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Showing posts with the label stress

The Environment Affects Us and Our Health

The type of environment affects the mood of people. This is not surprising when one considers that Man a creature of his habitat. What the senses perceive shapes the human animal.  As humans responds to what is "Out there", so evolution ensues. A "noisy" environment, bright colors and loud sounds, stimulates us. Furthermore, it puts us on edge. The body is prepared to take action of some kind. Communication of three bodily systems (nervous, immune and endocrine) work against our wishes to bring this about. If we want to get away from high stimulation we need to move ourselves to a soothing environment. People know this full well. A quiet snooze in front of the TV after dinner at home is always relaxing. Adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol levels drop. In an emergency stress gives us two option: flight or fight. If we cannot move away from hostile surroundings, we must put on a brave face and tough it out. Bluff is also part of flight.  H

Those in Developing Countries Suffer More Depression

Only Western people get depressed due to their fast way of living - right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Those in developing countries are also stressed as they struggle to survive. While Westerners do not have to worry too much about securing food, getting adequate sustenance for themselves and families is in many cases the main priority for the Third World population. An examination of depression in developing countries by the University of Queensland on 480,000 subjects highlights this disturbing finding. People in Third World nations just do not go to doctors for treatment. The survey in 91 countries shows that stress is common across the board. There is a fine line between depression and stress. Many would say they are the same thing. Anxiety was found to be higher in the USA with depression there being the lowest. Examining depression specifically, developing countries had more than twice the rate of the US - 9 per cent. Political and military conflict was the main