Courseovik General laws of adaptation of the human body to various conditions. General laws of adaptation of the human body
Starting from the moment of birth, the body suddenly finds itself in completely new conditions for itself and is forced to adapt the activity of all its organs and systems to them. In the future (in the course of individual development), the factors acting on the body are constantly changing, which requires constant functional rearrangements. Thus, the process of adaptation of an organism to general natural climatogeographic, as well as to production, social conditions is a universal phenomenon. Under adaptationunderstand all types of innate and acquired adaptive activity, which are provided by certain physiological reactions occurring at the cellular, organ levels. Protectively - adaptive reactions are regulated by the reflex and humoral pathways, and the main role in these reactions belongs to higher nervous activity.
The theory of functional systems, formulated in our country by P.K. Anokhin, contributed to the understanding of the laws governing the development of reactions of the whole organism to the changing environment. The systematic approach made it possible to explain how the body, using self-regulation mechanisms, provides optimal vital functions and how they are carried out under normal and extreme conditions.
The self-regulation process is cyclical and is carried out on the basis of the "golden rule" - any deviation from the vital level of any factor serves as an impetus for the immediate mobilization of numerous apparatuses of the corresponding functional system, again restoring this vital adaptive result.
Since there are many useful adaptive results in the human body that provide various aspects of its vital activity, the work of the whole organism is built from the aggregate activity of many functional systems. Such adaptive results that are useful for the body, building various functional systems, are: indicators of the internal environment (the level of nutrients, oxygen, temperature, blood pressure, etc.); results of behavioral activity that satisfy the basic biological needs of the body (food, drink, sex, etc.); the results of a person's social activity, conditioned by social and individual experience, position in society, satisfying his social needs.
Functional system includes receptor formations, which are a kind of living sensors that dynamically assess the value of the regulated indicator. It has a central office – brain structures that analyze all the variety of incoming signals, make decisions and program the expected result. Finally, executive mechanisms act in the functional system. – peripheral organs that implement incoming commands. In addition, the system has a reverse afferentation (feedback), which informs the center about the efficiency of the executive mechanisms and the achievement of the final result. All the variety of activities of a living organism, its resistance to external factors, the stability of various functions are provided by a complex interaction of self-regulating functional systems, in which the central and peripheral organs are dynamically combined to achieve the final adaptive result.
Interacting on the basis of the hierarchy of results, various functional systems ultimately constitute a well-coordinated organism. Moreover, there is a dominance of one or another functional system, which is currently the most important for the body.
The biological meaning of active adaptation consists in the establishment and maintenance of homeostasis, which allows one to exist in a changed external environment. Homeostasis - the relative dynamic constancy of the internal environment and some physiological functions of the human body (thermoregulation, blood circulation, gas exchange, etc.), supported by self-regulation mechanisms under conditions of fluctuations in internal and external stimuli.
External stimuli are of greatest interest to us. – environmental factors in contact with the human body – temperature, humidity, chemical composition of air, water, food, noise, psychogenic factors, etc. The main constants of homeostasis (body temperature, osmotic pressure of blood and tissue fluid, and others) are supported by complex mechanisms of self-regulation involving the nervous, endocrine, and sensory systems. The constancy of the composition, physicochemical and biological properties of the internal environment of the human body is not absolute, but relative and dynamic; it is constantly correlated depending on changes in the external environment and as a result of the vital activity of the organism. The range of fluctuations in the parameters of environmental factors, in which the mechanisms of self-regulation function without physiological stress, is relatively small. When the parameters of environmental factors deviate from optimal levels, self-regulation mechanisms begin to function with tension, and adaptation mechanisms are included in the process to maintain homeostasis.
so , adaptation - the process of adaptation of the body to changing environmental conditions, which means the possibility of human adaptation to natural, industrial or social conditions. It provides performance, maximum life expectancy and reproductive performance in inadequate environmental conditions. An important component of the body's adaptive response is stress syndrome - the sum of nonspecific reactions that create conditions for the activation of the activity of homeostatic systems.
