Professor Hans Selye,a HungarianCanadian endocrinologist 1907-82 ), was the first to address die physiological and pathological basis of stress together with the body’s reaction to such. He described die pathological picture that resulted, which he called die “general adaptation syndrome” Although stress was a common term in physics, Selye introduced it into medicine to describe die “nonspecific response of the body to any demand.”
With short-term stress, he discovered that patients would experience adrenal swelling as the adrenals upgraded production of, and poured out, their hormones. However, with long-term unremitting stress, he found that adrenal glands would shrink, as would immune systems, then the person would suffer severe weight loss and the condition would
