Oxidative Stress In Aquatic Ecosystems: An Essay.

Definition of Stress in Individuals

Discuss about the Oxidative Stress In Aquatic Ecosystems?

Individuals are always trying to adjust to the environmental demands and changes. Hence, stress is defined as the imbalance between the environmental demands and the capacity of an individual to adapt to the changes in the environment (Engelder, 2014).

Selye defines stress as ‘the non-specific neuroendocrine response to the body’. However, Selye removed the use of neuroendocrine fro the definition because he realized that stress affects all other organs of an individual starting from the cardiovascular system, to the pulmonary system and the renal systems at different levels (Muir, 2012).

Another definition of stress describes that stress is depended on age and health, once an individual grows older and the body tends to get attracted to various diseases, then the individual loses the power to deal with the disease both physically as well as mentally. As a result, the deteriorating health among the aged individuals also causes stress (Violanti, Paton and Dunning, 2012).

The first definition that defines stress as he inability of an individual to cope with the environmental demands is the appropriate definition of stress. However, as far as the case of Mrs. G is concerned, the third definition that defines stress as the experience by an aged individual due to deteriorating health is best suited for the area of concern. Mrs. G suffers from pneumonia as well as as hypertension. She is 75 years old and she is unable to cope with the situation that she sis been affected by the deadly disease. The disease is the main reason of stress for Mrs. G.

When Mrs. G had seen a thief stealing money from the money jar, her mental as well as physical state might had been affected due to the scene. Mentally, she might have become nervous. However, physically also there had been various changes that stress can cause to a person. One of such change is called sympathetic aviation. When a person goes through some stressful situation, some responses are triggered in the sympathetic nervous system. Once the sympathetic nervous system gets triggered, adrenalin and noradrenalin which together is called the catecholamine is produced in the body. Eventually, there are certain changes that take place in the body like fluctuation in the blood pressure, fluctuation in the heart rate, sweating and dilation of the pupil (Haryana and Punj, 2012). The changes in the body are quite similar to the ‘flight and fight’ response as described by Cannon. Though, small changes does not affect the body, yet as Mrs. G is old and prolonged production of adrenalin and sympathetic fluctuation can result in the problems in the body like formation of blood clot, deposition of fat, increase in blood pressure, formation of plaque, increased in the heart rate, immune-suppression, irregular heartbeats.

The other changes that will take place in Mrs. G is the activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system due to stress. This result in production of cortisol which if released at a high level can cause the dysfunction of the immune system and the damage of neurons in the hippocampus. The changes in turn will cause psychiatric problems and infection in the body (Morris and Jackson, 2012).

Effects of Stress in Aquatic Ecosystems

It has been seen that Mrs. G is experiencing stress for the past few months. She is already old, and when her husband passed away, she started feeling more stressed up (Abele, Vazquez-Medina and Zenteno-Savin, 2012). Eventually, she developed flu, pneumonia and doctors said that she even developed hypertension. Eventually, she started taking less care of herself after the death of her husband. Moreover, hypertension, made her worry about everything instead of being concerned about her health. To cope with the stress the easiest way she submitted to was to submit toe smoking. Prolonged smoking caused infections in her lungs and she started developing breathing troubles (Ahmetoglu and Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012). However, Mrs. G did not visit a doctor. In addition to this, the smoking started causing infection in the lungs. Once the lungs started becoming infected, it was unable to protect Mrs. G from germs that cause pneumonia.

On the other hand, it has been seen that prolonged stress, results in the activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system. The activation causes the production of cortisol which in results in the damage of the immune system. Hence, when the pneumonia causing germs attacked he the lungs of Mrs. G, the weak immune system of Mrs. G was unable to protect the lungs from the bacteria. Moreover, the stress can cause the dysfunction in the nervous system and eventually causes hypertension (Cavalcanti and Azevedo, 2013). Once the nervous system becomes weak, the person loses the capacity to think rationally and thinks about various other situations that are not important. In addition to this, the person is tensed and excited over trivial matters (Downes, Wolf and Lane, 2014). Some of the illness that has been visible in Mrs. G is also mentioned in the symptoms that are visible in the person who suffers from stress.

