Stress affects health and physiological changes support this statement. Two studies used telomere length as an indicator of health, and both tested the impact of stress. One of the studies tests whether mothers who have a chronically ill child, essentially creating a demanding environment, have shorter telomeres than mothers who have had healthy children (“Mother Experiment”). Another study tests whether perceived neighborhood problems are related to shorter telomere length, especially among African-American women (“Neighborhood Experiment”). My group asked the question, “How does the perception of stress predict the deterioration of our health compared to more objective, physiological measures of stress?” I hypothesize that decreasing the perception of stress, rather than directly targeting its physiological response measures, would lead to the greatest decrease in negative health impacts resulting from stress. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay We must first establish the premise that perception causes physiological responses to stress in this order. If physiological responses preceded the perception of stress, then it would be more ideal to limit physiological responses rather than decrease the perception of stress. Although there are similar alternative theories, such as the James-Lange theory, in which physiological responses precede cognitive responses to emotions, when it comes to the stress response, perception precedes physiological responses. Our brain processes potential stressors and transmits this information through the reticular formation to the hypothalamus, limbic system, and higher brain regions to interpret the potential stressor. The brain then transmits, once again, through the reticular formation, to activate the sympathetic nervous system and its corresponding response of the sympathoadrenal-medullary axis, and also activates the response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The higher brain regions responsible for processing perception actually cause physiological responses. Therefore, since perception causes physiological responses, perception should be aimed at preventing physiological responses from occurring in the first place. Physiological responses are just reactions to the perception of stress. Reducing the perception of stress can have health benefits, evident from the neighborhood experiment. After adjusting for socioeconomic status and other potential confounding variables, the study found that African American women who perceived more stressors related to neighborhood problems had shorter telomeres. Lower perception of stress correlates with longer telomere lengths. Men in the study, who were much more likely to be single, did not have the same association between perceived neighborhood problems. The researchers in the study used social roles to explain this discrepancy. I believe that the perception of stress is simply shorter in men due to the higher rates of alcohol consumption among men, coupled with single marital status - with less responsibilities presumably when they don't need to take care of children - men can simply perceive the problems of the neighborhood less. continuously even though they had the same initial perceptions as the women during the researchers' surveys. Perceptions may have been more ephemeral among men, which is why health is less affected. Therefore, a lower perception of stress is better for health..