Explain the requirement of Nutrition during Stress?

We all experience stress at some time or the other in life. Stress is the condition or stimulus that threatens the body's homeostasis. Stress may be physical and/or mental and may develop due to a number of reasons. Emotional stress results from feelings of ambition, divine and desire but is perceived as positive. However strain, tension and anxiety due to death of a dear one, financial problems, divorce, unemployment, sickness and injury, etc. are negative forms of emotional stress.

Physical stress may occur in the form of starvation, illness, surgery, infection, injury, burns or trauma. We must also remember here that following a major stress, patients often exhibit a characteristic behaviour. These include immobility, when patients are fearful of moving or interacting; withdrawal, when patients may cease being aware of their environment and become incommunicative; and antagonism, when patients may resist interaction and display hostility to those around them. Altered cerebral blood flow may also be a reason for altered mental state. In this unit, we shall be discussing the metabolic alterations and the importance of good nutrition in combating the ill effects of stress such as surgery, burns, trauma and sepsis. We shall first however, brief ourselves regarding the major physical/metabolic changes which may develop once the stress response has been activated.

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

• Define a stress response,
• Enlist the various phases of a stress response,
• Discuss the physiological, hormonal and metabolic changes during situations of stress such as surgery, burns, trauma and sepsis, and
• Describe the nutritional support required for these stress conditions.