Kin 370 Stress Management For Healthy Living

Eustress

"The spice of life", is healthy or good stress, elicited by healthy emotions. Some of these good stresses can be: Going to college, getting married, having a baby. Eustress can also happen when something new occurs, or break a routine, meet a new friend, doing something challenging or adventurous.

The stages of the model of stress.

(1) First you encounter a stressor (Ex: Giving a presentation, losing your keys, being overweight, getting into an argument etc.) (2) Perception, a cognitive appraisal is made, is the stressor bad? If so how bad is it? (3) Emotional Reaction, you experience feeling and emotions based on those thoughts, whether it is anger, irritation, frustration, sadness, etc. (4) Physiological Reaction, your body then reacts to emotional reactions, every single emotion produces a physiological change on a cellular level. (5) Health consequences may occur over time- after weeks or months of experiencing physiological responses associated with stress. Health problems associated with stress are usually caused by chronic stress.

Three stages of GAS (General Adaptation Syndrome)

(1). Stage of alarm/acute stress: what happens to your body when you first begin to go through the stress response. (2). Stage of resistance/Chronic stress, is when your body trying to revert to homeostasis by resisting the alarm, but the body stays activated or aroused usually at a lesser intensity, but enough to cause a higher metabolic rate in some organ tisues. (3). Stage of exhaustion/Health consequences, when your body says no more and you get sick, you feel worn down, burned out.

Distorted thinking styles

(Cognitive distortions): the act of the mind convincing oneself of something that simply isn't true- the end result is engaging in toxic acts of self sabotage. (Filtering): this is when you take negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. When you pull negative things out of context isolated from all of the good experiences around you, you make them larger and more awful than they really are. (Positive thinking): you see things as black or white, good or bad. You perceive everything at the extremes, with very little room for a middle ground. The greatest is danger of polarized thinking is its impact on how you judge yourself. (Overgeneralization): when you come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence- can lead to a restricted life as you avoid future failures based on a single incident or event. (Mind Reading): Without them saying so you think you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do.- they tend to jump to conclusions. (Catasrophizing): You expect disaster, you wonder and ask a lot of "what if's"- you don't trust in yourself and your capacity to adapt to change. Personalization: This is the tendency to relate everything around you. The person who does this is usually someone who questions their worth, continually forced to seek value of yourself as a person. (Control Fallacies): the two types are external and internal. With external controlled means that we view our behavior in success as something that is beyond our control, not from within but something external from ourselves. Internal fallacies means that you are responsible for the pain, happiness, failures, and successes of everyone around you. (Fallacy of fairness): You feel resentful because you think you know what's fair, but other people may not agree with you. Blaming: You hold other people responsible for your pain, or blame yourself for every problem. (Shoulds): You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. Emotional Reasoning: You believe that what you feel must be true.- the issue with this is that our emotions interact and correlate with our thinking process. (Fallacy of change): You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure them enough. The underline assumption of this style is that your happiness depends on the actions of others. Global (Labeling): You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgement; view of the world can be stereotyped and one dimensional. Global labeling ignores all contrary evidence- creating a view of the world that can be stereotyped and 1 sided. (Being right): You feel continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness. Being right becomes more important than honest and caring relationship. (Heaven's Reward Fallacy): You expect all your sacrifice and self denial to pay off, as if there were someone keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn't come as expected. The problem is while you are always doing 'the right thing", if your heart really isn't in it, you are physically and emotionally depleted yourself.

