by Ken Dychtwald, adapted from Issues & Trends in Health, 1987
America is experiencing a major epidemic today. Unlike epidemics of the past, it is a disease transmitted by bacteria or viruses. This epidemic is an increase in diseases and problems related to stress, and it touches all of our life.
如今的美国正流行一种重要的疾病。不同于以往的流行病依靠细菌或病毒传播。这种流行病就是压力相关的疾病和健康问题，它贯穿于我们的生活当中。 In 1990 the average life expectancy in this country was 47, and the major killer disease included tuberculosis pneumonia, influenza, cholera, typhoid, and smallpox — infectious diseases which struck people of all ages, regardless of the lifestyle.
在1990年，这个国家的平均期望寿命是47岁，主要的死因包括、流行性感冒、、伤寒和天花——那些侵袭各种年龄和生活方式的传染性疾病。
Today, on the other hand, life expectancy has been extended to 74, thanks in large part to the conquest of the acute infectious diseases through improved sanitation, better distribution and storage of foods, and the introduction of immunization and antibiotics. People today are dying of different diseases than they did at the turn of the 20th century, and the principal causes of death today are heart disease, stroke, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, and diabetes. These noninfectious, chronic diseases have been shown to be directly related to the way we live, and one of the dominant factors in their development is stress — an element of modern life which is taking an increasing toll on our physical and mental well-being.
如今，另一方面，美国人的期望寿命已经提高到74岁，这很大程度上归功于依靠先进卫生设施而攻克的急性感染性疾病的诊治，改进的食物运输和储存，以及免疫方法和抗生素的应用。如今人们的死因不同于20世纪初，而主要是心脏病、吸烟、癌症、肝硬化和糖尿病。这些非传染性慢性疾病被证实与我们的生活方式有着直接关联，其中一个主要成因就是压力——在现代生活中对我们的身心健康发挥着越来越重要作用的因素。
Technically speaking, stress is physiological state of the body, a state of arousal in response to a perceived danger or threat. We are all familiar with the physical signs and symptoms of the stress state. Think about how you felt that last time you had to swerve to avoid a collision while driving: your heart raced, your palms became sweaty, your muscles tensed, and your stomach knotted. Such a combination of sensations is the result of a complex physical chain reaction which occurs in your body in response to a threat. 心得安试验These changes are universal and predictable, and they happen to everyone. Our prehistoric ancestors, upon encountering a dangerous animal in the wild, would have felt exactly the same response as their bodies switched into a stress-included “high-gear” to deal with the emergency.
从技术上讲，压力是机体对感知到的危险或威胁反应而表现的一种生理性兴奋状态。我们都很熟悉压力状态下的身体信号和症状。想想最近一次你驾驶时为了避开冲撞而急转弯时的感觉：心跳加速、手心出汗、肌肉绷紧、胃痉挛。这一系列的感觉是机体对威胁作出复杂连锁反应的结果。这些变化是很普遍和可预见的，我们每个人都会发生。我们的祖先，在野外遇到一只危险的动物时，也会感觉到同样的反应，因为他们的机体转到了应对突发 事件的“精神绷紧状态”。
Physiologist Walter Cannon, back in the 1920s, labeled this reaction the fight-or-flight response. As the term implies, the original purpose of the fight-or-flight response was to prepare the body to respond either by fighting the enemy, or by fleeing. Whether the primitive hunter succeeded in killing the mountain lion or in running away from it, the result was the same: once the threat was resolved, the body could relax, eventually returning to its normal baseline functioning.
19世纪20年代，生理学家·凯农将这种反应称为“战或逃反应”。正如上文所示，战或逃反应的初始目的是让机体或为对敌作战，或为迅速逃跑做好准备。不论原始的猎人最后成功宰杀美洲狮或是远远逃避它，结果都是一样的：一旦威胁解除，机体就会放松，最后回复到正常的机体功能。
Interestingly enough, situation which provoke the fight-or-flight response are not necessarily unpleasant ones. Pleasant experiences, if they are sufficiently intense, can produce the same combination of physiological symptoms. When your boss tells you that
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heoddi括约肌’s recommended you for a promotion, you are most likely experiencing some of the same physiological responses that you experience when you swerve to avoid a traffic accident: sweaty palms, racing heart, changes in breathing. Pleasant or unpleasant, it’s the intensity of the experience that produces the stress.
有趣的是，引起战或逃反应的情况并不一定令人讨厌的。令人愉快的情况下，当引起足够紧张时，也能产生同样一系列的生理性变化。当你的老板告诉你有人建议他给你升职时，你很可能会感觉到一些类似你为避开交通事故而急转弯时感受到的生理反应：出汗的手心、加速的心跳、呼吸的变化。愉快和不愉快，取决于产生压力的感觉的强度。
Dr. Hans Selye, an endocrinologist whose ground-breaking research was major contribution to our understanding of stress, defined stress as the nonspecific or general response of the body to any demand made upon it to readjust. Selye emphasized that stress is not necessarily something to be avoided. 给自己点一盏灯It is a natural part of our life; any normal activity, pleasant or unpleasant, produces some degree of stress. As Selye said, “The absence of stress is death.” Just as stress prepared primitive man to confront the fig
ht with his enemy or to run away, so in 陇东学院学报modern life it helps the athlete to achieve peak performance or the executive to meet impossible deadlines. Under such circumstances, stress can be a very useful response, contributing to heightened achievement and a greater sense of personal experience. Selye called it eustressDASIC (sometimes also called prostress); when it becomes unpleasant or damaging, it is called distress.
汉斯·塞利博士，一个开拓性研究大大帮助了我们认识压力的内分泌学家，将压力定义为机体对适应任何刺激所作出的非特异性或综合反应。塞利强调压力是不可避免的。它是我们生命的自然属性，一切正常的活动，愉快和不愉快的，都会产生一定程度的压力。正如塞利所说，“没有压力就是死亡”。正如压力使原始人类准备好对敌作战或逃跑一样，现代生活中压力也帮助运动员达到最佳状态或帮助经理不可思议般按时完工。在这些情况下，压力是很有用的，能帮助提升成绩和达到个体更大的满足感。塞利称它为“良好的压力”（有时候也叫“积极的压力”），当它是令人厌恶的或破坏性的，它就是“不幸的压力”。 Events that provoke stress are known as stressors. It’s easy to identify many such triggers of stress in our daily lives. Some sources of stress can be classified as environm
ental: weather change, temperature, noise, air pollution, crowding, and uncomfortable living or work space can all have an influence on your stress level. A major source of stress in our modern world is change; more than ever before in history we are forced constantly to adapt to rapid change in many important aspects of our lives — changing values, family structure, and sex roles, the decline of religious faith, and the changing nature of work. Interpersonal stressors emerge from your relationships with other people — your boss, your fellow workers, your family and friends. And a significant source of stress in many of our lives today is work stressors — the structure of your employer’s organization, your position within it, your interaction with other people, and your feelings about job are all factors that can contribute to raising your overall stress level.
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