Stress Hormone
Stress hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine are released by the body in situations that are interpreted as being potentially dangerous. The hormone regulating system is known as the endocrine system. Cortisol is believed to affect the metabolic system and norepinephrine is believed to play a role in ADHD as well as depression and hypertension.
Stress hormones act by mobilizing energy from storage to muscles, increasing heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate and shutting down metabolic processes such as digestion, reproduction, growth and immunity.
Constant stress causes continual release of various stress hormones which can cause:
- A depletion of energy storage
- Stress-induced hypertension
- Effects on metabolic processes
- Ulcers (digestion)
- Hampered growth
- Decrease in testosterone levels in males and irregular menstrual cycles in females.
- Increased likelihood of infectious diseases.
Read more about Stress Hormone: Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the word stress:
“A society which is clamoring for choice, which is filled with many articulate groups, each urging its own brand of salvation, its own variety of economic philosophy, will give each new generation no peace until all have chosen or gone under, unable to bear the conditions of choice. The stress is in our civilization.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)