{"id":97976,"date":"2019-04-25T09:49:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T07:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=97976"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:17","slug":"we-have-a-fishs-stress-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/04\/25\/we-have-a-fishs-stress-system\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have a fish\u2019s stress system\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clammy hands, trembling, palpitations, a desire to run off and hide. Everyone\u2019s experienced this at one time or other \u2013 right before having to defend your thesis, for example, or an important exam. They\u2019re symptoms of stress. But what\u2019s actually going on inside when you\u2019re stressed out, and is it bad for your health?<\/p>\n

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To remove one of many people\u2019s biggest fears: your pounding heart won\u2019t conk out on you. \u201cHeart failure is never caused by stress alone,\u201d says Diederik Gommers. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why we almost never see heart attacks among young people \u2013 even though they are just as likely to be subject to stress as older people.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Rather than being reduced, heavy workloads and mental health issues appear to be on the rise, for staff and students alike.In a series of articles, EM is looking for causes and solutions. This is part 2: what happens when you experience stress?<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Professor of Intensive Care Gommers is a frequently-consulted specialist on this subject. For example, he recently offered his expert opinion in the controversial Mitch Henriquez case, concerning a detainee who died after the police subjected him to a heavy-handed neck hold. According to some, Henriquez succumbed to \u2018acute stress syndrome\u2019; his stress levels were supposedly so high that his heart gave out. Nonsense, according to Gommers: \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as acute stress syndrome in the medical literature.\u201d Together with two other professors, he was able to bring this point home to the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service, which promptly adjusted its sentencing demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If someone dies as a result of acute stress, it usually points to a different issue, explains Gommers. Cocaine abuse, for example, which can lead to dangerously high blood pressure. \u201cBut more often, the individual in question already has weak blood vessels, due to chronic high blood pressure, for instance, or smoking, or an aneurysm [a dangerously expanded blood vessel, eds.], which ruptures at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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