The Seminal Theory of Stress by Hans Selye
Beginning 1n 1936, Dr. Hans Selye wrote thirty books and over 1,500 articles on stress.
In 1956, he defined stress as "the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, in-
dependent of the factor creating that demand". This revolutionary discovery opened
numerous avenues of research into the treatment of degenerative diseases including
coronary thrombosis, brain hemorrhages, hardening of the arteries, high blood pres-
sure and kidney failure, arthritis, and peptic ulcers. Because of his seminal research,
Dr. Selye received the Nobel prize in medicine.
Conditioning and Stress Management
Stress in inescapable and indispensable to life. Every human activity involves some
level of stress. Stress is not something to be avoided. In fact, it cannot be avoided;
complete freedom from stress is death. A healthy state requires the right level and
duration of stress. In common parlance, "under stress" really means under extreme
and continuous stress, that is distress. Conditioning to manage stress without distress
is a well-established practice, but conditioning must be tailored to a given situation.
Training for the stress of military life is quite different from preparing to pactice law.
Every life path, however, has requirements for basic nutritional, mental, and physical
conditioning together with conditioning specific to the given life path. If disease is pre-
sent or a toxic environment is implicated, it may also be necessary to employ thera-
peutic or preventive conditioning.
Five Steps in Response to Stress
In developing the general theory of stress, Dr. Selye identified five steps in the re-
sponse of the body to a demand; viz. alarm, resistance, recovery, adaptation, and ex-
haustion. Post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) exemplifies these five steps. A discus-
sion of PTSD may be selected next for an example of managing stress. A publication
covering PTSD, and several books by H. Selye are included in the References link.
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