Effects of Exercise on Stress Management

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What is Stress?

There is no any universal definition of stress. Jackson defined stress as the disruption of the body’s homeostasis or a state of disharmony in response to a real or perceived threat or challenge.  Whereas McEwen simply states that “Stress is a word used to describe experiences that are challenging emotionally and physiologically.” Stress may be defined as a state of threatened homeostasis, which is counteracted by adaptive processes involving affective, physiological, biochemical, and cognitive–behavioral responses in an attempt to regain homeostasis.

The threatening or challenging situation is referred to as a “stressor.” These stressors may be

• acute (e.g., hassles)
• episodic acute stressor eg
• chronic (e.g., bereavement, childhood voilent attack, traumatic event,

When a person encounters a stressor, the body prepares to respond to the challenge or threat. The autonomic nervous and endocrine systems respond by producing the hormones epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. The result of this hormone production is a cascade of physiological reactions that make up the stress response. These changes make up the fight-or-flight response, production of β-endorphin (the body’s natural pain killer), and increased acuity of the senses which prepares the body to cope with the stressor.If the stressor is perceived as negative or more as a threat than as a challenge, cortisol production is increased. Cortisol is involved in energy production but also suppresses immune function.

Stress management

Coping refers to a kind of behavioral or cognitive response or strategy to prevent or alleviate stress [23]. There are mainly two types of coping strategies: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. Problem focused coping refers to a way of coping through which people actively seek information or help to tackle a problem directly or diminish its impact, whereas emotion-focused coping refers to involvement in expressing emotion and altering expectation [23]. Problem-focused coping includes seeking counselors to get some advice to fix a problem, while emotion-focused coping includes blaming, venting, denying, avoiding, or just chatting with friends to express feelings. Emotion-focused coping,

References

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