full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sharon Horesh Bergquist: How stress affects your body


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Cramming for a test? Trying to get more done than you have time to do? Stress is a felieng we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed. But more than just an eioomtn, stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body. In the short term, stress can be advantageous, but when activated too often or too long, your primitive fight or flight stress response not only changes your brain but also damages many of the other organs and cells throughout your body. Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, and norepinephrine. As these hormones travel through your blood steram, they easily reach your bolod vessels and hreat. annlrideae causes your heart to beat fsetar and raises your blood pressure, over time causing hypertension. Cortisol can also cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels, to not fotuncin normally. snstteciis now know that this is an early step in triggering the prcoses of atherosclerosis or cholesterol plaque build up in your arteries. Together, these changes increase your canhecs of a heart attcak or stroke. When your brain senses stress, it activates your autonomic nervous system. Through this network of nerve connections, your big brian communicates ssters to your enteric, or intestinal nervous system. Besides causing butterflies in your stomach, this brain-gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut, leadnig to irritable bowel syndrome, and can increase your gut sensitivity to acid, making you more likely to feel heartburn. Via the gut's nervous system, stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria, which may affect your digestive and overall haelth. seankpig of digestion, does chronic stress affect your wasiiltne? Well, yes. Cortisol can increase your apetptie. It tells your body to replenish your energy stores with energy dense foods and crbas, causing you to crave comfort foods. High lelevs of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories as visceral or deep belly fat. This type of fat doesn't just make it harder to button your pants. It is an organ that aeclvtiy releases hrmnoeos and immune system chemicals called cytokines that can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease and insulin rsetanscie. Meanwhile, stress hormones acefft immune clels in a virteay of ways. iiitalnly, they help prepare to fihgt invaders and heal after injury, but chronic stress can dampen function of some iunmme cells, make you more susceptible to infections, and slow the rate you heal. Want to live a long life? You may have to curb your chronic stress. That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres, the saoechle tip ends of cmmsoooehrs that meaurse a cell's age. Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied every time a cell divides without damaging the cell's genetic code, and they shorten with each cell division. When telomeres become too short, a cell can no longer divide and it dies. As if all that weren't enough, chrnoic stress has even more ways it can sabotage your health, including acne, hair loss, saeuxl dysfunction, headaches, muscle tension, difficulty croinnnttcaeg, fatigue, and irritability. So, what does all this mean for you? Your life will always be flelid with stressful situations. But what mtetars to your brain and entire body is how you respond to that stress. If you can view those situations as challenges you can control and master, rather than as threats that are iunonurmbstlae, you will poerfrm better in the short run and stay healthy in the long run.

Open Cloze


Cramming for a test? Trying to get more done than you have time to do? Stress is a _______ we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed. But more than just an _______, stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body. In the short term, stress can be advantageous, but when activated too often or too long, your primitive fight or flight stress response not only changes your brain but also damages many of the other organs and cells throughout your body. Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, and norepinephrine. As these hormones travel through your blood ______, they easily reach your _____ vessels and _____. __________ causes your heart to beat ______ and raises your blood pressure, over time causing hypertension. Cortisol can also cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels, to not ________ normally. __________ now know that this is an early step in triggering the _______ of atherosclerosis or cholesterol plaque build up in your arteries. Together, these changes increase your _______ of a heart ______ or stroke. When your brain senses stress, it activates your autonomic nervous system. Through this network of nerve connections, your big _____ communicates ______ to your enteric, or intestinal nervous system. Besides causing butterflies in your stomach, this brain-gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut, _______ to irritable bowel syndrome, and can increase your gut sensitivity to acid, making you more likely to feel heartburn. Via the gut's nervous system, stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria, which may affect your digestive and overall ______. ________ of digestion, does chronic stress affect your _________? Well, yes. Cortisol can increase your ________. It tells your body to replenish your energy stores with energy dense foods and _____, causing you to crave comfort foods. High ______ of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories as visceral or deep belly fat. This type of fat doesn't just make it harder to button your pants. It is an organ that ________ releases ________ and immune system chemicals called cytokines that can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease and insulin __________. Meanwhile, stress hormones ______ immune _____ in a _______ of ways. _________, they help prepare to _____ invaders and heal after injury, but chronic stress can dampen function of some ______ cells, make you more susceptible to infections, and slow the rate you heal. Want to live a long life? You may have to curb your chronic stress. That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres, the ________ tip ends of ___________ that _______ a cell's age. Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied every time a cell divides without damaging the cell's genetic code, and they shorten with each cell division. When telomeres become too short, a cell can no longer divide and it dies. As if all that weren't enough, _______ stress has even more ways it can sabotage your health, including acne, hair loss, ______ dysfunction, headaches, muscle tension, difficulty _____________, fatigue, and irritability. So, what does all this mean for you? Your life will always be ______ with stressful situations. But what _______ to your brain and entire body is how you respond to that stress. If you can view those situations as challenges you can control and master, rather than as threats that are ______________, you will _______ better in the short run and stay healthy in the long run.

