Stress....Stress....Stress....Stress...Stress!!
So, as you can guess, the topic of this diary entry is stress and its effects on the body. Stress alone, whether physical or mental, can have so many effects on the physiology of the body and brain. Stress can cause pain modulation, increasing analgesia during a stressful situation. This is probably why, during school (where its stressful almost all the time), we don't really get sick until we calm down a bit and relax. So when we go home for vacation we suddenly find ourselves bedridden while our tired bodies are just trying to recover from the overexertion we put it through. Stress can be a good thing, since it helps us to get things done in a crunch, but too much of it is a bad thing. It has been found that too much exposure to cortisol (the substance released from the adrenal cortex during stress) causes a degeneration of some neurons. Injections of cortisol into a rat had these effects and also rats that were under constant stress had these same effects. Constant exposure to stress can also cause ulcers, weaken organs, and just all around hurt your body. While sympathetic activity is also needed in times of stress (gotta run away from that bear!) too much of it also wears down the body and creates problems with normal functioning. So the lesson for today is: relax, lay low, breathe deeply and enjoy the quiet times. Too much stress can hurt you.