Definition of Stress

When most people think of the definition of stress, they think of emotional stress and stress is almost always considered to be a bad thing. What most people don't know, though, is just how bad stress can be. There is another kind of stress besides emotional stress and that is oxidative stress. You may have heard the term "free radicals", but what are they and what's the big deal about them? This blog is dedicated to teaching you the real definition of stress. I am going to talk about emotional stress and oxidative stress and I am going to help you understand how one creates the other and what you can and must do about them in order to take back control of your health and your life.

My name is Jill Prince and I am the author and founder of Strictly-Stress-Management.com. I aim to give you all the information and tools you needs to get back in the driver's seat of your life.

Let's start with a definition of stress. The emotional stress response is a hormonal reaction in the body to a stress put upon it. It was Hans Selye who, first, defined, emotional stress. He said that something or someone places pressure on you, such as a danger or perceived threat, and your body releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to help you respond to the threat or danger.

With oxidative stress, the definition of stress is quite different. With oxidative stress, the furnace system in your cells (the mitochondria) fires up to create energy in your body, but sometimes an unpaired electron shoots off. These unpaired electrons are called free radicals or oxygen radicals. These need to be neutralized, quickly, before they can do damage to your cells. If they are not neutralized, they can make a real mess and this damage is known as oxidative stress.

Emotional stress and oxidative stress are linked because emotional stress causes even more of these free radicals to be produced in your body, which, in turn, leads to the cell damage called oxidative stress. In fact, emotional stress is one of the greatest causes of oxidative stress out there. It is critical to understand how to manage stress in your life so that you can reduce the number of free radicals that your body produces and it is even more important that you know what to do about the free radicals that have already been created and how to correct the damage already done.