Day 14 - How Stress Affects Mind and Body

Hello everyone, Christopher Lord here, and I am continuing my series on stress with an emphasis on how stress affects body and mind.

In the previous entry, I introduced you to Dr. Hans Selye, the father of modern research on stress.  Now I want to introduce you to one of his earliest and best-known contributions, the discovery of the organ systems responsible for the human body’s response to stress, the “Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis”, or “HPA Axis” for short.

It’s a mouthful to be sure, but I hope to make it easily understandable in this entry, and then later dedicate future entries to learning more about the HPA Axis and its’ associations with medical and mental health problems.

Okay, back to Dr. Hans Selye, who was a medical doctor who specialized in endocrinology, which is the branch of medicine concerned with organs (called glands) that make a substance (called a hormone) which is then released into the body where it has an effect somewhere else.  A classic example of a gland is the pancreas, which makes insulin used by all cells of your body to get sugar inside for fuel.

It was Dr. Selye’s hope and wish to discover the mechanism by which the human body dealt with stress, again defined as "any event which may make demands upon the organism, and sets in motion a non-specific bodily response which leads to a variety of temporary or permanent physiological or structural changes".

He did this by studying mice (which are used because they have organ systems a lot like our own) and repeatedly saw that the result of stress to these animals was the build-up of certain glands and hormones, the same hormones in fact, no matter what the stress was.  With a lot more careful work, he was able to see that the final hormone that he gathered was one called “cortisol” and two others “adrenaline” and “noradrenaline”, all of which have come to be called the “stress hormones”.

Back again to this thing called the HPA Axis, which I will write more and more about in future entries.  The “H” in HPA stands for Hypothalamus, which is a gland in our brain that does lots of stuff, via inputs from the eyes, ears, nose and skin it is part of our brain’s response to the environment. The “P” stands for Pituitary, which is another gland in our brain that communicates with the Hypothalamus and the Adrenal gland, which is the “A” in HPA Axis.  The word “Axis” refers to the name we give all the players involved in this system, which has been called the “stress response” or stress cascade”.

Let’s put it all together: we experience “stress” through our senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) which are relayed by whatever sensory organ that perceived it to our brain. One target for that information is the Hypothalamus, who then upon being triggered sends a chemical message (hormone) to the nearby Pituitary gland (also in our brain) who then sends a hormone to the distant Adrenal glands (which sits on top of each of our kidneys) which then responds by releasing chemical messengers- the so-called “stress hormones”- cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which initially produce helpful effects- for example increasing blood flow to certain areas, increasing heart output, allowing extra sugar in the blood stream to be used for this “emergency”- whatever stress our body perceived.

The big deal is this “stress cascade” or “stress response” is not inherently a bad thing, but it’s only for short-term/temporary use, to respond to some crisis, then it’s supposed to turn off and go away until needed again later.

The bad thing (in the form of medical and mental health problems) is when this “stress response” or “stress cascade” is always on, because the “stress hormones” cause high wear and tear to our systems, or as Dr. Selye put it, the stress hormones cause “temporary or permanent physical changes” in us that can be potentially life threatening medical and mental health conditions.

More to come!

Thank you for reading

Christopher E Lord

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The Purpose Driven Life - Finding Your Purpose

 

CHAPTER 14 - WHEN GOD SEEMS DISTANT

God is real, no matter how you feel. 

It is easy to worship God when things are going great in your life -- when he has provided food, friends, family, health, and happy situations. But circumstances are not always pleasant. How do you worship God then? What do you do when God seems a million miles away? 

The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant.  

How do you praise God when you don't understand what's happening in your life and God is silent?

• Tell God exactly how you feel 
• Focus on who God is -- his unchanging nature
• Trust God to keep his promises.  
• Remember what God has already done for you 

 Point to Ponder: God is real, no matter how I feel.

Verse to Remember: "For God has said, "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.'". Hebrews 13:5

Question to Consider:   How can I stay focused on God's presence, especially when he feels distant?

Do you praise God in both of these situations?