Stress Hormones - Are They Life-Saving or Life-Threatening to Us?

Programme code: APSS111

Stress hormones—Are they life-saving or life-threatening to us?

It is common to notice that part of the Hong Kong people, especially those with heavy workloads from their schools or workplaces, tend to have some abnormal behaviours under stress, such as trembling, sweating, face turning red, or even develop some serious mental disorders. Recently, I have come across a biological phrase called “Stress hormones” in my Psychology textbook. This phrase has aroused great interest of me because I am always wondering the biological mechanism behind the weird behaviours and feelings when I am in times of stress. Interestingly, I found out that the stress hormones in body actually have both positive and negative influences to us.

I think the natural functioning of the stress hormones in our body should be life-saving to us. It is because they help initiate the “fight-or-flight system” which can prepare human beings to cope with the dangerous situations that may be life-threatening to them (Demers & Batn,1997). For example, if I hear a loud horn sound from a vehicle, I will immediately stop to look around. Indeed, it is also associated with sudden increase in heartbeat and breathing rate as a result of the release of stress hormones. It can increase the supply of blood and oxygen to the body, so as to allow us to adapt to a new situation instantly. This help us to be more alert to the potential dangers around us. It is just like the preys will react immediately to its natural predators, in order to avoid being killed so that they can increase their chances of survival. Therefore, the stress hormones facilitate this kind of inborn mechanism of self-protection to help us stay away from dangers.

However, I am wondering whether stress hormones only pose positive influence to us? Sad to say, the answer is no.

I believe that everyone should have experienced one or two stressful moments in the day-to-day life. I remembered when I was taking the oral examination last year, I could feel that my heartbeat and breathing rate were very rapid. Besides, I felt like my mouth cavity drying up too. Later on, I realised that these chain reactions may be caused by the stress during the examination. Stress will trigger a series of reactions to facilitate the release of numerous stress hormones including glucocorticoids, catecholamines, growth hormone and prolactin (Ranabir & Reetu, 2011). These stress hormones are released into the bloodstream and act on their target organs to produce symptoms of stress such as reduced salivation and increased cardiac output, producing uncomfortable feelings to us.

Indeed, if people are suffering from prolonged stress, this may lead to detrimental effects on both their mental and physical health. It is because the continuous high level of stress hormones, such as glucocorticoids, can destroy human nervous system by killing neurons in the central part of our brain which is responsible for learning and long-term memory. The destruction of neurons also makes people become more vulnerable to the stroke and infections like HIV (Sapolsky, 2000). That is the reason why the people who are always under extreme stress will have a relative poor quality of health. Therefore, if we do not manage with stress properly, the stress hormones in our body will pose a serious threat to our physical health too.