Table of Contents
Introduction
Unhealthy behavior is one of the dangerous precedents that has set the pace in the modern world and has threatened the health dynamics of most people across of demographic groups. For the sake of this discussion, the teenagers will be considered. The teenage group is vulnerable to unhealthy behavior include smoking, deprivation of sleep and stress among others.
The prevalence and cruelty of smoking, deprivation of sleep and stress has been on the increase in the past decade. These behaviors have affected the teenagers’ lives to the extent of causing deaths (Woods et al. 2013). The body functioning is altered in numerous ways making the teenagers unhealthy and vulnerable to various diseases.
How is the body likely to suffer as a result from these typical behaviors of your group?
The body functioning is normally overworked when these typical behaviors are excessively embraced. For instance, the smoking behavior causes dysfunction of the digestive system by causing irritation and inflammation of stomach and intestines. This condition in turn results to painful ulcers in the digestive system. In the case of deprivation of sleep, most youths find themselves in this situation because of too much consumption of substances, which contain harmful chemicals. Deprivation of sleep causes nausea and body weakness. Besides, the behavior may lead to a slow rate of the overall body functions such as metabolism and blood circulation among others. In the case of stress, the body may malfunction, particularly the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, where breathing becomes laborious and risk for heart disease respectively (Brehm, 2014). The most common effect of stress among most teenagers is anxiety and overall body weaknesses. Notably, fear makes the adolescents make hasty decisions on what they do next. However, most of them end up acting out of emotions and influence of the substances thus making wrong choices.
How might the nervous system respond to the three behaviors you identified?
The nervous system responds differently to the listed behaviors. In the case of smoking, the effect of nicotine on the central nervous system is neuroregulatory, which affects biochemical and physiological functions in a way that reinforces the drug-taking behavior by the production of hormones that promote the urge of substance takes. In the case of the deprivation of sleep and in particular chronic insomnia, which affects or disrupts the functioning of the body regarding the sending of a signal (Brehm, 2014). The nervous system responds by not producing hormones because the production of hormone depends on sleep. For instance, the output of testosterone needs at minimum three hours of undisrupted sleep.
In the case of stress-related illness, the endocrine system responds to far-reaching actions on numerous parts of the body. The response of the hypothalamus indicates the autonomic nervous system and the pituitary gland, which facilitates the production of epinephrine and cortisol. These are stress hormones, which begins the process of giving the body energy to get away from danger. It is true that these hormones are more active among the adolescents (Brehm, 2014).
How might the endocrine system respond to these behaviors? Will the fight-flight stress response be activated?
Yes. The endocrine system responds to these behaviors by activating the fight or flight mode. It is attestable that the activation of the fight or flight mode is in the interest of reducing the effect of these behaviors on the body. For example, in the case of stress, the endocrine system responds by experiencing a chronic over-activation of the fight-flight, which acts by interfering with the normal development of children and sexual desire among the adolescents (Brehm, 2014).
It is notable that, the unhealthy behaviors discussed in this context have various side effects to the body; however, distinct body functioning system such as the endocrine and respiratory have a unique mechanism of responding to the interest of the overall body wellness. Production and non-production of hormones are both ways of responding to the effect of these unhealthy behaviors that have engulfed the young population, particularly the adolescents (Suter, 1996).
- Brehm, B. (2014). Psychology of Health and Fitness. Philadelphia, PA: FA Davis
- Woods, S. B., & Denton, W. H. (January 01, 2014). The biobehavioral family model as a framework for examining the connections between family relationships, mental, and physical health for adult primary care patients. Families, Systems, & Health, 32, 2, 235-240.
- Suter, A. (1996). Noise Effects Handbook, Nonauditory Physiological Response. The official Journal of the American Auditory Society vol 17-2 pp.176-7