Stress, catecholamines, and cardiovascular disease

Stress is an integral part of life. But what is it, how does it affect the body, and what roles do stress and catecholamines play in acute and chronic manifestations of cardiovascular diseases? This authoritative work provides a comprehensive analysis of these issues. The starting point for understanding the roles of stress and catecholamines in cardiovascular disorders is a theory defining stress. This book presents a new homeostatic theory of stress and distress and uses it to explain how systems using the endogenous catecholamines - norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine - and other effector systems maintain the internal environment during stress. The theory proposes coordinated activation of the body's several stress systems in primitively specific patterns during exposure to various stressors. Comparator homeostats interpret afferent information about specific physiological or chemical variables and regulate operations of the effector systems. Via a hierarchical mosaic of central nerve cell clusters, the brain constantly redefines homeostasis by resetting homeostats, especially during stress. The presentation summarizes difficult and complex literature about central neural mechanisms participating in sympathoadrenal responses to stress and analyzes theories about the roles of catecholamines in the brain. Clinical methods to assess sympathoadrenal activity, including the latest tracer-kinetic and nuclear scanning techniques are discussed. The possibly pathophysiologic effects of derangements of catecholaminergic function in cardiovascular diseases receive particular attention. Attempting to separate fact from opinion, the book considers objectively several prevalent and controversial theories linking stress and cardiovascular disease. This pioneering work concludes by proposing neurocardiology as a new discipline in clinical medicine.