Remember how it was. Spring, love, session. Then the level of the stress hormone - cortisol in your blood must have gone through the roof, but this was the norm. Unless it happened, having learned all the tickets, you came to the exam and understood: your head is empty. The effect of stress on memory has long been proven. Once he improves it, under other circumstances - like an eraser erases information from the brain. But until now, scientists do not understand how to use this connection to your advantage.

SCIENTISTS SAY OUR GRAY STUFF CAN SURVIVE THE HIGHEST LOADS

Memory device

Going to a scheduled appointment with a gynecologist, 29-year-old Anya could not imagine that she would leave the doctor's office in an ambulance. But it turned out that our heroine needed an urgent operation. In the hospital, Anya (don't worry, everything ended well) they began to ask about what tests she had already taken, how long she had been examined ... Questions rained down in a prickly hail, she could not concentrate at all. But at some point, she “turned on” and remembered everything.

“I was distracted from my diagnosis, and the events themselves stood before my eyes,” Anya said. It is important to make a small digression here. The human brain weighs an average of 1.3 kilograms and is made up of millions of nerve cells called neurons. Do you think you memorize poetry when you reread lines a hundred times? In fact, it's all about the ability of neurons to communicate with each other. Imagine the scheme of any subway - the interweaving of branches. Some of them are called axons, others are called dendrites, and the grafting stations are synapses.

The more actively the number of lines and their intersections grows (connections between neurons become denser), the better memories are kept in the head. What needs to be done to start this process? Neuroscientists answer - for example, survive short-term stress. When you worry, the sympathetic nervous system releases cortisol and epinephrine into the blood, which give an impetus to the launch. There is one “but”: stress should not be so serious as to cause trauma to the psyche.

Girl's memory

True, we women do not fit into the framework of research. American neuroscientist Larry Caill found that short-term stress always improves memory in men, but not in women. It all depends on the phase of the menstrual cycle. Backfilling question: what does not depend on it ?!

Dr. Caill found that before and during menstruation, when estrogen levels are high, stress clouds memory. And when the amount of progesterone in the blood begins to increase, the ability to assimilate information becomes more acute. One day, our friend Anya, while loading shopping bags into the car, left one of them on the roof of the car. The package was returned to her by the valet, who noticed how something weighty slipped off the subcompact. Apparently, at that moment, estrogens in Anya's blood were celebrating the victory of femininity over scientific progress.

Warm-up for the mind

You just met your new lawyer yesterday, but today you have no idea what his name is. This would not have happened if you had known about the method of associations.

Names.
Never again will Ivan Petrovich, by your grace, become Fyodor Sergeevich. Unless, of course, you start to be more attentive to people. Next time, do not be too lazy to look at a new acquaintance. Highlight his remarkable feature and associate with the name. For example, "Ivan Petrovich looks like Gaft."

Purchases.
Most people make a list on paper before going to the store. But if you forgot to do this, try mentally spreading the products over your body. For example, pour milk into shoes, decorate your head with a loaf of bread. It sounds crazy, but such strange associations trigger verbal-logical memory. Passwords.
Not repeating passwords when registering on various sites is the right move, but it’s difficult to keep them all in your head. Our method will help. If the sale site makes you think sweet thoughts about new shoes, choose the password Louboutin, the name and date of birth of your dear recipient is suitable for email.

"Female" type of stress

Chronic stress can be summed up in one word – life. But sometimes the usual load goes beyond the reasonable. The state of "piled up" depresses more than a short-term experience. This is partly why many people prefer occasional hands-on work over time-smeared mental stress. When 27-year-old Elizabeth was offered a promotion, she immediately accepted. But they were able to find a person in her place only six months later, and all this time Liza reminded herself of a squirrel in a wheel.

