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Check nowNowadays, stress is omnipresent. But how is our immune system dealing with it? Our defence cells take notice of stress hormones we produce. In acute stressful situations, certain defence cells show increased activity - the immune system registers the stress, so to speak, and is ready to react. However, if the stress lasts too long (and thus becomes chronic), our immune system is suppressed; non-specific and specific immune defence is impaired. This leads to increased susceptibility to infections. Every one of us knows this: in or after particularly stressful times, we get sick more quickly and are more susceptible to colds, for example.
Author: Dr. Silke Kerscher-Hack
The term "stress" refers to a person's reaction to a physical or psychological strain caused by specific external stimuli. Examples of such triggers, also known as stressors, are
Any stress - even a pleasant but distressing stimulus - can cause stress, but it does not have to. This depends on how the person concerned perceives it. Basically, there are three possibilities. The stimulus is classified as:
A secondary assessment by the body clarifies whether the situation can be managed and what skills are available to the person concerned. This includes, among other things, the existing self-confidence, material resources (assets such as sufficient funds to carry you through the emergency, or the practical ability to escape from the situation) as well as social support options (people you can rely on for help). So, this stage determines whether the person feels stressed. If the necessary resources are available, the stress can be managed – there are adequate coping mechanisms. If these are missing, stress arises.
Distress affects the entire organism and can damage it - sometimes irreversibly. It is a risk factor for many different mental, psychosomatic and physical health problems:
Psychological signs of stress:
Stress arises when the burden cannot be managed with the available resources. In this case, the two stress axes are activated:
The sympathetic-adrenal medullary axis, also called the sympatho-medullary system by doctors, is used for short-term adaptation to stress. Within a few seconds, the body reacts to the threatening environmental conditions and activates the sympathetic nervous system. This belongs to the vegetative (autonomic) nervous system, which regulates the processes in the body that cannot be controlled voluntarily, such as breathing or heartbeat. Its activation causes the adrenal medulla to release the hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline into the bloodstream. These have an effect on various organs. For example, they inhibit the gastrointestinal system, release the stored energy substances fat and glycogen (the storage form of sugar and carbohydrates) and increase the heartbeat, which improves blood flow to the muscles, skin and brain. In addition, they have a dilating effect on the bronchial tubes, so that oxygen uptake increases. The body is now ready for fight or flight (fight-and-flight response).
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated with a time delay. It prepares the body for the stress to last longer (longer-term adaptation). After exposure to the stressor, a cascade of reactions is triggered, which finally causes the adrenal cortex, a sub-area of the adrenal gland, to release cortisol. The consequences of this hormone are, on the one hand, various specific and non-specific defence processes. In order to maintain a constant blood sugar level even under extreme environmental conditions, amino acids are converted to glucose when there is a high concentration of cortisol in the blood. If cold is the cause of the stress, cortisol causes the release of thyroid hormones to increase the basal metabolic rate and thus the body temperature.
In addition, cortisol also alerts the natural or innate immune defence (non-specific immune system), the first participant in the defence against pathogens, e.g., virus-related infections. The number of natural killer cells and phagocytes increases, so that bacteria, fungi and viruses can be rendered harmless more effectively.
However, shortly after the increase, the number of immune cells quickly drops again. In addition, cortisol interacts with a network of different nerve and immune messengers, and thus increases susceptibility to infections. Some of these messengers suppress an appropriate immune response or disrupt the barrier function of the skin and mucous membrane so that pathogens can penetrate more easily.
These processes are the reason why acute stress tends to stimulate the immune system, whereas chronic stress weakens it.
Special stress management training helps to reduce stress, in which affected persons learn how to deal constructively with stressors and how to react appropriately to stress. The trainings usually consist of the following elements:
Depending on the existing complaints, the following medicines can be used, among others:
Important: The best stress management is of no use if the affected persons do not want to change their own behaviour (but only that of others). This is because change processes in the environment are directly related to one’s own behaviour.
The following herbal medicines can be used as support against stress:
Homeopathic remedies can also help you to react more calmly:
There are also some simple methods for calming down in general:
Chronic stress can become life-threatening in extreme cases. The following physical complications are possible:
Furthermore, stress can be the cause of the following mental illnesses:
Frequent or prolonged stress can cause serious complications. A visit to the doctor is therefore always advisable if the complaints do not subside or if they increase - if they do not improve even after a recovery phase, and if the level of suffering increases.