Anger mismanagement styles

(Somatizer): represents a passive aggressive style that takes its toll on the body, people who use this style do not overtly express their feeling of anger but they suppress it. Promotes the martyr role when feeling are suppressed, resulting in migraine headaches, ulcers, lock jaw, etc. (Self punisher): people who channel their anger into guilt. They often get angry with themselves for getting angry with others. They punch themselves with control measure that may lower their self esteem (food intake, excessive drinking, starvation, etc) (Exploders): exploder represent the stereotype of uncontrolled aggression. They express their emotion a hostile manner, either verbally or physically. They pent up their feelings of anger and often erupt at people or objects that are not associated with the primary cause of frustration. (Underhander): they exhibit an active style of mismanaged anger that inflicts mild abuse. They usually target their aggression directly at the cause of the threat. They seek revenge for injustices to their ego and try to sabotage their "enemy" with little acts of aggression in a somewhat socially acceptable way. They see themselves as life's victims and resolution is rarely accomplished.

Ways in which stress is manifested at work.

-Stress is manifested in many ways, such as: increased absenteeism due to health problems derived from stress and employees need to take sick days which is costly to a company. -Increased 'presenteeism', which is the opposite of absenteeism, it is the phenomenon of employees coming to work, yet not functioning up to their capabilities on the job due to illness or stress. The concept of presenteeism is connected with decreased productivity. Stress has been shown to reduce employee productivity about 20 hours per employee per month. -Increased Accidents, a stressed worker is much more likely to cause workplace accidents compared to non-stressed workers. There are also increased health care costs. Stressed workers have double the health care costs of non stressed workers.

Benefits of being happy and how to be happier

-Superior work outcomes, such as: greater creativity, increased productivity, higher quality of work. -A stronger immune system, outcomes include: increased immunoglobulin A, decreased cortisol. - A longer life , happiness can add a total of 16 years to the life of a man and 23 years to a life of a woman. -There are larger social rewards, people who are happy are more likely to marry, less likely to become divorced, more likely to have more friends, more likely to enjoy stronger social support, more likely to enjoy richer social interactions. -Make an effort to monitor the workings of your mind. We can be happier by thwarting negative emotions and fostering positive emotions such as empathy, serenity and gratitude. -Raising your baseline is hugely influenced by your thoughts - being optimistic, having an attitude of gratitude, viewing the glass as half full and not half empty and having meaningful conversation have been shown to raise one's own level of happiness.

Two components that play a role in terms of how our perceptions are formed.

1. Experience, life significant experiences are filled with emotions and thoughts that play a big role in how our perceptions are formed. 2. Information, our information is what we use to process our experiences and form our perceptions.

5 Types of stressors.

1. Physiological stress: pertains to one's level of physical comfort. 2. Environmental Stresses pertain to those created from environmental factors- such as, being too hot or too cold, excessive noise. 3. Sociological stress: Relationships or interactions with others. 4. Psychological stress: Created within yourself, your relationship with yourself. Anything that has to do with levels of self esteem. (depressed from daily pressures or certain situations.) 5. Philosophical Stress: Not living in congruence with your philosophy, values or beliefs.

Behavioral consequences of stress.

1. Road rage 2. Substance abuse (drugs & alcohol), 3. People become more violent 4. Eating habits are affected (cravings for sugar and high fat foods).

Four major categories of stressors.

1. Significant life changes (death of a loved one, loss of a job, marriage) 2. Catastrophe, unpredictable large scale events that everyone sees as threatening. (Wars, hurricanes); 3. Daily Hassles (aggravated roommates, long store lines) 4. Ambient stressors, these are global that are integrated into the background of the environment. (Physically perceivable, happen in the background)

5 components of stress

1. Stressor 2. Perception 3. Emotional Reaction 4. Behavioral Reaction 5. Physiological Reaction

Stress prone-personality types and characteristics.

