Stres – nejen užitečný zachránce, ale i sebevražedná zbraň

Stress, or general adaptation syndrome, is a state that belongs to the life. And as the author of this term, Hans Selye said, “stress is life and life is stress”. It was phylogenetically developed as a life-saving reaction of higher organisms. Essentially, these are complex adaptive mechanisms of many body systems that, in particular, in their initial prompt phase, prepare individuals for “fight or flight”. It is a reaction that allows the animals to survive either in the struggle with the adversary, with living resources of the food, or to escape from the stronger rivals. Unlike most members of the animal kingdom, besides this life-saving purpose, only in man is the situation different. The reason is that, in particular, a modern person is exposed, in addition to physically challenging situations, also to psychobiological stress. In this way, the mechanisms that prepare the body especially for high physical performance, can not be sucessfully used and, in such repeated states, will damage the organism. This creates a variety of stress-related pathological conditions, called stress diseases. Thus, man as only living creature from such a well-defined and helpful response created a suicide weapon. This paper deals with the mechanisms of stress response, its health impacts and the possibilities of preventing the negative effects of stress.