While life is an important gift of nature, human beings have been nurtured in a complex environment. God created human beings in the same physical manner but made sure they do possess varying modes of life. The cognitive nature of human beings differs from person to another. Emotional stress that affects the brain system than the physical aspect can inflict health challenges to our body. In one of clinical trials done during the current century, compares modes of life and occurrence of health problems on exposure to emotional stress. One group is exposed to regular strenuous exercises but with low social economic status and another group involved in executive jobs with good social and economic status. It was observed that the highest percentage of people from high social economic status developed health complications or chronic health problems as compared to those from low social economic status. One of the factors cited was continuous or prolonged exposure to emotional stress or by prolonged involvement of brain cells. Torture or violence of any kind greatly affects the emotion status of an individual. However, God was very clever during creation because he made sure every one does possess intimate factor that stimulate him or her. Every human being has an aspect of nature that excites him or her. It is one of internal measures to counteract emotional stress; you feel happy today, tomorrow you feel angered or cry and vise-versa. Emotional stress has been scientifically proved to cause numerous health challenges that range from chronic to potentially fatal health problems.. The development of health challenges arise by the fact that our body cannot easily defend against the damage inflicted by emotional stress over time. The body suffers physiological setbacks for every moment that you feel anxious, tense, frustrated, and angry. I’m not saying that people should strive not to experience emotions as it is part of human nature. There are some extremes or behavioral adaptations where people can cry at the same time laughing. This is not acceptable as can harm the human nature in one way or the other. It should be understood that frustration, tension, anger and anxiety all serve important purposes when they first arise. The most dangerous aspect of these emotional extremes of life is to experience them on a long term basis. During periods of emotion stress, your central nervous system and sympathetic nervous system that controls your body activity will divert some or most of the vital daily activities of the body. This is where all problems start from. Emotional stress has immensely been found to be harmful to the overall health of an individual but of course people have varying body responses. Imagine a situation where your body reacts to regular emotional stress in the same way when you meet or met a wounded wild animal like a leopard. The sympathetic nervous system increases its output during periods of emotion stress. This is also accompanied by many changes and challenges in one’s life. First of all, prolonged stress to the brain will stimulate the release of cortisol from your adrenal glands to increase blood sugar and energy. This has led to decrease of immune system to some individuals and subsequent occurrence of diabetes disease. It can cause the body’s adrenal glands to release epinephrine and norepinephrine to increase cardiac output as has been seen in some individuals with progressive heart failures without genetic predisposition and notable environmental exposures. Rise of blood pressure is a common complaint to individuals who are exposed to emotional stress. It is also observed in patients with stroke from various age groups. The sympathetic nervous system can also slow or even shut down some of the digestive system processes so as to minimize or conserve blood outreach, nutrients, and oxygen in preparation for defense. In the so doing, various diseases of gastro-intestinal tract such as ulcers, constipation among others can rise. There are many other healthy problems ranging from physical to psychological that are caused by emotional distress. However evolution of human nature has brought mechanisms on how to counteract such challenges as well. Most of these mechanisms promote body relaxation. For example, you will see some individuals getting involved in quite regular prayers for relaxation. Such mechanisms facilitate relaxation response in the body that can decrease blood pressure, decrease pulse rate, and improve blood circulation. Dr Joseph Kamugisha is a resident oncologist in Jerusalem, Israel