1. The first and most stress prone personality is (Type A), always trying to rush or do something in a hurry (time urgency and impatience). They also have what is referred to as Polyphasia which is the need to want to do several things at once. They are super competitive about everything. They are controlling. They show signs or hyperaggresiveness and hostility. 2. The next stress prone personality would be (codependent), these are those who base their feelings of self worth on the approval of others. Characteristics include: the believe that they can't survive without a relationship, they feel as if they are addicted to a relationship, they have a tendency to be overachievers and approval seekers. People who have a 3. (Helpless-hopeless) personality feel as if they have no control over their own life and that their life is largely controlled by external events. 4Learned helplessness, the cumulative impact of stress where you feel as if there is nothing you can do about something. You give up fairly quickly and easily without much effort or trying when things get tough. 5. (Internal LOC), these people believe that they are completely in charge of what happens to them, even if there are poor calls made or poor officiating- they focus on what they could have done better not on the poor officiating. Essentially they are very hard on themselves and exert any negatives on themselves.

4 Components of personality.

1. Values, these are abstract qualities that give meaning to our lives, 2. Attitudes: which are perceptions derived from values, 3. Beliefs: are our thoughts, ideas and perceptions based on our attitudes and values, 4. Behaviors, which are actions based on our values, attitudes and beliefs.

3 ways people respond to stress.

1. Very agitated, overly emotional and cannot sit still 2. People completely shut down or space out, they show little energy or no emotion 3. They freeze under pressure and they freak out yet and don't know how to handle it.

4 Stress personalities.

1. You never feel anxiety until it manifests as mystery aches and pains (one of the most overlooked) their nervous system is functioning at a very low level. 2. The type that panics thinking about everything that needs to get done- (the most common) the sympathetic nervous system goes on over drive, driving out a lot of cortisol if not too much cortisol. 3. The type that has bursts of sudden energy then just shuts down and feels burnt out very quickly (the dash and crash personality type) the parasympathetic system goes on over drive, instead of going neutral it makes you feel very fatigue. 4. Avoid confrontation all together out of fear, they feel nervous often, (people who tend to withdrawal from themselves) their body does not produce enough cortisol which causes them to feel nervous and withdrawal from the outside world.

90/10 rule

10% of how we do in life is based on what happens to us and 90% is how we respond. Your thoughts and your attitude are the key holders to the stressors you are experiencing.

What is the percent of Americans who indicate that their stress level is extremely high?

20 to 25%

What is the average level of stress for Americans

5 to 6

What is the percent of Americans who indicate their stress level is moderate to extreme?

66%

Oxytocin hormone

A neuro hormone, it fine tunes your brains social instincts, primes you to do things that strengthens close relationships, makes you crave physical contact with your friends and family. It is a stress hormone- when released in the stress response it is motivating you to seek support, your biological stress response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel. _____ helps to protect your cardiovascular system from the effects of stress. Helps heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress induced damage- strengthening your health.

ABC of Human Needs

ABCs of human needs is another theory that illustrates the phenomenon that humans have certain needs. - A is for accomplishment - referring to the need to feel that you have accomplished something. (ex. Not getting through your "to do" list,poor grade, couldn't get into a class) - B is for belonging, this refers to the need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. Needing to love and be loved. (ex: Feeling lonely, anxious, or depressed after a relationship has ended.) - C, is for comfort , this refers to the need to feel physically comfortable. (ex: feeling sad or depressed because of pain or injury, feeling irritated because of discomfort resulting from broken AC) - D is for dependability, this refers to the need that you feel that you can depend or rely on other people. (ex: feeling anxious or fearful because you don't trust anyone, feeling disappointed when someone you trusted breaks that trust) - E is for esteem, and refers to the need to feel good about yourself. Esteem refers to the need for the respect of others or the need for status recognition, fame, prestige and attention (ex: feeling helpless, despair, depression when you didn't get a promotion). - F is for finances, this refers to the need to feel financially secure. (ex: feeling anxious when you don't know how you're going to pay off bills. (ex: feeling anxious when you don't know how you're going to pay your bills)

The source of energy that is always stored in our muscles

ATP- Adenosine Triphosphate (an energy molecule that keeps us alive) fuels our muscles and can be made by burning glucose or fat.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who proposes the idea that our behavior and motivations are based on our needs. -We behave according to whether or not our needs are being met. -There is a hierarchy with the basic most basic and most important need at the bottom and least important need at the top. -Based on Maslows theory, an unmet physiological need 'trumps' an unmet social or esteem need.

