Abstract
This analytical essay presents a critical analysis of the article “Stress: How It Affects Us”, which was written by Joel Nathan in the year 2008. The Works Cited page appends one source in MLA format.
Introduction
The article that has been taken under consideration goes by the name of “Stress: How It Affects Us” and has been written by the very well-known Joel Nathan. As the name suggests, the article is related to stress and how it affects our day-to-day workings as well as our health in general. The article tells us how stress can weaken our immune system, thereby causing more and more health-related troubles on daily basis.
The author suggests that “anything that inhibits the continued release of CRH lowers our immune defenses, and increases our susceptibility to diseases, inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, and behavioral syndromes such as depression, anxiety and anger”. This statement marks out the fact that CRH which is released during stress can deter our health in ways that are least desirable to us, at times even ending up in cases of heart diseases and cancer.
Analysis
Someway or the other, whatever is going on in our mind has a direct effect on our health by raising or dropping our hormones and levels of immunity. Whatever goes on in our heads seeps into our body somehow, for example, the author tells us about depression. When we are sad, our shoulders droop; we get headaches and at times even have trouble sleeping. On the other hand, when we get angry our “face goes red, you start to shake, your heart and breathing rates go up” (Nathan, p.1). With years passing by, the effects of all such things that eat you on the inside add up, which leads to our diseases being known as our qualms, enmities, misunderstandings, etc.
The basic argument here is that we should not let stress affect us to the point that we fall sick because of it, leading to dangerous cases such as cancer, arthritis, etc. The author makes it clear that the term “immune” is Greek for memory, the basic feature that is shared between our immune system shares and our central nervous system. Good memory is extremely important for the smooth working of our immune system. This means that one should have the capability to remember previous bad experiences along with how he/she reacted to them. This helps us figure out our illness as a message to move on and figure out what we need to change in our lives to make it even better.
Numerous people who have life-threatening diseases spend half of their lives wishing they were dead, or they could not stand it anymore eventually figure out that deep-down inside they have all the strength that it takes to overcome their fears, their resentments along with their wishes to die. Such people fight back and survive far longer than those who lose hope.
Personal Opinion
My personal opinion lies completely in tangent with what has been said in the article. Stress has such negative impacts on our health that it can deteriorate completely. Stress is one factor that affects our complete lifestyle and ruins it on daily basis. When we are stressed out, we do not feel up to anything good, we feel lousy and usually, thoughts like “I wish I were dead, I cant do this” etc seep into our mind, which further deteriorates our health. I agree with all that the author has written as stress tends to ruin one’s life completely, but those who have the will to fight on and live a merry life.
Conclusion
In the light of the above discussion, we can hereby culminate that the article, “Stress: How It Affects Us” which is written by Joel Nathan proves that stress has negative effects on our mind and body, and if left ignored it can cause serious health problems to us.
Works Cited
Nathan, Joel. Stress: How it Affects us. HealthNews. 2008. Pp.1.