1HEALTH BEHAVIOUR Stress is a physiological or biological response to sudden threats which is felt or experienced by the human body. Within human body, there are two systems to deal with the short term as well as long term stress, and these are Sympathetic Adrenal Medullary (SAM) and Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenalin (HPA) (Wadsworth, 2015). After experiencing stress, the short term reaction is generated by SAM. In stressful condition, the hypothalamus activates the Autonomous nervous system and specifically the sympathetic branch which in turn leads to the stimulation and secretion of adrenalin and noradrenalin from the adrenalin medulla (Pietromonaco & Powers, 2015). Due to this, the activity of parasympathetic nervous system decreases and leads to the physiological changes within the individual by increasing the heart rate, blood pressure, and imparting shaking and sweating, as well as decreases the digestion process. After elimination of the stress factor, the physiological changes become normal (Potts et al., 2019). On the other hand, the process of HPA is slower and complicated to exert long term effects on the patient to combat the stressful condition. Upon facing stressful condition, the hypothalamic pituitary axis becomes activated and eventually starts secreting the adrenocorticotropic hormone (Wadsworth, 2015). This ACTH then helps to secrete corticosteroids which help the body to maintain proper blood sugar level which is required for combating stressful condition. This is because, the cortisol helps to release the stored glucose to be released from liver and hence, through steady and lengthy flow, the stored glucose works as a fuel to fight with the stressful condition (Pietromonaco & Powers, 2015). This is thedifferencebetween the short-term pathway that makes the body alert about the stress and the long term pathway, in which the body develops strategies to combat stress.
2HEALTH BEHAVIOUR References Pietromonaco, P. R., & Powers, S. I. (2015). Attachment and health-related physiological stress processes.Current opinion in psychology,1, 34-39. Potts, S. R., McCuddy, W. T., Jayan, D., & Porcelli, A. J. (2019). To trust, or not to trust? Individualdifferencesinphysiologicalreactivitypredicttrustunderacute stress.Psychoneuroendocrinology,100, 75-84. Wadsworth, M. E. (2015). Development of maladaptive coping: A functional adaptation to chronic, uncontrollable stress.Child development perspectives,9(2), 96-100.