Glucose

Adrenaline signals the liver to flood the body with _________ for fuel.

Distress

Bad and unhealthy stress. Wears you down and makes you experience physical problems: stomach aches, headaches, acne, etc. Distress also makes you feel all of the negative emotions, such as: frustration, anxiety, anger and overwhelmed.

On a 10 point scale, identify what Americans feel is a healthy level of stress.

Between a 3 or 4 is a healthy level of stress.

Identify U.S. states that are the most stressed.

Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey

Describe the role that stress plays in redistribution of fat and insulin resistance

Cortisol, a stress hormone, causes abdominal fat to accumulate and enlarges individual fat cells, which is known as diseased fat. -When people are stressed they tend to eat more unhealthy foods. When we reach for fat often found in comfort foods during stressful times, it is an attempt to self-medicate, when you eat carbs it raises your bodies serotonin level (the bodies feel good chemical that makes you feel better)- that's why when people are stressed they reach for carbs, or foods high in fat such as muffins and other sweets. -Chronic stress can cause the body to release excess cortisol, a hormone critical in managing fat storage and energy use in the human body. So cortisol in known to increase appetite and may encourage craving for sugary or fatty foods. Our bodies may process food differently when we are under stress. A molecule called Neuropeptide Y that is released from nerve cells during stress and encourage fat accumulation. -Meanwhile, when stress and cortisol levels are high, the body resists weight loss- your body thinks times are hard and you might starve so it hoards the fat you eat or have present on your body. -Cortisol tends to take fat from healthier areas such as your buttocks and hips and moves it to your abdomen which has more cortisol receptors, the process turns it into unhealthy fat around your organs. -As for insulin resistance, over time exposure to cortisol (stress hormone) decreases the bodies response to insulin and leads to increased insulin levels up in our storage of body fat.

Briefly describe how cultures are affected by stress.

Cultures differ in terms of perceptions of stress- for example, the need to have academic success, relationships (monogamy, polygamy)

Characteristics of Type A

Developed value systems of high levels of achievement: strongly driven, competitive, ambitious, always trying to do more and more in less and less time, feeling guilty while relaxed, impatient around others who are slow. They have high levels of economic insecurities- always wanting to make as much as possible and still not satisfied.

Describe what epinephrine does when it goes to cells of the liver, lungs, heart, digestive system, and muscles.

Epinephrine a chemical signal that is attached to the circulatory system and courses through the body, it goes to the (liver) and triggers a signal transduction pathway that will convert glycogen that is found inside of the cells of the liver and release that as glucose- glucose is our energy supply. Now that glucose and epinephrine is flowing throughout the body we have a supply of energy. When epinephrine goes to the (lungs) it speeds up the breathing, When it goes to the cells of the (heart), it speeds up the rate of the heartbeat. When it goes to the (digestive system) it goes to slow down digestion and slow down the blood vessels that feed the areas that allows us to break down and digest food. When epinephrine does to your (muscles) it's going to vasodilate and pump more blood to those areas to respond to fight or flight.

External factors associated with resiliency.

Family support, level of engagement with school, and community safety. Resilience is dynamic.

Internal factors associated with resiliency.

Good self esteem, confident in personal skills, easy going personality.

Adrenal Gland

Identify the gland in your brain that sets off an alarm system.

Adrenaline

Increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies.

What is the alarm phase designed to do?

It is designed to help us cope with emergency short term changes in our environment. The stress responses cause the release of cortisol and epinephrine that mobilize the bodies resources for coping with short term immediate threats.

Briefly describe how gender differences are affected by stress.

Men have much higher levels of adrenalin when stressed compared to women. Men and women differ biologically in terms of hormones therefore, estrogen in women also play a large role during times of distress while menstruating.