Solution


  1. measure
  2. fight
  3. process
  4. waistline
  5. brain
  6. variety
  7. levels
  8. chances
  9. initially
  10. heart
  11. stress
  12. matters
  13. scientists
  14. health
  15. shoelace
  16. chromosomes
  17. emotion
  18. filled
  19. resistance
  20. function
  21. appetite
  22. hormones
  23. actively
  24. faster
  25. cells
  26. leading
  27. chronic
  28. feeling
  29. carbs
  30. blood
  31. immune
  32. attack
  33. stream
  34. sexual
  35. adrenaline
  36. perform
  37. affect
  38. concentrating
  39. insurmountable
  40. speaking

Original Text


Cramming for a test? Trying to get more done than you have time to do? Stress is a feeling we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed. But more than just an emotion, stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body. In the short term, stress can be advantageous, but when activated too often or too long, your primitive fight or flight stress response not only changes your brain but also damages many of the other organs and cells throughout your body. Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, and norepinephrine. As these hormones travel through your blood stream, they easily reach your blood vessels and heart. Adrenaline causes your heart to beat faster and raises your blood pressure, over time causing hypertension. Cortisol can also cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels, to not function normally. Scientists now know that this is an early step in triggering the process of atherosclerosis or cholesterol plaque build up in your arteries. Together, these changes increase your chances of a heart attack or stroke. When your brain senses stress, it activates your autonomic nervous system. Through this network of nerve connections, your big brain communicates stress to your enteric, or intestinal nervous system. Besides causing butterflies in your stomach, this brain-gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut, leading to irritable bowel syndrome, and can increase your gut sensitivity to acid, making you more likely to feel heartburn. Via the gut's nervous system, stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria, which may affect your digestive and overall health. Speaking of digestion, does chronic stress affect your waistline? Well, yes. Cortisol can increase your appetite. It tells your body to replenish your energy stores with energy dense foods and carbs, causing you to crave comfort foods. High levels of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories as visceral or deep belly fat. This type of fat doesn't just make it harder to button your pants. It is an organ that actively releases hormones and immune system chemicals called cytokines that can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases, such as heart disease and insulin resistance. Meanwhile, stress hormones affect immune cells in a variety of ways. Initially, they help prepare to fight invaders and heal after injury, but chronic stress can dampen function of some immune cells, make you more susceptible to infections, and slow the rate you heal. Want to live a long life? You may have to curb your chronic stress. That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres, the shoelace tip ends of chromosomes that measure a cell's age. Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied every time a cell divides without damaging the cell's genetic code, and they shorten with each cell division. When telomeres become too short, a cell can no longer divide and it dies. As if all that weren't enough, chronic stress has even more ways it can sabotage your health, including acne, hair loss, sexual dysfunction, headaches, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and irritability. So, what does all this mean for you? Your life will always be filled with stressful situations. But what matters to your brain and entire body is how you respond to that stress. If you can view those situations as challenges you can control and master, rather than as threats that are insurmountable, you will perform better in the short run and stay healthy in the long run.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
chronic stress 4
entire body 2
stress hormones 2
nervous system 2



Important Words


  1. acid
  2. acne
  3. activated
  4. activates
  5. actively
  6. adrenal
  7. adrenaline
  8. advantageous
  9. affect
  10. age
  11. appetite
  12. arteries
  13. atherosclerosis
  14. attack
  15. autonomic
  16. bacteria
  17. beat
  18. belly
  19. big
  20. blood
  21. body
  22. bowel
  23. brain
  24. build
  25. butterflies
  26. button
  27. called
  28. calories
  29. cap
  30. carbs
  31. causing
  32. cell
  33. cells
  34. challenged
  35. challenges
  36. chances
  37. change
  38. chemicals
  39. cholesterol
  40. chromosomes
  41. chronic
  42. code
  43. comfort
  44. communicates
  45. composition
  46. concentrating
  47. connection
  48. connections
  49. contractions
  50. control
  51. copied
  52. cortisol
  53. cramming
  54. crave
  55. curb
  56. cytokines
  57. damages
  58. damaging
  59. dampen
  60. deep
  61. dense
  62. developing
  63. dies
  64. difficulty
  65. digestion
  66. digestive
  67. disease
  68. diseases
  69. disturb
  70. divide
  71. divides
  72. division
  73. dna
  74. dysfunction
  75. early
  76. easily
  77. emotion
  78. endothelium
  79. ends
  80. energy
  81. enteric
  82. entire
  83. epinephrine
  84. experience
  85. extra
  86. faster
  87. fat
  88. fatigue
  89. feel
  90. feeling
  91. fight
  92. filled
  93. flight
  94. food
  95. foods
  96. function
  97. genetic
  98. gland
  99. gut
  100. hair
  101. harder
  102. hardwired
  103. headaches
  104. heal
  105. health
  106. healthy
  107. heart
  108. heartburn
  109. high
  110. hormones
  111. hypertension
  112. immune
  113. including
  114. increase
  115. infections
  116. initially
  117. injury
  118. insulin
  119. insurmountable
  120. intestinal
  121. invaders
  122. irritability
  123. irritable
  124. leading
  125. levels
  126. life
  127. lining
  128. live
  129. long
  130. longer
  131. loss
  132. making
  133. master
  134. matters
  135. measure
  136. move
  137. muscle
  138. natural
  139. nerve
  140. nervous
  141. network
  142. norepinephrine
  143. organ
  144. organs
  145. overwhelmed
  146. pants
  147. perform
  148. physical
  149. plaque
  150. prepare
  151. pressure
  152. primitive
  153. process
  154. put
  155. raises
  156. rate
  157. reach
  158. releases
  159. replenish
  160. resistance
  161. respond
  162. response
  163. rhythmic
  164. risk
  165. run
  166. sabotage
  167. scientists
  168. senses
  169. sensitivity
  170. sexual
  171. shoelace
  172. short
  173. shorten
  174. shortened
  175. situations
  176. slow
  177. speaking
  178. stay
  179. step
  180. stomach
  181. stores
  182. stream
  183. stress
  184. stressful
  185. stroke
  186. susceptible
  187. syndrome
  188. system
  189. tells
  190. telomeres
  191. tension
  192. term
  193. test
  194. threats
  195. time
  196. tip
  197. travel
  198. travels
  199. triggering
  200. type
  201. variety
  202. vessels
  203. view
  204. visceral
  205. waistline
  206. ways