Stress: A Dangerous Enemy

Do you want to be healthy and fit? Do you want to have a happy reproductive lifein the
future? If you want to achieve these, listen. S-T-R-E-S-S. Stress. All you have to do is stay away from
stress. I chose to speak about this matter because I, as a student,experience stress almost every day
and I want to share to you how stress affects us.Stress has some effects that may be unnoticeable at
first, but leads to serious problems when ignored.

First of all, what is stress? As of now, there is still no agreed definition of stress. According to
TeensHealth, stress is “a feeling that's created when we react to particular events.´ It is how the
body responds to different situations that it encounters. In medical conditions, stress means, “a
physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mentaltension or physiological reactions that
may lead to illness.´ Another definition of stress from a psychologist named as Richard Lazarus,
stress is a feeling experienced by aperson when "the demands exceed the personal and social
resources the individual is ableto mobilize."

Stress is divided into two, the good or positive stress and the bad or negativestress. What is
the difference between the two? Good or positive stress is a short-termstress that is helpful to
people. It is what conditions us when we do something veryimportant or something that¶s very
demanding of our energy. It is actually good for our body. But long-term stress is another thing.
Instead of giving you energy, it exhausts your body so much that it may lead to health problems. This
is where bad or negative stresspositions itself.

Now, comes the effects of stress. What are some of the effects of stress? One of them , is
that, stress causes the dysfunction of the immune system. The immune system is an important
system in our body because it is the one that helps fight against infections. If it does not work
properly, your resistance against diseases becomes low. When you are stressed, there is a decrease
in the production of antibodies . So, that explains why people with hectic schedules are prone to
diseases. Also, when you are stressed, wounds don’t heal easily. Studies show that stress may cause
a 40% reduction in wound healing . Furthermore, stress also increases a person’s risk for allergies,
most especially allergic disorders such as hay fever, eczema and asthma. It happens because too
much stress affects the balance of the body.

These, and many others, such as pain, heart disease, digestive problems, sleep problems and
depression, are effects of excessive stress that we don’t want to experience.So, do you want to be
healthy and fit? Do you want to have a happy reproductive life inthe future? Then, don’t stress
yourself