Stress affects health, and physiological changes support this claim. Two studies used telomere length as an indicator of health and both tested the impact of stress. One of the studies tests whether mothers who have a child with a chronic illness, which essentially creates a demanding environment, have shorter telomeres than mothers who had healthy children ("Mother Experiment") . Another study tests whether perceived neighborhood problems correlate with shorter telomere length, particularly among African American women (“Neighborhood Experiment”). My group asked the question: "How does perceived stress predict our health depletion compared to more objective physiological measures of stress?" » I hypothesize that decreasing the perception of stress, rather than directly targeting measures of one's physiological responses, would result in the greatest decrease in the negative health effects of stress. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay We must first establish the principle that perception causes physiological responses to stress in this order. If physiological responses preceded the perception of stress, then it would be more ideal to limit physiological responses rather than reduce the perception of stress. Although there are analogous alternative theories, such as the James-Lange theory, in which physiological responses precede cognitive responses to emotion, when it comes to stress response, perception precedes physiological responses . Our brain processes potential stressors and relays this information via the reticular formation to the hypothalamus, limbic system, and higher regions of the brain to interpret the potential stressor. The brain then relays, again, via the reticular formation, to activate the sympathetic nervous system and its corresponding sympatho-adreno-medullary axis response, and also activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-cortical-adrenal axis response. . The higher brain regions responsible for processing perception actually cause the physiological responses. Therefore, since perception causes the physiological responses, perception must be targeted to prevent the physiological responses from occurring in the first place. Physiological responses are just reactions to the perception of stress. Reducing the perception of stress can benefit health, as neighborhood experience shows. After adjusting for socioeconomic status and other potential confounding variables, the study found that African American women who perceived more stressors related to neighborhood problems had shorter telomeres. Lower stress perception correlates with longer telomeres. The men in the study, who were much more likely to be single, did not have the same association between perceived neighborhood problems. The study's researchers used social roles to explain this discrepancy. I believe the perception of stress is simply shorter in men due to the higher rates of alcohol consumption among men, as well as the marital status of being single - with fewer responsibilities likely when they don't need to take care of children - men may simply perceive neighborhood problems less. continuously even if they initially had the same perceptions as the women during the researchers' surveys. Perceptions.