Due to a serious mental injury, the brain can become 7-8% smaller than normal

At first, she tried to keep up with everything: clean the apartment, plan a vacation, iron her son's shirts, collect her husband for school ... That is, vice versa. Forces were running out. And then suddenly I realized that I was doing it. Even when the body said “stop” and billed her in the form of the flu, she did not lose heart: she lay down and got down to business with redoubled energy. No, she is still overcome by fear, one has only to open the diary, but ... her head is afraid, but her hands are doing it. By the way, Lisa's husband admits that he would not have coped with a tenth of the tasks assigned to his wife.

Dr. Caill continues to insist on the superiority of women in dealing with stress: “Few neurologists know about it, but women deal with chronic stress better than men. Hippocampal cells in women's brains are less damaged." It's strange that neurologists don't know. We have long suspected that men are good at solving global issues, and the daily routine is our part. Scientists do not trust the centuries-old experience of the beautiful half of humanity. They just want to torment the animals.

So Tsen Yang, professor of physiology and neurology at the State University of New York, conducted another experiment on rodents and, after scanning their brains, found out that the chronic stress that mice were subjected to (what exactly the professor did with them - pulled their tails or deprived them of lunch) did not known), weakens working memory, the one where short-term memories are stored. So, male rodents completely forgot everything, but females did not, thanks to the hormone estrogen.

All this wonderfully fits into the context of evolution: historically, a man is used to strong short-term stress (killed a mammoth - a week is free), and a woman is used to chronic stress (arrangement of a cave, caring for a child). While this is only a hypothesis, but quite vital.

Memorable trauma

Sergey Kozmin, clinical psychologist, lecturer at the Russian National Research Medical University. N. I. Pirogova, warns: “Very strong stress is a serious test for the psyche, after which amnesia is possible. Therefore, for example, in forensic psychological examination, a strong emotional load is considered as one of the factors of memory impairment. By erasing information from the subcortex, consciousness gets rid of negative experience so that a person cannot return to it. After all, memories, and hence sensations, are easy to resurrect - a gesture, intonation, and smell are enough.

There is still little talk about domestic violence in Russia. There are also those who follow the wretched psychology of "hitting means loving." But in the USA they are fighting it at the state level. So the case of 36-year-old Alexis Moore, who was repeatedly beaten by her boyfriend, was dealt with not only by psychologists, but also by neurologists at all stages of rehabilitation.

A few years ago, she was driving her car to the supermarket and suddenly passed out. “My mind suddenly went blank,” she said. “I had no idea who I was or where I was going.” Six years before the incident, Alexis was severely beaten by her boyfriend. “It was monstrous, the feeling of danger did not leave me for a minute,” she said. At that time, Alexis did not take off her sneakers at all - in case she had to flee.

Why women do not leave such men immediately, but continue to live with them and hope for something is a topic for a separate discussion. Alexis still pulled herself together and left the tormentor. Then she studied with a psychologist for a long time and almost recovered from everything she had experienced, but her memory is still faltering. Interestingly, on the one hand, information about the experience can only be removed surgically - all thoughts and sensations are securely hidden in the bins of the hippocampus. On the other hand, traumatic stress causes great damage to the brain, memory becomes unclear, there are gaps lasting from several minutes to several days.

“I noticed that in recent years I have become very absent-minded,” said Alexis. – Seemingly simple tasks require a lot of effort from me. Not to mention the fact that without a notebook in which I write down all the affairs and events, I'm just like without hands. So, if someone you know has experienced a serious injury, advise him to see a doctor as soon as possible. And explain that memory problems in this case are natural.

Take advantage of stress

Stress does not always and not everyone benefit. If the psychological load helps you do a bunch of things, that's great. But do not get carried away and learn to determine its optimal level.

To find your sweet spot, focus on the symptoms of psychological overload: fear, panic, feelings of emptiness, nausea, and loss of appetite. If you experience them more or less regularly, you should consult a specialist. Sometimes, however, the listed symptoms can appear out of habit: for example, you have never performed in public, and you have to sing at a corporate party in front of colleagues. I'm sick of just the thought. The ability to distinguish severe stress from fatigue will come with experience.