Stress is an imbalance between a situation with a demand on the one hand and a person with his/her abilities on the other hand. The imbalance is perceived as unpleasant and stressful. Risk factors are therefore:
A positive stress load is characterised by a harmonious alternation of tension/activity and recovery/relaxation. The inability to take breaks, i.e., during phases of chronic stress, makes people ill in the long run. What helps:
Stress prevention also includes
Causes of stress in children are
Children usually react to such stress with physical complaints such as headaches, stomach-aches or difficulty falling asleep. However, concentration difficulties, loss of appetite, listlessness and lack of drive are also possible. For prevention (prophylaxis), parents should
Major stress can cause conception problems or a period of infertility, even in young couples. This reaction of the body makes sense, as psychological or physical stress prevents the woman from concentrating on the pregnancy. If the situation returns to normal, the conception problems also disappear.
During pregnancy, low stress is not harmful for the child. On the contrary, researchers even suspect that it may promote the child's development. However, if the mother is massively stressed, this can have an unfavourable influence on the child's development. Possible consequences for the baby are:
According to the vulnerability-stress model or also the diathesis-stress model, mental illnesses arise when there is both an increased susceptibility (diathesis, predisposition, vulnerability) and current and chronic strains (stress).
Internet:
https://www.mentalhelp.net/stress/the-long-term-consequences-of-negative-stress/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7879592/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.internisten-im-netz.de/fachgebiete/psyche-koerper/stress.html (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.neurologen-und-psychiater-im-netz.org/psychiatrie-psychosomatik-psychotherapie/risikofaktoren/arbeitsleben/belastungsfaktoren/stress/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.neurologen-und-psychiater-im-netz.org/neurologie/ratgeber-archiv/artikel/chronischer-stress-schwaecht-das-immunsystem/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.apotheken-umschau.de/mein-koerper/immunsystem/wie-die-psyche-das-immunsystem-beeinflusst-722369.html (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.apotheken-umschau.de/gesund-bleiben/psyche/stress-in-der-krise-wege-zur-gelassenheit-706215.html (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.apotheken-umschau.de/gesund-bleiben/psyche/stress-verhindern-burnout-vermeiden-702149.html (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.thieme.de/de/presse/abwehrkraefte-in-pandemiezeiten-163041.htm (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de/daz-az/2017/daz-9-2017/nur-kein-stress (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/stressfrei-mal-drei-127324/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.globuli.de/wissen/behandlung/angst-nervositaet/stress/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.aerztliches-journal.de/medizin/kardiologie/herz-kreislauf-krankheiten/herzinfarkt-emotionaler-stress-unterschaetzt/71b587e1f7f9ef8bb83b5b4b6f0ae36a/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.kinderaerzte-im-netz.de/altersgruppen/schulkinder/entwicklung-erziehung/stress-im-kindesalter (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.charite.de/service/pressemitteilung/artikel/detail/gelassen_durch_die_schwangerschaft/ (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/58079/Stress-ein-Grund-fuer-unerfuellten-Kinderwunsch (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.mpg.de/13821177/0821-pskl-137341-stress-vor-der-geburt-erhoeht-das-risiko-fuer-psychiatrische-erkrankungen (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
https://www.thieme.de/de/gynaekologie-und-geburtshilfe/chronischer-stress-beguenstigt-fruehgeburtlichkeit-97763.htm (Abruf: 02.03.2022)
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pdf:
Hügle: Physiologische Veränderungen des Stressmarkers Cortisol, der Wachstumsfaktoren BDNF und VEGF, der Struktur des Hippocampus sowie kognitiver Fähigkeiten während eines Langzeitaufenthalts in der Antarktis, Dissertation (2021)
Keitel: Endokrine und subjektive Stressreaktionen im Rahmen simulierter Notfallsituation: Studien in einem Full-Scale-Patientensimulator, Dissertation (2011)
Wippert: Der Körper unter Spannung, Ergopraxis 5/09)
Landesportbund Nordrhein-Westfalen: Schutzfaktoren und Risikofaktoren
Books:
Pschyrembel, DeGruyter, 268. Auflage (2020)
Löhmer, Standhardt: MBSR, Klett-Cotta, 3. Auflage (2015)
Pflege Heute, Urban&Fischer, 6. Auflage (2014)
Schewior-Popp, Sitzmann, Ullrich: Thiemes Pflege, Thieme, 12. Auflage (2012)
Strobel: Stressbewältigung und Burn-out-Prävention, Thieme, 3. Auflage (2021)
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