Question

Give an example of how the body adapts to stress.

Answer 1

Ans:

A different kind of mentally and physically changes put a stressful condition in front of a person can trigger a cascade of stress hormones. The pressure and stressful condition produced different kind of hormone in body that are secreted by three glands in the body.

These are mentioned as 1. The hypothalamus (Function releasing hormone and regulating body temperature),

2. The pituitary gland (master gland, also present in the brain), and

3.The adrenal gland (found above the kidney, produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol).

The "stress" term coined by Hans Selye, an endocrinologist from Vienna, Austria.

The reaction develop by body against stress for "fight or flight."

The body hormone production against stress evolved a survival mechanism, enabling the person to react quickly to life-threatening situations.

The main beginning site for stress response is brain.

For eg., when we saw a danger coming in front of us in the form of oncoming truck/car/bus, final examination or any kind of public speaking, the our body main part ears and eyes send simultaneously a message to the brain part called as amygdala. The amygdala part of brain related to emotional processing.

This part help in the interpretation of results related to sounds and images, during danger situations, it instantly sends a distress signal to the second part of the brain, the hypothalamus.

The nervous system carry messages from brain to the rest of body, so that the person has the stamina and energy to fight or flee.

For example:

A beginning weightlifter does squats with 15 repetitions at 150 pounds. After few weeks of lifting this heavy weight, the lifter notices the 150 pounds feels easier during the lift and afterwards causes less fatigue due to adaptation. The lifter adds some extra pounds and continues with the newly established stress of 170 to 190 pounds. The lifter will continue to get stronger until his/her maximum capacity has been reached or on peak point, or the stress stays the same, at which point the lifter’s strength will simply plateau. This stress adaptation principle can be applied, not only to gain muscular strength, but also to gain flexibility, muscular, and cardiorespiratory persistence.