Clinical psychologist Sergei Kozmin believes that the beneficial properties of stress are slightly exaggerated: “Firstly, within the framework of psychology, there are many studies that contradict each other. And it is rather difficult to say unequivocally whose memory - women or men - is affected by stress more strongly. It is necessary to take into account not only the level of emotional load, but also the age of the person, his personality, the state of the nervous system. Secondly, stress is usually disorganizing. It can be theoretically assumed that some people in a state of pressure improve the ability to remember, but this rarely happens.

If we continue the theoretical part of the reasoning, stress can affect women's memory more. The first work in this area was carried out by Freud. And so he suggested that in suggestible, demonstrative people, pressure causes a serious difficulty in memory. And since there is more demonstrativeness in women by definition (so it is believed, at least), emotional stress can have a stronger effect on the representatives of the fair half. So, as the great Carlson said, calmness, only calmness. If you are not one of those for whom stress helps to remember everything, train your memory in other ways.

In addition to nutrition and the environment, stress is one of the main factors affecting human health. The negative impact of stress adversely affects the normal functioning of the whole organism and often becomes an impetus for the occurrence of serious illnesses, and can be quite serious. That's what you need to learn - to adequately respond to stressful situations. Stress follows a person everywhere - at home, in a store, on the street, at work. A person under the influence of such a state cannot be fully happy.

If you do not actively fight this disease, then the impact of stress on health will go into a severe chronic stage. First you need to understand what was the provoking factor. When the cause disappears, then the consequences for the body can be eliminated.

The physiological state of a person

The effect of stress on the human body almost always has a bad effect on all organs and systems of the body, only worsening the patient's well-being. Most often, the physiological health of a person suffers.

1. Constant headaches.
2. Chronic sleep deprivation.
3. Exacerbated diseases of the cardiovascular system. Hypertension and palpitations.
4. The risk of growth of oncological cells increases.
5. Alcohol and drug addiction.
6. Fatigue and decreased concentration and memory.
7. Due to the increase in hormones, the development of osteoporosis and exudation of the skin is possible.
8. Exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, the occurrence of gastritis and ulcers.
9. Reduced immunity and as a result - regular viral diseases.
10. Not always the consequences of stress can be cured, often there is a degeneration of the cells of the brain and spinal cord.
11. Decreased libido.
12. Increase in blood glucose.

The state of mind of a person

The harmful effect of stress on the body, which arose against a mental background, does not allow a person not only to work normally, but also to live. For any action, you need to put a lot of mental effort.

The main consequences of stressful situations:

• Insomnia,
• neurosis, depression,
• Aggression, irritability, fits of anger,
• Unwillingness to live or do something.

It is very difficult to cope with stress alone, the main thing is to understand the cause and get rid of the source of such well-being. The most effective way is to learn a technique for overcoming stressful situations.

Career and stress

Stress can arise from overtime work and be of a professional nature. In medicine, it is called that - occupational stress, the effect and spread of which is increasing every year.

Here are its main reasons:

Children's stress

In today's world, stress in children is quite common. Many children are in comfortable conditions and live in a certain, already formed way, and any violation leads to a stressful situation. Thus, they react as if protecting themselves.

Causes of stress in children:

• Family (separation from relatives, divorce of parents, quarrels, the birth of another child).
• Fears (age, inspired, conscious and unconscious).
• Misfortune (change in the living conditions of children, death of a relative).
• Medical (fear of doctors or pain, injury).
• Social (conflicts with other children, fear of being misunderstood, competition).
• Phone, computer (emotional stress on the psyche).
• Other (change of scenery in the room, potty training, etc.)

It is not always possible to distinguish between stress and the usual whims of a child, although often these signs are of a completely different nature. For example, a fidget child can drastically change his behavior and his actions become calmer and quieter. The most obvious physiological manifestations are stuttering, sleep disturbance, fear, reddening of the skin, slurred speech, etc. If you can recognize your child from the description, then you need to urgently contact a specialist, that is, a psychologist.