Psychophysiology

Mind/body connection - positive thoughts produce positive physiology and negative thoughts produce negative physiology. Psycho, the mind or consciousness & physiology, the body.

Chronic Stress

Not a very intense type of stress but it lasts a lot longer, for example, being stuck in a unhappy relationship or living with a chronic pain or illness. This type of stress is more detrimental to your health.

How anger reactions are harmful to your health.

People with anger management issues tend to get sicker often, weakening their immune system. -They are 9% more likely to have a heart attack. -Susceptible to coronary disease, high blood pressure.

Identify the impact that stress has on our thought processes, academic performance, job performance, and driving ability.

Physiological and psychological effects of stress in our brain and mind compromise creativity and innovation and ability to focus. -When people are under stress, their (thought process) is narrow, this narrowing of attention by definition prevents divergent thinking which is the foundation of creativity. Divergent thinking is the ability to see connections between very distantly related ideas and context. Divergent thinking is a very important component of thinking outside of the box. Stress compromises at the most fundamental neurological level one of the foundational skills of creativity and innovation, which effects any type of performance that requires you to think. -Stress was rated the number one health impediment to (academic performance), anywhere from sleep difficulties, concern about a family member or friend, relationship difficulties, depression and death of a family member/friend are all stressors. When all of those are added up, one can see that stress is a huge impediment to academic performance. In a study, it showed that students who had 8 or more emotional stressors had a much lower GPA than those who had no significant stress. It has also been proven that 3rd year college students have shown the most stress compared to the first two years and graduate students. -Researchers have examined occupational stress and performance amongst nurses and have found that ratings of interpersonal aspects of (job performance), like sensitivity, warmth, consideration and tolerance - and cognitive motivational aspects such as concentration, composure, perseverance, and adaptability correlated significantly with self-reported perceptions of stress, depression and hostility. Job stress has been shown to significantly reduce performance of an employee. -(Driving Ability), research has shown that human beings who are in the moment of negative or sometimes positive emotions have exhibited a distraction level even more serious than those experienced than cell phone users while driving. Such emotions may cause impaired observation and reaction time, failure to recognize situations, inability to predict or determine what the other drivers around us are doing, risky maneuvers such as cutting across several lanes to exit last minute.

Identify what typically happens to your stressors throughout your life

The type, amount and intensity of stress will vary throughout your life.

Describe the physiological systems affected by stress?

Physiological systems affected by stress include: Cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, muscular, skeletal, endocrine, nervous, and reproductive. Cardiovascular (heart and lungs) is responsible for blood circulation. -Respiratory, stress hormones act indirectly on the lungs resulting in an increased respiratory rate allowing more oxygen to enter the lungs which allows more oxygen into the blood, and allows more oxygen to enter various tissues throughout the body. -Immune system, the hormones that reduce activity in parts of the immune system so that infection fighters can be repositioned- these immune boosting troops are sent to the front lines where injury or infection is most likely to occur. -Muscular system, stress causes tension and contracts your muscles, especially in areas such as your neck and shoulders. Skeletal system, when muscles are constantly contracted it can actually pull you skeletal system out of alignment. -Stress causes you to contract your muscles which thereby affects your skeletal system. -Endocrine system, system of glands each of which secretes a type of hormone into the blood stream to regulate the body, stress stimulates these glands to secret the stress hormones. -Nervous system, CNS (Brain and Spinal cord), PNS (Neural pathways to extremities), the automatic nervous system is broken down into: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic- when you encounter any stressors and perceive them to be bad and feel stress inducing emotions such as anger or fear, your sympathetic system is activated. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for conserving energy and bringing you back to homeostasis then establishing a balance.

Nigeria

Rated as the most stressed out country in the world.

What does cortisol do during the alarm phase?

Reduces pain and decreasing inflammation. Helps regulate immune system by decreasing the immune response.

Describe what psychosomatic disease experts found with patients in a mental hospital.

Specific thoughts are associated with specific physical ailments.

