Night. An archaic man sits by the fire. Around him the forest fell into blessed silence. Suddenly, somewhere very close, a branch crunched, this instantly distracted the attention of the ancient man from the relaxing contemplation of the fire. Somewhere deep inside himself, he felt the familiar sensations he experienced when encountering the unknown. and he knew exactly that he needed to prepare for fight or flight. He “knew” that the instinct of self-preservation had begun to speak in him. What he could not imagine was that at that moment - the moment of stress - physiological changes began to occur in his body under the influence of humoral factors. There was an increase in the secretion of a number of hormones, for example: ✅ Corticoliberin induces the initial the stage of the stress response – the alarm reaction, which causes a state of anxiety, which ensures the body’s readiness to adapt to the environment that caused the stress; increases the sensitivity of sensory systems, inhibits sexual and food motivation.✅Adrenaline causes expansion of the respiratory tract and increases the heartbeat and stimulates the formation of glucose from reserve substances.✅Muscle performance is supported by norepinephrine.✅Cortisol inhibits the digestive processes and increases the flow of glucose into brain cells.✅Vasopressin inhibits kidney function and enhances attention. The level of anxiety has increased. The sensitivity of all sensory systems has increased (vision, hearing, smell, etc.) Physiological reactions are also aimed at adapting to changes. The bronchi have expanded, the frequency and depth of breathing has increased, because for the body to function, a high-quality supply of oxygen to the tissues is necessary. Blood flow to the heart, brain, and lungs has increased. Blood vessels located close to the surface of the skin narrow to reduce blood loss in case of possible injury. Gastrointestinal motility stops. To facilitate movements, the contents of the rectum and bladder are evacuated.➡️Alarm. does it make sense? Who would have thought that stress affects our body in this way... The main “task” of stress is to adapt the body to changed conditions and return the system to homeostasis. Many levels are involved in this process: behavioral, endocrine, physiological, etc. The stress response was formed over many millions of years, and that primitive man needed it. To survive. Now there is no need for fight or flight, but the body “does not know” this and also mobilizes all body systems to adapt to new conditions. Pleasant events are also accompanied by stress. The physiological picture under emotionally positively colored and negatively colored stress is not fundamentally different. Anxiety also increases, the secretion of stress hormones increases, heart palpitations occur, etc. The biological significance of stress is the preservation of the body as a whole, its adaptation to changes in the environment around us. Damage to health is not caused by stress, but by the finiteness of resources - their exhaustion for moment of stress. “Limited resources” is a subjective concept, you just need to know where and how to look.➡️Recovery from stress If attempts to cope with the situation are ineffective, stress continues and can lead to pathological reactions and organic damage. Overcoming the consequences of stress includes the use of cognitive, behavioral and physiological mechanisms. ➡️ Anti-stress PS. That archaic man by the fire used the resources of his body and successfully coped with the changed conditions (the sudden noise that arose from the dark depths of the forest). He is OK😊