Psychology_and_Health_Problems

Health and Illness are today still something that is looked at and pondered about. In health psychology, there has been a multifactorial model that has tried to accommodate our questions about our health and illnesses. The multifactorial model has recognized there is basically no simple answer regarding why some people get sick more often than others. However, it does look at some main factors in our life’s such as; genetic factors and our lifestyle factors. One way this can be looked at is our genetics that was mentioned. Things like cancer, disabilities, birth complications, and how our bodies react to certain bacteria’s and viruses, just to name a few. Another thing to look at that is important is ethnicity. Some may find this strange, but for example if you are African American you are more prone to having high blood pressure. So just because you are African American does not mean that you will have high blood pressure and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. However, things like the lifestyle factor that was mentioned can help this aspect in a way. Some African Americans usually take in more salt, smoke, and have stress, which in anyone can make the blood pressure sore. Nevertheless, if one would step back see this than one can change their lifestyle and possibly prevent the high blood pressure, whether African American or not. Therefore, having the multifactorial model can help with all of these things if we just examine it and see what the listings can be and diagnosing illnesses that can be prevented. One interesting thing that can be looked at as well with this is headaches. Headaches can cause so much to our bodies and the things in our lifestyles like stress can have the biggest impact on all types of headaches. The most common type of headaches is tension headaches and migraine headaches. Tension headaches are most commonly started when the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) takes place and causes our muscles to contract (muscles that usually cause this are the muscles in our shoulder, neck, forehead, and scalp) , which when one is stressing so much, then it continues to contract more and thus comes a muscle tension headache. There are things like aspirin that can help ease the muscles, but is not a permanent fix. The main thing that psychology has helped with this type of pain is learning how to deal with stress. Tension headaches have also been shown to show up more in women than men, even though there is no proven fact about this, it is thought to be that since women have been show to be more emotional, thus the stress is more prominent in women than men and this is the result in which it can be hypothesized. The other most common migraine headache is still under observation. Migraine headaches can last for hours, and days which can cause them to be very painful, and thus with this type of throbbing pressure it can cause one from doing normal task. Psychology has helped observe the brain and see that wavelike firing of neurons in the brain can create this pain. Things that can cause migraines are of course stress, hormonal fluctuations and even certain things that we eat like MSG, which is a chemical known as monosodium glutamate. When one has a migraine headaches it can cause sensitivity to light, sound cause vision problems, and can even make one depressed. Some things that can help this just like tension headaches are aspirins, and depending on how sever the migraine is prescription drugs that can balance out the serotonin, which is a chemical imbalance in the brain. Also, psychology has played an exceptional role in learning how to help with this by leaning what causes this of course to prevent it from happening and causing more problems with the body and getting sick. It also helps in identifying what we can actually intake or how much light is needed to avoid the migraine as much as possible. Another big factor that some may not see as a health factor is menstrual problems, that of course affects women and not the men. The most common and thing to be concerned about when women got through this is the premenstrual syndrome, which is also known as PMS, that is kind of a joke to people, because most women can be emotion during this time frame of four to six days of their menstrual starting. The cases of these can be mild but also raise cause for concern if it severely impacts their everyday functions. Things to watch out for is; depression, anxiety, mood swings, anger and irritability, loss of interest in usual activities, difficulty concentrating, lack of energy, overeating or cravings for certain food, insomnia or too much sleep, feelings of being out of control or overwhelmed, physical problems such as headaches, breasts being tender, muscle pain, weight gain, or felling bloated. One way to keep tract of this is to monitor your symptoms every time it happens to see how sever one may have it. Then if it persists then it would be good to get medical treatment. Like migraine headaches having related causes of a chemical imbalance in the brain, so is some sever cases of PMS, and it can also be related with women’s hormones fluctuating. There are several treatments for PMS, that a help ease the pain and the chemical imbalances. Some things that can help women that are not so sever is to exercise to relieve some of cramps associated with this, as well as to eat more meals but in small portions, and to take pain relievers, and dietary supplements. More severe cases may need hormone treatments called progesterone to help with the nervous system. Psychology has help us understand PMS better by teaching us it is not something that women have to deal with and it can be something besides mood swings. If we did not have psychology to help us better understand some the chemical imbalances then a lot woman would be depressed due to the lack of serotonin, and then their bodies could become fatigue and ill. Through this I hope this helps some realize that psychology does play an important role in our lives and our health. Psychology is really here to help us meet our needs and new things that come our way in which we may not understand.