Stress Monsters

    Stress is a part of our daily lives, maybe not a good part, but still a part. Other than the obvious emotional strain it's amazing just how much stress can effect us. For something so common in today's society it's hard to believe how damaging it is to our bodies. The worst part is, is that thinking of all of the negative affects of stress can just stress us out even more, but that's not going to stop me from telling you all the bad things stress can do for your health.
    Before we get started what exactly is stress, and why do so many people have it now? While not many agree on one definition, we know that the original definition made in 1936 by Hans Selye who called stress, "a non-specific response of the body to any demand for change". Seeing as stress is triggered by change it's not surprising that today's society is full of stress. Where once people stayed put with the same jobs, and homes throughout our lives we cycle through various places and careers. Our attention span seems to be shortening, so we flit through different options that just end up making us feel stressed. When we think of the health issues and look at the stress curve below (from American Institute of Stress http://www.stress.org/topic-definition-stress.htm) maybe we should just stay put and stop moving around.

    If you are under extreme stress and you want a child you should calm yourself down before trying to conceive. Stress reduces fertility, mostly in the females. Basically when you're stressed out it implies that times are hard, and that is not an ideal situation to birth a child in. Therefore your body will not be focused on becoming pregnant, because it does not think the environment the baby will be born into a safe one. Although stress strongly reduces your chances of getting pregnant that does not mean that if you are under stress that you should stop using birth control. It's good a reducing pregnancy, but not as good as birth control.
      Now I can't write a paragraph on the many conditions stress can cause so here is a list. Hair loss, cancer (but everything seems to cause cancer nowadays), heart complications (including literally broken heart syndrome, look up Takotsubo Cardiomypathy if interested), Hypertension, inflammatory diseases, and in some cases depression, which can lead to suicide. Overall it negatively effects your immune system which leaves you susceptible to various diseases.
     Great so I'm stressed out and going to die what do I do now? First off start eating. Not only can diets increase stress, but eating vegetables can reduce stress, so sit down with a vege tray and start munching. You could take a vacation, by yourself. People are usually stressed when thinking about money, work, family, and relationships, so a vacation by yourself would be a good way to clear your head. Also a change in habits is proven to reduce stress as well. Lastly violent video games seem to help. For some reason shooting someone in the head on your television can release built up tension from a days hard work.
     Sure stress is horrible for you, but everyone has it, and as the curve shows in small quantities it can even make you more productive. When your too stressed out take a break, just try to avoid a meltdown. When it sets to be too much take a vacation near a vegetable farm, and maybe play some video games I suggest Bioshock.

Business

Yesterday blogspot was down while I was trying to write my post, so I am still eight posts behind, because I'm not counting yesterdays lack of a post. Also I am re-opening the vote for what should come after this post as it ended in a tie, but because I voted I guess until the poll closed I just won't count my vote. Some information in the above post was acquired from Discover magazine June 2011 edition.

Video Game Review
Seeing as I mentioned Bioshock in my post I might as well review it. In this first person shooter you find yourself in the mutated world of rapture, where everyone went a little far with the plastic surgery. You can mutate yourself with plasmids for superpowers, use good old-fashioned guns, and even a wrench. In this game you have a choice to save the mutated little children, or harvest them for upgrades on your powers but potentially kill them. As my mom and I refuse to kill children even in a video game we have no idea what the ending to that path is, but if you are actually okay with that and finish it feel free to tell us what the ending is, just put spoiler first. Overall it's a little eerie, but past the corpses strewn everywhere the scenery is detailed and beautiful. I love this game, because they pay attention to science. For example if you shoot an electric bolt in water it goes through the entire puddle, now that's attention to detail. I give it 4.5 stars. I docked point five because you can't see your feet which can make it hard to navigate, and the ending doesn't match the mood of the rest of the game, also it gets a little predictable. Almost forgot the music is awesome.