Stress and Health

Nowadays we hear about stress more and more often. It is becoming an inherent thing in our societies. The growing size of world cities and ever more competitive working conditions are thought to cause stress, anxiety and depression, with a resulting decrease in the quality of life, sleep disturbances, drug and alcohol abuse and poor productivity. Acute stress may suppress immune function, leading to an increased incidence of infections, and chronic stress may predispose to a number of ailments, including digestive disturbances, hypertension and heart problems; jointly, these factors cause a substantial shortening of life expectancy. Consequently, we should be aware of it if we don't want to end up with terminal disease etc.
First of all, the biology of stress is very important because by knowing where the stress begins biologically we can bring it down. When people experience stress "their sympathetic nervous system releases the stress hormones epinephrine and nor epinephrine from nerve endings in the inner part of the adrenal glands [and] pituitary hormone in the bloodstream stimulates the outer part of the adrenal gland to release the stress hormone cortisol" (Myers 1998).…