The Stress of Life[1]

1.Stress is not simply nervous tension. Stress reactions do occur in lower animals and even in plants, which have no nervous system. The general manifestations of an alarm reaction can be induced by mechanically damaging a denervated limb. Indeed, stress can be produced under deep anes­thesia in patients who are unconscious, and even in cell cultures grown outside the body.

2.Stress is not an emergency discharge of hor­mones from the adrenal medulla. An adrenaline discharge is frequently seen-in acute stress affect­ing the whole body, but it plays no conspicuous role in generalized inflammatory diseases (arthritis, tuberculosis) although they can also produce con­siderable stress; nor does it play any role in local stress reactions limited to directly injured regions of the body.

3.Stress is not everything that causes a secre­tion by the adrenal cortex of its hormones, the corticoids. ACTH, the adrenal-stimulating pitui­tary hormone, can discharge corticoids without producing any evidence of stress.

4.Stress is not always the nonspecific result of damage. Normal activities—a game of tennis or even a passionate kiss—can produce considerable stress without causing conspicuous damage.

      5.Stress is not the same as a deviation from homeostasis, the steady state of the body. Any spe­cific biologic function (the perception of sound or light, the contraction of a muscle) eventually causes marked deviations from the normal resting. state in the active organs. This is undoubtedly associated with some local demand for increased vital activity, but it can cause-only local stress and even this does not necessarily parallel the intensity of the specific activity.

6.Stress is not anything that causes an alarm reaction. It is the stressor that does that, not stress itself.

7.Stress is not identical with the alarm reaction or the G.A. S. as a whole. These reactions are characterized by certain measurable organ changes which are caused by stress and hence could not themselves be stress.

8.Stress is not a nonspecific reaction. The pat­tern of the stress reaction is very specific. It affects certain organs ( for instance, the adrenal, the thymus, the gastrointestinal tract) in a highly selective manner.

        9. Stress is not a specific reaction. The stress response is, by definition, not specific, since it can be produced by virtually any agent.

          10.Stress is not necessarily something bad. It all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative, successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation, infection is detrimental. The stress reaction, just as energy consumption, may have good or bad effects..

11.Stress cannot and should not be avoided. Since stress is the nonspecific response of the body to   any demand, everybody is always under some degree of stress. Even while quietly asleep our heart must continue to beat, our lungs to breathe, and even our brain works in the form of dreams. Stress can be avoided only by dying. The statement