Hart Nat Hentoff David Horowitz Arianna Huffington Marianne Jennings Michael Kelly Mort Kondracke Ch. As a culture, we seem to be preoccupied with something called stress, which is exceedingly difficult to define.
Medical scientists have trouble agreeing on what stress is.
For example, they can identify certain obvious forms, such as destitution, starvation, threat to life, domestic violence, child abuse or loss of a loved one. But more subtle forms do not lend themselves to scientific scrutiny and analysis. For instance, many folks appear to thrive on marital discord, work pressures, decision-making and deadlines. Some investigators shrug their shoulders and conclude that stress is more a state of mind than a physical condition. The most well-documented relation between the brain and body functions is probably the neuroendocrinal pathway, a collection of pituitary hormones and neuropeptide chemicals that are manufactured in the central nervous system but produce effects elsewhere in the body.