The Reaction of the body Under the Influence of a Stress Stimulus
The author: Mikhailov Vladimir Moiseevich
Specialist of the highest category, physician of functional diagnostics
Stress is defined as the natural response that an individual has to any exposure that exceeds their immediate ability to respond. For instance, a student that believes that an exam is in three weeks but finds out that it is in fact the next day, experiences pressure and anxiety due to the sudden changes. On a normal day, an exam would be expected by the student and thus he or she would not feel as much pressure. However, the change in their routine functions as a stressor, which can result in two different outcomes. The first is that the student will shut down and the other is that the student will adapt to the change and accommodate it. Stress stimuli can come from the social environment, that is, the individual’s childhood, social economic background; or personality traits such as anger, hostility and neuroticism, a combination of which can lead to emotional burnout, anxiety and even depression.
Stress factors affect both psychological and physiological functions of the body. The heart rate variability is often used to study the changes that occur in a person under stress. According to the study done, there is a clear difference between physical stress and psychological stress. For instance, data recorded from parachutists was different from those that engaged in physical activities. According to the study, during physical activities the production of adrenaline in the body works to stabilize a person’s heart rate which goes back to normal when the person comes to rest. On the contrary, application of psychological status has a different effect in that the release of adrenaline and other chemicals can have negative effects. The use of online programs enables the user to monitor their heart rate variability. It allows the user to have a quantitative characterization of the concept if the “physiological cost of activity” which enables them to adjust their training and work processes in due time.
Hence the person is able to control the changes in their bodies and ensure that stress stimuli that would otherwise have negative effects on their psychological and physiological functions. Online Hear Rate Variability (HRV) recording gives a quantitative characterization of the “physiological cost of activity” to correct the intensity of the training and work processes to implement the concepts of occupational health while practicing extreme activities.