Chapter 17Stress and Health

Stress and Health• Behavioral Medicine

– interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

• Health Psychology– subfield of psychology that

provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine

What is Stress?• Stress

– the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

StressorsCatastrophes

Life changes

Hassles

InterveningfactorsAppraisal

Perceived control

Personality

Social support

Coping behaviors

StressreactionsPhysiological

Emotional

Behavioral

Pituitary hormone in the bloodstream stimulatesthe outer part of the adrenalgland to release the stress hormone cortisol

Sympathetic nervoussystem releases the stress hormonesepinephrine andnorepinephrinefrom nerve endings in the inner part ofthe adrenal glands

Thalamus

Hypothalamus

Pituitary gland

Adrenal glands

Cerebral cortex(perceives stressor)

What is Stress?

• General Adaptation Syndrome – Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive

response to stress as composed of three stages

Stressful Life Events• Catastrophic Events

– earthquakes, combat stress, floods

• Life Changes– death of a loved one,

divorce, loss of job, promotion

• Daily Hassles– rush hour traffic, long lines,

job stress, burnout

What is Stress?

• Burnout– physical, emotional and mental

exhaustion brought on by persistent job-related stress

• Coronary Heart Disease– clogging of the vessels that nourish the

heart muscle– leading cause of death in the United

States

Stress & Coronary Heart Disease

• Type A – Friedman and Rosenman’s

term for people who are competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, anger-prone

• Type B– Friedman and Rosenman’s

term for easygoing, relaxed people

Stress and Disease• Psycho-physiological Illness

– “mind-body” illness

– any stress-related physical illness• some forms of hypertension• some headaches

– distinct from hypochondriasis – misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease

Stress and Disease• Lymphocytes

– two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system

• B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections

• T lymphocytes form in the thymus and, among other duties, attack cancer cells, viruses and foreign substances

Promoting Health

• Biofeedback– system for electronically

recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state

• blood pressure• muscle tension

Alternative systems ofmedical practice

Bioelectromagneticapplications

Diet, nutrition,life-style changes

Herbal medicine

Manual healing

Mind-body control

Pharmacological and biological treatments

Subfields of Alternative MedicineHealth care ranging from self-care according to folk principles,to care rendered in an organized health care system based onalternative traditions or practices

The study of how living organisms interact with electromagnetic (EM) fields

The knowledge of how to prevent illness, maintain health, and reverse the effects of chronic disease through dietary or nutritional intervention

Employing plan and plant products from folk medicine traditionsfor pharmacological use

Using touch and manipulation with the hands as a diagnosticand therapeutic tool

Exploring the mind’s capacity to affect the body, based on traditional medical systems that make use of the interconnected-ness of mind and body

Drugs and vaccines not yet accepted by mainstream medicine

Promoting Health

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine– unproven health care

treatments not taught widely in medical schools, not used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by insurance companies