What role can tea or coffee play in amplifying or reducing stress effects?
What will be an ideal response?
One caveat for an individual who is under stress is to consider caffeine's stimulant effects on the nervous system. Caffeine has the ability to stimulate our body's neurons by lowering their threshold for excitability. As a result, caffeine activates the sympathetic-adrenal medulla axis (SAM) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) causing elevations in serum catecholamines and cortisol as well as mild increases in blood pressure especially under stressful conditions; and the cortisol effects are only partially lessened by developing a caffeine tolerance through daily caffeine intake.
High doses of caffeine are commonly associated with anxiety reactions, especially in individuals with anxiety disorders, whereas moderate doses are associated with reduced depressive symptoms and improved alertness, attention, and cognitive performance. The Mayo Clinic staff suggests that 500 to 600 mg per day of caffeine is a good cutoff point for avoiding caffeine's unwanted effects.
You might also like to view...
The phenomenon whereby we are more likely to believe something we've heard many times is known as the
A) availability heuristic. B) recognition heuristic. C) rule of thumb. D) bandwagon fallacy.
Your friend, Kiki, comes to you with a personal problem. The first thing you should do to counsel her is to
a. give her advice on what she should do. b. ask a lot of questions to get her talking. c. tell her what you would do in her situation. d. actively listen to try to clarify the problem.