If the levels of exposure to environmental factors go beyond the adaptive capabilities of the organism, then additional protective mechanisms are activated that counteract the emergence and progression of the pathological process.
Compensatory mechanisms are adaptive reactions aimed at eliminating or weakening functional changes in the body caused by inadequate environmental factors. For example, under the influence of cold, the processes of production and storage of heat energy are intensified, metabolism increases, as a result of reflex narrowing of peripheral vessels, heat transfer decreases. Compensatory mechanisms are an integral part of the body's reserve forces. Possessing high efficiency, they can maintain a relatively stable homeostasis long enough for the development of stable forms of the adaptation process.
The effectiveness of adaptation depends on the dose of the influencing factor and the individual characteristics of the organism. The exposure dose and tolerance depend on the hereditary (genetic) characteristics of the organism, the duration and strength (intensity) of exposure to factors. Stress syndrome under excessively strong environmental influences can transform into a link in pathogenesis and cause the development of diseases - from ulcers to severe cardiovascular and immune diseases.
Hazard analysis
Energy entropy hazard concept.
Energy entropic hazard concept Is a set of ideas about the nature of the hazard and the conditions for their implementation.
Everyday human activities are potentially dangerous because associated with the use of various types of energy. Dangers arise from uncontrolled energy release. The emergence of undesirable consequences is a consequence of the emergence and development of a causal chain of prerequisites. The initiators of this chain, most often, are the erroneous actions of a person, in addition, a malfunction in the technique or the impact on it at a distance can serve.
All this does not contradict the fundamental property of entropy (a measure of disorder): Any system left to itself tends to the maximum entropy, i.e. to maximum confusion. Such a state is equilibrium-stable and the system can be in it for an arbitrarily long time. Any attempts by a person as a result of his activity to order the system lead to a decrease in entropy and to instability, to a potentially dangerous state.
The energy-entropic hazard concept traces the path of unwanted energy release and this is at the heart of the construction of the incident tree.
For the analysis, a graphical representation (graph, tree) of a logically interconnected sequence of events, failures, causes, consequences is used.
Hazard Study Sequence:
1. Preliminary hazard analysis
a) identification of the source of danger
b) identify the parts of the system that can cause these hazards
c) introduce a restriction on the analysis
2. Select (form) the sequence of the hazard by building a tree of incidents
3. Analysis of the incident tree
Health (according to WHO, established. 1968) - this is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (and not just the absence of disease).
Currently, there is no unequivocal opinion about the factors responsible for the formation of health, but according to WHO:
If the current trend in the development of the world community continues in 30-40 years, the state of health of Russians will depend up to 70% on the state of the environment.
Currently, 4 million toxic substances acting on the human body have been recorded, and their number is increasing by 6000 every year. This has led to the fact that 80% of diseases are caused by the state of the environment, every 4th inhabitant of the planet suffers from allergic diseases, ≈10% newborns have deviations from health. Already, 2,500 diseases are known that are localized at the genetic and chronic levels. Already, ≈50% of the gene pool of the European population is not reproduced in future generations.
Recently, the social component has increased, affecting health, from which specific diseases follow: chronic fatigue syndrome, life apathy, mental disorders.
A comprehensive assessment of the state of human health is life expectancy and indicators of a person's biological age.
Occupational health - the ability of the human body to maintain a given compensatory and protective means that ensure efficiency in the conditions in which the activity takes place.
When analyzing various factors affecting human health, priority is given to the risk factor directly leading to the onset of the disease.
Evaluation of the removability of factors that negatively affect human health is very important when creating technological equipment. These factors can be eliminated with the help of engineering solutions, adaptation, including social adaptation.
There are some general patterns of the formation of a person's attitude to existing dangers, regardless of what role he plays in an extreme situation. In other words, these processes can be called adaptation to an extreme situation.