After the death of her husband, Mrs. G moved in to a new house, as a result, she had to deal with many household chores and take upon many hassles due to transportation. Mrs. G has already been mentally weak. In addition to this, the mental weakness, she is doing a lot of hard work, which in turn affected her body. As heart is the most sensitive body organ, hence the hard work had a direct on the heart. There can be various changes in life for an individual. A person may have problems in the workplace, a person might lose a spouse, and there can be other peer related issues (Becker, 2013). However, the death of a person is given the highest ranking, which could affect the individual as the person is experiencing a loss of another person in life. The hard work that Mrs. G is going through as well as the mental health eventually contributed to the chronic heart diseases (CHD). Chronic heart disease is caused when the arteries get hardened when fat gets deposited in the arteries.

Many believe that smoking can help them to cope with the stress and eventually submit to smoking. Similar is the case of Mrs. G. when she was left all alone and she had to do all the house hold works, she started smoking as a way of relieving the stress. Smoking is one of the deadly practices, which affects the person both mentally as well as physically.

Causes of Oxidative Stress in Aquatic Ecosystems

People also believe that will recover from heart attack. In addition to this, they do not even stop smoking. There are various rehabilitation programs for people who have suffered loss in the life. The people who think they will be cured naturally do not even attend the programs. Hence, it becomes very difficult to make them understand that the rehabilitation is for their benefit. Similar is the case of Mrs. G. she is all alone now and to protect herself from the loneliness, she has submitted to smoking. Mrs. G is also not ready to go for any rehabilitation and hence, the chronic heart disease has settled in.

People who have type ‘A’ personality are restless and cannot take practical decision. In addition to this, they are unable to sit in the chair and get excited with small issues. On the other hand, they are stressed up over petty issues. Mrs. G has ‘A’ type personality and when she lost her husband, she moved into a new house to get out from the memory of her husband, she even indulged in various household chores which started taking the toil on her body. In a time when Mrs. G should have reacted peacefully and calmly, she reacted violently which not only caused her stress but also affected her physically. If she would have reacted calmly, she might not have changes the house, which in turn could have caused her less stress physically as the pressure of moving into new place would not have been there (Becker, 2013). As type ‘A’ people are not hardy, hence, small; incidents affect them badly. In the case of MRS G, she lost her husband. Hence, the affect of the incident on the stress is quite high (Behrendt, 2012). As Mrs. G is not hardy, hence, she was unable to bear the pain of losing her husband and eventually submitted to the ill effects of stress. She was affected by the loss of her husband and eventually submitted to the pressure by taking to smoking.

In addition to this, types ‘A’ personality people are easily affected by the people and the society. Hence, she was unable to tackle the pressure of life that was created in her after the death of her husband (Downes, Wolf and Lane, 2014). Moreover, the age of Mrs. G was another factor that made her submitted to stress. She started smoking, hence, it affected her health and she affected by pneumonia and flu (Berger, 2015). Doctors have suggested that people who have ‘A’ type personality, are more prone to the heart disease and higher risk of blood pressure. As it has been proved that Mrs. G has type ‘A’ personality, hence she also had weak heart and is more prone to heart disease and stress.

References

Abele, D., Vazquez-Medina, J. and Zenteno-Savin, T. (2012). Oxidative Stress In Aquatic Ecosystems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ahmetoglu, G. and Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2012). Personality 101. New York: Springer Pub. Company.

Becker, D. (2013). One nation under stress. New York: Oxford University Press.

Behrendt, R. (2012). The Evolved Structure of Human Social Behaviour and Personality. London: Karnac Books.

Berger, R. (2015). Stress. Taylor and Francis.

Cavalcanti, L. and Azevedo, S. (2013). Psychology of stress. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publisher's.

Downes, C., Wolf, C. and Lane, D. (2014). Cellular Responses to Stress. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Engelder, T. (2014). Stress Regimes in the Lithosphere. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Haryana, N. and Punj, S. (2012). Abiotic stress. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publisher's, Inc.

Morris, E. and Jackson, M. (2012). Psychology of personality. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publisher's.

Muir, A. (2012). Beat stress. London: Teach Yourself.

Violanti, J., Paton, D. and Dunning, C. (2012). Posttraumatic stress intervention. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas.