Is a little stress good for you?

Stress is one or more outside forces exerting physical or psychological pressure on a person. When the body detects stress, it responds with the stress response. The stress response can be produced not only by negative events, but by positive events as well. When presented with a certain level of stimulation (which varies for everyone), our bodies release hormones that ramp up our metabolism. This occurs when chemical signals are sent from the brain's hypothalamus to the pituitary gland to the adrenal cortex. The end result is the release of steroids such as cortisol and adrenaline.

Cortisol affects you in many ways: It improves your ability to process and use sugars, it allows for faster repair of tissue damage and it shuts down the processes of your body deemed unnecessary at that time, such as growth and digestion.

Adrenaline gets your body ready for action: Your heart pounds and your blood pressure increases because your heart is contracting harder. Your lungs open up, the bronchioles expanding in preparation to meet the demands for more oxygen. You begin to sweat. You become hyperfocused, viewing the world almost literally with tunnel vision as your peripheral vision diminishes. You're ready to face that mountain lion -- or to ask for that raise.

When the excitement fades, so do your elevated levels of cortisol and adrenaline. However, when you perceive different sources of stress all around you -- be it finances, career, marriage or traffic -- your stress response never fully turns off, and the long-term presence of those stress hormones begins to wreak havoc on your body. With stress hormones present, your body processes sugar quickly, and when it runs out of sugar, tissue and muscle damage occur. Over time, constant stress can lead to heart disease, digestive issues, depression, bone loss and sleep disorders. The immune system gets a short-term boost from a stress response, but after a few minutes it goes downhill as the number of cells tasked with fighting infection, tumors and viruses decreases [source: American Psychological Association].

So how could stress possibly be good for you? Keep reading to find out.

Even in the absence of a life-threatening situation, stress isn't all bad. In fact, depending on how you react to it, it can even be good. With around three out of five medical visits precipitated by the effects of stress, this claim may initially be hard to believe [source: Benson].

Too much stress ultimately leads to health problems, but too little stress isn't good for us, either. When we go too long without a sharp stimulating response, the body loses some of its ability to handle stress properly. So when it does occur, the out-of-practice system may trigger too many stress hormones -- and be unable to switch out of emergency mode.

Just a little bit of stress, however, may do the trick. Short-term stress helps us perform at a higher level, improves our memory and our immune system. It also activates brain cells, which means that periodic stimulation may prevent Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

Of course, measures of stress are quite subjective, and the ability to handle stress varies from person to person, as does the perception of how bad the stress is. So while it's impossible to insert exactly just a little bit of stress into your life, it is possible to improve your ability to handle stress, which makes all the difference.

If you recognize that an excessive stress response to rather mundane matters isn't effective, it's possible to adjust how you respond. It is, after all, your hypothalamus that's dictating when to release stress hormones and at what levels -- and it's operating off your perception of the situation. So, if your mind considers traffic jams and canceled flights total disasters over which you have no control, your hypothalamus will do its job and see that you have high levels of stress hormones to deal with the catastrophe. But if you put these things in perspective as mere inconveniences, your hypothalamus won't order up a flood of adrenaline when it's bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way to the horizon.

The key is turning off the stress response through meditation, exercise, prioritizing tasks and cutting yourself some slack when you're feeling overwhelmed by life, work or the ever-ticking clock.