Assignment: Cardiovascular and digestive systems

Assignment: Cardiovascular and digestive systems

Assignment: Cardiovascular and digestive systems

Note: If you have trouble viewing some of the course materials, install Quicktime and the Adobe Shockwave Player, both of which can be downloaded free from the Internet.

In this SLP we will investigate the effects of stress on the digestive system, including its effect on regulating blood sugar levels. As you can see, dysregulation of blood sugar levels can cause metabolic problems and unusually high or low blood sugar levels, such as in diabetes. View the trends for diabetes in America demonstrated in the graph.

Now continue to your readings for this SLP assignment:

Why We Gain Weight When We’re Stressed—And How Not To, in Psychology Today

Cortisol Connection: Tips on Managing Stress and Weight, by Christine A. Maglione-Garves, Len Kravitz, Ph.D., and Suzanne Schneider, Ph.D.

Part I: Stress and Weight Gain

Using complete sentences in paragraph format, address the following questions:

What hormones are implicated in the weight gain response that some individuals experience when stressed? Which type of stressor elicits this response? How does this influence fat deposition? What role do dietary choices and cravings play in stress-related weight gain?

Part II: Blood Sugar Regulation

Now review the article from the Dartmouth Undergraduate Science Journal:

The Physiology of Stress: Cortisol and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis

How is the pathway described here different from those described in the first two articles? Which type of stressors influence the relationship between cortisol and insulin? Are the health risks different?

Part III: Conclusions

In a conclusion paragraph, compare and contrast the influence of short- and long-term stress effects on blood sugar regulation and fat deposition. Are these responses related to health risks in the cardiovascular system? Explain the connections between the body’s response to stress described in these articles and other health risks such a high cholesterol and hypertension.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Organize this assignment using the subtitles that summarize each group of questions. Answer each question under the subtitle using complete sentences that relate back to the question. Be sure to include a references section at the end of your assignment that lists the websites and articles used above and any additional resources you used to research your answers. Follow the format provided in the Background page.

The Physiology of Stress: Cortisol and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis
Posted by Michael Randall ’12 / In Fall 2010 / February 3, 2011

1.1K

We all know the feeling whether it’s your hands trembling as you flip through a blank exam or trouble sleeping while you worry about approaching deadlines. Stress is an inevitable aspect of life through college and beyond. While everyone understands the symptoms of the stress response, few know the underlying physiological mechanisms. When we probe beneath the surface of our anxiety, an elegant balance of stimuli and responses emerges. This paper will present a broad discussion of stress: how stress is defined, the chemistry and physiology underlying it at the cellular level, and the micro and macro level consequences of the stress response.

Defining Stress

Understanding the biochemical interactions that constitute the stress response requires a definition of stress. In the realm of biology, stress refers to what happens when an organism fails to respond appropriately to threats (1). While the “threats” humans face today often take more benign forms compared to those our hunter-gatherer ancestors faced, they can be equally taxing on our bodies.

Some stress, of course, can be beneficial. The pressure it exerts can be an incentive to accomplish necessary goals. Often, however, stress reaches chronic, harmful levels, and deleterious consequences follow, from compromised immune function to weight gain to developmental impairment (2). The intensity of the stress response is governed largely by glucocorticoids, the primary molecules involved in the stress response. Stress can be ephemeral and beneficial, or it can be long-lasting and harmful, causing suffocation, depression, and paralysis (3). Proper stress management takes on great importance given the wide range of bodily systems impacted by stress hormones.

Neurochemistry of Stress

Schematic diagram of how stress affects the body.
Schematic diagram of how stress affects the body.

The human stress response involves a complex signaling pathway among neurons and somatic cells. While our understanding of the chemical interactions underlying the stress response has increased vastly in recent years, much remains poorly understood. The roles of two peptide hormones, corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and arginine-vassopressin (AVP), have been widely studied. Stimulated by an environmental stressor, neurons in the hypothalamus secrete CRH and AVP.