Pregnancy and stress

The most susceptible to stressful situations are expectant mothers, because the negative impact of stress on a person extends not only to them, but also to the fetus. During this period, a woman becomes especially susceptible to external stimuli, and the very state of pregnancy brings inconvenience: fatigue, restriction in movement, fear for the child, etc.

Causes of stress in a pregnant woman:

• Tensions between spouses
• Trouble at work or school
• Uncertainty in the strength of the family,
• Dissatisfaction, need for something.

Situations in which a woman will be overly worried or nervous should be avoided. After all, the effect of stress on the body can be very dangerous and destructive, causing difficulties in bearing a child and a woman's poor health. If you do not get rid of the source of such a state in time, then sad consequences are possible.

The most common effects of stress are:

• The inability to give birth on their own,
• Suffocation of a child due to lack of oxygen,
• Deviations in development and prematurity,
• Thick blood,
• Premature emptying of water
• postpartum depression.

Now there are many different methods to reduce the bad effects of stress on human health. To begin with, the attending physician must prescribe a course of fortification for a woman. The daily diet requires the mandatory presence of vitamins A, B and C. The best medicine to stay calm is a favorite activity, no matter if it is reading, knitting or drawing. Calm classical music promotes relaxation.

A person is used to not paying attention to problems, accumulating and holding back his emotions in himself. But after a while, it can explode because of any trifle. To maintain health, you should not be negatively influenced by anyone. We must not forget that such concepts as the positive effects of stress or the benefits of stress do not exist.

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The enteric system of the human body is part of the autonomic nervous system. It regulates the work of smooth muscles of internal organs with contractile activity, including the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract. It is often referred to as the "second brain". The same type of neurons and neurotransmitters work in the gastrointestinal tract as in the brain.

They perform many functions, including communicating with the central nervous system. Have you ever noticed that emotional swings cause certain reactions in your stomach? For example, with positive love experiences, pleasant sensations arise in it, anxiety causes the urge to nausea, and fear seems to tear the intestines. This is because the brain has a direct influence on the gastrointestinal system.

When you experience stress - be it chronic or momentary - your gastrointestinal tract immediately reacts to it. Psychological stress disrupts the contraction of the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract, contributes to its inflammation, increases susceptibility to infections.

Research has shown that the gastrointestinal tract's connection to the brain is so strong that patients in need of therapy to relieve stress and psychological anxiety show characteristic symptoms of GI disorders. And vice versa: by changing the diet, you can improve your mood and tone up.

How can you tell if stress is to blame?

The natural reaction of the intestines to stress is chronic indigestion, intestinal irritation and other unpleasant symptoms caused by a disruption in the digestive system. To minimize the damage to mental and physical health, it is necessary to pinpoint the source of the discomfort and the moment when it first manifested itself. Then try the following stress-reducing techniques:

Meditation

Try to calm down and not think about anything, do yoga or just find a quiet place where no one will disturb you (even a regular bathroom will do for this). Remember to visit your "safe haven" at least once a week.

A diary

Sometimes you just need to "let go". Recording events, thoughts and states on the pages of a personal diary is a great way to rid yourself of stress, your body from unpleasant symptoms, and your mind from thoughts that bother you.

List

Sometimes stress can be very easily dealt with by simply stating what needs to be done.

Therapy

Have a heart-to-heart talk with someone you trust, or consult with a professional psychotherapist.

How to determine if you are eating right?

If everything that prevents you from living a peaceful life is already seemingly under control, but you still feel irritation, anxiety, lack of energy, this may be due to food sensitivity. This reaction differs from a food allergy in that it is not as severe and may not appear for several days. Most often, some processed and dairy products, gluten, peanuts, soy, sugar, artificial sweeteners and, of course, alcohol are the culprits - they cause you mental discomfort and mental suffering.

To determine the source of your distress and associated symptoms, try a special diet. Develop a healthy eating plan that gradually eliminates toxic foods from your diet. This will take you three to four weeks. This will help you rid your body of the harmful effects of each type of food.