Yerkes-Dodson Principle

States that stress affects us in the same way that building muscles does. When we stress, we are creating microscopic tears in our emotional health. It is best to experience stress in healthy doses, if we stress too much and never find ways to cope or recover, we can really damage our health- both physically and mentally. Also states that too little stress and too much stress or bad for you. There is an optimal level that is good for us. The same problems associated with too much stress occur if there is too little stress..

How your organs are affected by stress?

Stress effects your skin, ranging from acne, blisters, psoriasis, eczema and other dermatitis issues. -The brain, people often develop headaches and migraines usually from a buildup of tension around the head, neck or shoulder area, also long term stress, anxiety or depression can lead to Alzheimer's disease or dementia. -The heart because stress increases the blood pressure and we can directly pinpoint the link between heart disease and stress, meanwhile, prolonged stress also affects blood sugar levels which can have direct implications of affecting the way the heart functions. -The stomach, there is a decrease of blood supply to the stomach when you are stressed. Nutrients of your food is not absorbed as well as it is compared to the times you eat when you are not stressed. Chronic stress can change the amount of gastric secretion that is produced by the stomach, and our brains and guts are directly connected via tiny little nerves (mainly the biggest nerve)- helping to communicate messages between the brain and stomach thus the gut function can easily be affected. -The colon and intestines: the stress responses of the intestines result in a decrease of nutrient absorption, a decrease of oxygen to the gut, 4 times less blood flow to our digestive parts and thus reducing the metabolism. The transit time of the colon is increased, resulting in loose stools. Not only does the brain affect the digestive tract, but the digestive tract can affect the way we process our emotions. -The pancreas responds to stress by producing a more than required amount of insulin, which if constantly elevated, may damage our arteries putting us at risk for diabetes and obesity. -The spleen, which is a reservoir of blood shrinks to expel blood into the blood vessels. -Salivary glands, there is a decreased production of salivation so the mouth and throat become dry, making it difficult to speak and swallow. -Joints and Muscles, aches and pains in these places may be stress induced. Stress has been closely correlated with complaints of muscular and skeletal symptoms such as shoulder, neck and lower back pain.

What are the effects of stress hormones on the body for extended periods of time?

Stress hormones on the body for extended periods of time can physically age us. When you stress too much at work or home you begin to look older and even impacts your immune system. Meanwhile, it effects your memory and shrinks your brain cells permanently.

Effects of stress (Mice study)

Stress slowed the brains ability to connect brain cells that form memories and how it is used for cognitive functions such as decision making.

Cortex

The area of the brain that first recognizes something through the eyes.

Amygdala

The area of the brain that interprets the stressor as a threat.

Hypothalamus

The area that organizes the response to the stress and then sends messages down the spinal cord to the adrenal glands.

What health consequences may occur in the Exhaustion phase?

The body can no longer cope and disease comes along as different organs and functions of the body become impaired due to the long-term effects of epinephrine and cortisol. The heart and circulatory system can become damaged from constant elevation- leading to heart disease, potential heart attacks and strokes or even death. Infectious and non-infectious diseases.

Describe how stress is associated with heart disease and stroke.

The heart is the strongest muscle in the body, stress effects the cardiovascular system, therefore heart disease is very strongly correlate with stress. -Heart disease is the number one killer in regard to premature death. Stress, or the inability to effectively manage it, is now being considered a major contributor to heart attacks. -Cholesterol, stress is associated with heart disease because when stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol) are secreted, extra fat is released into the blood stream and returns to the liver where it is turned into cholesterol. -Elevated (LDL cholesterol) is strongly correlated with heart disease. Students during exams and accountants during tax season, for example have shown higher levels of cholesterol during these times. Reducing stress by relaxing and taming hostility and even changing the way you look at challenges reduce the risk of having heart disease and various issues by 75%. -Stroke is associated with stress as well, in fact severe stress is one of the most potent factor for stroke- more so than high blood pressure!

