A little bit of the history of stress
Throughout history, scientists have found many curious facts about stress. Thus, some set an example of the work of ancient Greek poet Homer "Iliad", created in the 7th century BC. It tells about the hero Achilles, who embodied the courage and integrity of the person. But even he sometimes experienced depressive states and thought about suicide.
Heroes of the East experienced similar experiences. You have probably heard of the ancient Indian religious and philosophical treatise called "Bhagavadgita". One of her central characters, Arjuna, feels a whole range of not positive emotions: confusion, inner weakness, paralyzing panic horror, etc.
History is indeed full of evidence that people have been under stress for centuries. The need to survive, fear of death, natural disasters, wars and battles - these things have always been accompanied by acute negative experiences, not only in ancient times, but also in the Middle Ages (it is enough to remember the Inquisition and its actions).
By the way, the concept of "stressor" emerged at that time - this was the name of one of the torture tools of inquisitors. This device squeezed the body of the person accused of some heresy, and as a result the accused became ready to confess to anything, as long as he stopped being tormented, although even after the confession of torture were no less terrible and could last a lifetime.
Today, however, it is not quite right to compare stress exclusively with negative emotional experiences, because the painful feelings of people of the past and present have a lot of differences. Nowadays there are a lot of new psycho-emotional and physical experiences associated with high loads caused by the peculiarities of modern life.
Stress began to be closely studied by scientists relatively recently - about the beginning of the 20th century, but even this little time by science measures was more than enough to open up a lot of interesting and even useful information about this phenomenon from the practical point of view. This is what we are going to talk about next.
Interesting facts about stress
Below are fifteen facts about stress that can be used to give an overview of its impact on a person. (Recall that stress can also be good for the body, but you can read about it in the article "Stress: is it good and how to get it"). So, let's expand our knowledge.
Stress comes from the West
It's about the stress of a modern man. Many experts agree that stress came from the West, and in the East it began to manifest itself only after the Western lifestyle began to gradually take root there. An interesting nuance: among the residents of all eastern countries, the Japanese are the most stressed, and Japan is the most western country in the East. In Western countries, however, stress is greater because the values and basic attitudes of their residents are dominated by such things as competitiveness, desire for high achievement and desire to earn more.
Stress worsens brain function
Due to stress in the human body, the amount of proteins that slow down and even stop the growth of synapses, serving as connectors for neural networks, increases. At high intensity of this process the human brain begins to dry out, and the mass of its prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making, becomes less. As a result, the brain loses its activity, and this is one of the first reasons why Alzheimer's disease develops.
Stress leads to physiological changes
Exposure to stressful factors produces many physiological changes in the human body. Bright examples of such changes are hair loss, obesity or weight loss, hearing loss, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases, heart problems, chest pain, respiratory problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, hyperglycemia (and this list is far from complete). Interestingly, even the height of a person can change under the influence of stress - due to overstrain and anxiety in the evening a person can become 1% lower than he was in the morning. This is due to the fact that intervertebral cartilage dries up and the muscles of the humerus and back are overstretched.
Stress affects reproductive health and sexuality
Here one can note the equally negative impact of stressful factors on both men and women. If stress affects the man for a long time, sperm motility decreases, libido decreases, and erection is disturbed. If the stressful experiences are regularly experienced by a woman, much worse ripen eggs, plus the same way disappears sexual desire. In general, stress is the cause of 30% of infertility and increases the risk of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.
Stress disrupts the heart's function
The systematic effects of stress on the body can lead to the development of "broken heart" syndrome, also known as "cardiomyopathy", in which the heart muscle becomes very weak. Stress also makes the blood more dense, as if the body were preparing to withstand trauma, and it becomes more difficult for the heart to pump it. In addition, blood vessel spasms begin to occur (for this reason, by the way, even with a small cut the blood can go for a very long time). And another consequence of stress (again, from many) - a high probability of blood clot formation, which in itself can lead to death.
Stress is the cause of disease
At times of stress, the number of cytokines (small peptide information molecules) responsible for inflammatory processes increases in the human body. Subsequently, cytokines cause serious health problems, such as tuberculosis and other lung diseases, cancers, cirrhosis of the liver and other troubles, often resulting in death. And in some cases, stress may be so obvious that its effect is visible on the skin in the form of rashes, acne, acne, abscesses, scabies, etc.
Stress affects sleep
Stress is always an over-excitement, a psychological shock. It has two consequences. First, it is very difficult to fall asleep in an overexcited state, but if it is a one-time phenomenon, it can still be experienced normally without much damage to health. The second is more dangerous: systematic stress can lead to chronic insomnia, and then the mechanism of reverse action is started. Stress causes insomnia, and insomnia causes stress. It is not easy to get out of this condition, especially if it has worsened, and serious professional help may be required.
At this point, the first chapter ends. You will see the continuation of this article very soon!