Question

Most people agree we live in stressful times. Does stress and reactions to stress contribute to illness? Explain why or why not. Support your opinions with information from the text.

Answer 1

Chronic stress can cause serious medical conditions such as heart disease, depression, anxiety, obesity, insomnia and a weakened immune system. The hormone cortisol is party responsible for regulating the inflammatory response. In case of chronic stress, cortisol is not able to regulate this response effectively, as the immune cells do not react to cortisol. This cause inflammation, which gives way to many disease.

Stress also leads to maladaptive coping mechanisms such as use of alcohol and smoking. The use alchol and smoking can cause severe harm to the physical body and in turn may generate more mental stress. Stress can open the doors to various illness as a result of weakend immune system such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension and heart diseases.