Cortisol

The hormone that is released from the adrenal glands.

Identify the problem with stressors today.

The problem with stressors today is that they do not require increased power, speed, and strength. -Having an increased heart rate doesn't help you pass exams, you don't need increased glucose levels to deal with financial issues etc. if you don't need to be stronger, faster and more powerful the physiological responses to stress are unhealthy because you are not using that increased power, speed and strength. -There is wear and tear on your body when you don't use up those physiological by products of stress

What physiological responses continue to occur in the Resistance Phase?

The release of epinephrine and cortisol continue to be released for long periods of time in response to long term stressors. During this phase, the individual is releasing large quantities of these stress hormones, the blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension is then constantly elevated. Blood sugar is irregular and immune system is suppressed.

Psychoneuroimmunology

The study of the interaction between your consciousness psycho, your brain and nervous system neuro and your body's ability to fight disease (immunology).

How much more stress hormones were produced during simple math problems in Type As compared to Type Bs

They are producing up to 400% of more stress hormones in the blood stream than the type b's that were doing the same task.

Identify characteristics of stress resistant personalities.

They control their lives and look for solutions to problems, committed to meaningful goals, very little use of nicotine or caffeine, relax for at least 15 minutes a day, get regular aerobic exercise, and actively involved with others. With a (resilient personality), they have the ability to adapt when things go wrong, they act with decisiveness and influence instead of helplessness, they show a sense of purpose or commitment, they tend to themselves and have self-care, they maintain a strong sense of humor, they take responsibility for their own actions, focus on the cans and not the can-nots. (Hardy Personality), they contain the 3 c's, Challenge, Control, and Commitment- they see problems as stepping stones rather than problems, they feel in control of their own lives, they have a strong level of commitment to accomplishing their goals.

How can cortisol be dangerous?

This hormone is important if you encounter a stressor requiring increased power, speed, or strength - but if you don't need these things it can be very dangerous. In fact, _____ it is the most dangerous stress hormone. Elevated ____ levels may decrease your appetite, cripples the immune system, shuts down repair, prevents sleeping, and even strong enough to break down bone.

What does cortisol do?

This is a very important hormone that organizes systems throughout your body to deal quickly with stressors. This hormone affects the heart, lungs, circulation, metabolism, immune system and skin- and it helps each of these quickly deal with the stressor.

Acute Stress

This type of stress is intense stress but it does not last long, for example, police lights flashing in your rear view mirror or watching a scary movie.

Identify the condition that illustrates the very real physical reactions in our bodies caused by stress.

What is referred to as the stress response may be so powerful that it may cause Panic attacks, symptoms may include: racing heart rate, tightness in chest, dizziness, sweaty hands, dry mouth, disorientated. Strong enough to mimic what feels like a heart attack. Stress, specifically the stress response is that powerful, your body responds to your emotions which were elicited by your thoughts and perceptions and either prepares you to either to fight or run away. Another example would be Incredible strength, this may be exhibited by someone who is faced with an extremely stressful or threatening situation. Such as someone having the strength to lift a car off someone because their body was going through the stress response proving increased power, speed and strength.

Describe the brain gut connection and the effects of stress on your gut bacteria.

When your brain senses stress it activates your autonomic nervous system, through this network of nerve connections your big brain communicates stress to your intestinal nervous system. -This brain gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut leading to irritable bowel syndrome and can increase your gut sensitivity to acid making it more likely to feel heartburn. -Through the guts nervous system, stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria which may affective your digestive and overall health.

Cortisol

______ the primary stress hormone, increases sugars glucose in the blood stream- this natural reaction is called the stress response and helps in critical situations.

Oxytocin

_______ has been shown to reduce the stress response, it helps your blood vessels relax, and even regenerates the heart from stress related damage. You get more oxytocin when you have more positive social interactions- ______ is also referred to as the "cuddle hormone"