Once you've made a list of the foods you've eliminated from your diet, start adding foods back in, one at a time, and watch your mental and physical well-being change as you do so. Reactions can be the following: mental - problems with concentration, fatigue, depression, inability to think coherently; physical - abdominal cramps, indigestion, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, acne. If these effects are not observed within a week, then the food added to the diet is safe, and you should include the next food on the list you have compiled in your diet. If negative effects appear, immediately stop using this product, as your body reacts too sensitively to it.

Upon completion of this diet, you will be able to develop a balanced diet, eliminating from it those foods that adversely affect your psyche. You will see that after eliminating these foods from your diet, you will have additional energy, you will be able to regulate your weight, your mind will become clear, and your mood will be mostly good and calm. The quality of your sleep will also improve significantly.

According to the laws of nature, in moments of stress, we are supposed to fight or run away. Modern society does not accept such behavior. In our civilized time, we often have to resolve conflicts in a more peaceful way. But it doesn't make it any easier for the body! He continues to be on alert, wasting his reserves. Everything would be fine if the body had time to recover. Unfortunately, the rhythm of our life does not allow this.

The effect of stress on the body is most often manifested in urban residents. And the larger the city, the more often the state of stress. More contacts, communication. Therefore, there are more chances to "run into" rudeness. For residents of rural areas, stress is a novelty. A measured life in nature and the absence of casual contacts with strangers significantly reduce the likelihood of stressful situations. Perhaps that is why many families are trying to buy their house in the suburbs.

So how does stress affect the body, and how can we help ourselves?

Effect of stress on the heart.

The main burden of stress falls on our heart. For comparison, in a calm state, the heart pumps 5-6 liters of blood. In a stressful situation, these figures increase to 15-20 liters. And this is three or four times more! In middle-aged and older people, the risk of strokes and heart attacks is significantly increased.

In this situation, the heart must be calmed. This is a simple exercise to do. Inhale deeply for five seconds, then exhale for a count of five. Thus, it is necessary to take thirty breaths and exhalations. In no case do not “wash down” stress with coffee or alcoholic beverages. They raise the pressure, loading the heart even more.

Effect of stress on muscles.

During danger, the brain sends a signal to the muscles, and blood flow to them increases significantly. Muscles swell, preparing for action. If physical activity does not occur, the blood in the fibers stagnates.

The effect of stress on the brain.

Information about danger through the senses is sent to a special part of the brain called the hypothalamus. After processing the information, the hypothalamus sends signals to all parts of the body, putting them on high alert. This results in constriction of the blood vessels in the brain. As we age, cholesterol builds up in the arteries, making them brittle. Therefore, their sharp narrowing can provoke a stroke.

To prevent this from happening, you need to take care of your health in advance. As the blood vessels constrict, the pressure rises. Daily walks in the fresh air and a healthy eight-hour sleep will help bring it back to normal.

The effect of stress on the eyes.

Stress information enters the brain, in particular, through the organs of vision. As a result, unpleasant sensations may appear in the eyes: increased pressure, tension, pain, dryness of the mucous membrane, the effect of "sand in the eyes". If you are often nervous, then from constant stress, your eyesight may deteriorate.

To relax the eye muscles, there is a simple but effective exercise. Close your eyes and make a few movements with them left-right, up-down, in a circle. And so for several minutes. Then press firmly on the eyelids, wait five seconds until white spots appear in front of the eyes. Release your hands, you can already open your eyes. It is useful to massage the bridge of the nose in the corners of the eyes on both sides. If possible, sit in a relaxed position for 15-20 minutes.

The effect of stress on the stomach.

During nervous overstrain, a spasm of the capillaries of the stomach occurs. This prevents the secretion of mucus, which forms a protective barrier on the walls. Gastric juice (hydrochloric acid) begins to corrode the stomach tissue, which leads to the formation of an ulcer.

If you want to help your stomach, drink 200 milliliters of still mineral water every three hours. Low-fat chicken broth or warm milk tea works well. But from salty and fatty foods give up for a while.

