Zellis & Nervey-Nelly: This is what happens in your cells when you are stressed

Dear Diary,

Today I visited my friend, the nerve cell Nervey-Nelly, and we had a long conversation about stress.

Nervey-Nelly told me that when our human is stressed, many chemical signaling hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are sent through the body to alert us cells.

The nervous system is the first to react: the heart beats faster and our human breathes faster. Nelly, as a nerve cell, is constantly communicating with the hypothalamus, a part of the diencephalon that acts as an intermediary between the hormone and the nervous system. It controls the state of "stress" in our body.

For us cells, this means a lot of work. We have to provide more energy, our metabolism races and we need more glucose. Liver cell Liver-Larry said that it therefore breaks down more glycogen to ensure a supply.

But there are problems too. All that stress creates free radicals that can cause damage. If we don't have enough time for repairs, the risk of misreading and mutations and other problems increases.

The immune cells also suffer. They often complain that they cannot do their job properly because stress weakens the immune response. This increases the risk of infections and diseases.

Even our garbage disposals, the lysosomes, have more work to do to get rid of the waste products. We fight to keep the balance, but it is not easy.

Nervey-Nelly said that relaxation is important for all of us. When the stress system is shut down and the calming system takes over, we can all finally breathe a little easier (figuratively speaking, of course, the lung cells do the breathing).

That's why I really hope that our human will soon find ways to better deal with stress. Yoga, meditation or maybe just a little vacation have helped us in the past, according to Nelly.

Stay cell fresh,

Zellis