site at which the effects of stressors are sensed and appropriately coordinated
behavioral and neuroendocrine responses are initiated. Adaptations involving allostasis to cope
with real, simulated, or imagined challenges are determined by genetic, developmental, and
previous experimental factors. While they may be effective for a short interval, the alterations
may have cumulative adverse effects over time. For instance, chronic elevation of blood pressure
ensures adequate blood flow to the brain eventually leading to atherosclerosis and stroke or
coronary occlusion.
6
References
Bekhbat, M., & Neigh, G. N. (2018). Sex differences in the neuro-immune consequences of stress:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2017.02.006
Bottaccioli, A. G., Bottaccioli, F., & Minelli, A. (2019). Stress and the psyche–brain–immune network
Edwards, J., Walsh, N., Diment, B., & Roberts, R. (2018). Anxiety and perceived psychological stress
play an important role in the immune response after exercise. Exercise immunology review, 24.
http://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/44138
Ray, A., Gulati, K., & Rai, N. (2017). Stress, anxiety, and immunomodulation: a pharmacological
Seiler, A., Fagundes, C. P., & Christian, L. M. (2020). The impact of everyday stressors on the immune
system and health. In Stress challenges and immunity in space (pp. 71-92). Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16996-1_6
7