The effect of stress on the gut.

The intestines are sensitive to stressful situations. He begins to work hard, there are spasms. Spasms, in turn, lead to constipation or diarrhea. In addition, substances formed during stress kill the intestinal microflora. Dysbacteriosis may develop.

To prevent this from happening, drink a glass of bifidokefir at night. It normalizes bowel function and enriches with beneficial microorganisms.

The effect of stress on the kidneys.

During times of stress, adrenaline is produced in the kidneys. It enhances cardiac activity and muscle performance.

To protect your kidneys from destruction, drink unsweetened green tea.

A few general tips:

Shout with all your heart. This will help you release negative emotions.

Well calms the nerves green color. Get outside. Admire the green foliage. And in winter, just surround yourself with green objects, accessories.

Arriving home, cook yourself a few pieces of sea fish. It contains substances that contribute to the production of the hormone of joy - serotonin.

If you are at work, be sure to take a ten-minute break. Relax with something.

Do the following exercise. Sit on a chair. Press 15 times with your feet on the floor. And then with force squeeze and unclench your fists 15 times.

Stress is a social phenomenon. And it is impossible to completely protect yourself from it. Sometimes, we ourselves provoke unnecessary conflicts. We show aggression even to people close to us. Let's be kinder to each other. Be more attentive to other people's problems. Yes, you can't hide from stress. But we must reduce its harmful effects. Health, as we know, cannot be bought.

Each of us has experienced stress at least once in our lives when preparing for exams, before public speaking, at competitions, before an interview or after being fired - there are a lot of reasons. However, many do not attach importance to this, forgetting what dangerous consequences of stress can overtake them a little later. We will remind you of them.

How stress affects the body

Short-term stress is sometimes useful, for example, to increase efficiency and productivity. But when you experience stress too often or for too long, it becomes chronic and begins to not only affect the brain, but also harm your body directly.

The physiology of stress is such that when entering this state, an important paired organ of our body, the adrenal glands, is actively connected to work. They secrete special hormones: cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Moving through the body along with the blood flow, these hormones enter the vessels and the heart, in particular, adrenaline makes the heart beat faster and increases blood pressure.

In fact, the adrenal glands are responsible for the "second wind" that opens up in a person in a critical situation. But if this situation drags on, then the adrenal glands continue to work without stopping, not even having time to recover. Let's take a closer look at the effects of stress on our body.

Dangerous effects of stress

• A stressful state loosens the human nervous system and overloads it, exhausting the adrenal glands, and a regular increase in blood pressure causes hypertension. All this increases the chances of a heart attack or heart attack. The hormone cortisol released during this can disrupt the functioning of the endothelium - the first step towards the development of atherosclerosis.
• The effects of stress also include irritable bowel syndrome and heartburn. When your brain feels stressed, it relays the stress message to the enteric nervous system, which controls the smooth muscles in the gastrointestinal tract. This disrupts the natural rhythmic contractions that move the food eaten, and increases susceptibility to acid. Through the enteric nervous system, stress can change the composition and functioning of intestinal bacteria, which impairs digestion and the health of the whole body.

Can you die from stress?

There are three stages of stress: anxiety, resistance, and exhaustion. At the first stage, the body produces stress hormones and prepares for defense, at the second stage, it throws all its strength into resisting stimuli, trying to adapt to the current situation.

And if the stressful state continues, and it comes to the third stage, then exhaustion sets in: the body's reserves can no longer be mobilized, which leads to the emergence of physical diseases and psychological disorders. And since serious illnesses are also included in the consequences of stress, if they are not properly treated, they can really lead the patient to death.

It turns out that you, fortunately, will not die from stress as such, but the lingering consequences caused by it can lead to anything. Therefore, we advise you not to let things take their course and start fighting stress so as not to trigger its consequences - we already wrote how this can be done in the article “ Anger Management: Effective Stress Management Methods”.

The following video will help you find out the symptoms and causes of stress:

Take it, tell your friends!

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