The Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Stress Response

Abstract

In the first chapter, the following working definition of the stress response was provided: “stress is a physiological response that serves as a mechanism of mediation linking any given stressor to its target-organ effect.” By viewing the phenomenology of stress within the context of a “linking” mechanism, one can satisfy one of the most critical issues in psychosomatic medicine, that is, through what mechanisms can stressor stimuli, such as life events, lead to disease and dysfunction? The response to that query will be addressed within the next two chapters.

It is highly dishonorable for a Reasonable Soul to live in so Divinely built a Mansion as the Body she resides in, altogether unacquainted with the exquisite structure of it.

—Robert Boyle