The term "adaptation" (lat. Adaptatio - adaptation) is widely used in biological sciences to describe the phenomenon and mechanisms of adaptive behavior of living things both in phylo- and ontogenesis. The emphasis here is on adaptation to the external conditions of the organism's existence, while improving its own internal functions. The leading specialists who studied adaptation processes from a biological point of view were K. Bernard, W. Cannon and G. Selye. It was their works that formed the most common position of researchers - homeostatic. This approach allowed A.B. Georgievsky to formulate the definition of adaptation as "a special form of reflection by systems of the impact of the external and internal environment, which consists in the tendency to establish a dynamic balance with them." Dynamic balance, or homeostasis, is a system that includes two interrelated processes - the achievement of stable balance and self-regulation, which serves as the goal of adaptation. Accordingly, adaptation processes are manifested as inertial and adaptive.
In adaptation as a process, it is customary to distinguish two components: nonspecific (causing changes in the body and independent of the nature of the impact) and specific (causing changes in the body depending on the specificity of the primary response and determined by the characteristics of the impact on the body). The nonspecific component of adaptation can be attributed to an orienting reaction, a change in the body's energy, facilitating the formation of adaptation programs based on existing ones. The specific component of adaptation includes qualitatively new processes that are adequate to the impact, quantitative and qualitative changes in adaptive reactions, for example, the circulatory system.
A dynamic balance between the environment and the organism can be established in different ways. V.P. Kaznacheev distinguishes two variants of adaptive processes: stayer and sprint. The first variant of the adaptive strategy is associated with a person's ability to withstand prolonged loads without significant losses, the second presupposes the presence of a large reserve of the body's forces, which is mobilized with a powerful, but short-term stimulus. The disadvantage of the first option is the low resistance to sudden loads, the second is the low acceptability for the body of long-term loads, even of moderate intensity.
Therefore, following the above concept of adaptation, we can conclude that adaptation is the basis for the qualitative stability of an integral organism. But the external environment tends to change, therefore, more often the organism and the environment are in conflict relations. This mismatch also acts as an adaptation mechanism, because it ensures a high readiness of adaptation devices to activity, maintains working tone and prevents the harmful results of passivity.
Therefore, the level of personality activity plays an important role in adaptive processes. The level of activity affects the manifestation of a personal resource - a stock of various characteristics of a person that provide specific forms of adaptation, including to extreme situations. It is customary to highlight:
- excessive (increased) level of activity, characterized by affective states (delight, ecstasy, hatred, horror, panic, etc.) and the presence of distress;
Adequate (optimal) level of activity, manifested by readiness for activity, calmness, concentration;
- insufficient (decreased) level of activity, at which a person experiences depression, boredom, fatigue, absent-mindedness; may experience relaxation or grief.
| Characteristic | Activity level | ||
| inadequate | adequate | excess | |
| The nature of adaptation | Incomplete, without enough activity | Adaptation is strengthened by activity | Adaptation is weakened by excessive activity |
| Behavior | Passive (surrender) | Active organized | Active disorganized |
| Attitude to the situation, the dominant motive | Emotional rejection of a goal without adequate cognitive assessment | Consistency of emotional and cognitive assessments, the desire to find a path to the goal | The emotional component dominates the cognitive one; often adopting a goal before an adequate cognitive assessment; striving to achieve the goal immediately |
| Productivity indicative activity | Is absent | there is | there is |
| Productivity of volitional activity | Is absent | there is | Is absent |
| Energy characteristics of physiological processes | Reducing energy consumption or wasting it on braking | Adequate, sustainable energy use | Excess energy consumption |
| Prevailing stress phase | Exhaustion phase | Resistance phase | Mobilization phase (alarm) |
| Main characteristic of the state | Apathy | Activation | High voltage |
| Probable outcome | Hypotimia, depressive syndrome | Maintaining or increasing psychological stability, satisfaction | Asthenia |
In the research of L.V. Kulikov showed that an adequate level of activity contributes to the adaptation of a person to various difficult situations, while in case of insufficient and excessive activity, such mental states arise that violate the adaptive balance. So, from table. 3 shows that with insufficient activity, apathy and a decrease in energy expenditure are very likely. A person capitulates to circumstances, demonstrating the third stage of stress - exhaustion, which can result in a decrease in mood, despondency and depressive states.
In a situation of excessive activity, a state of high voltage arises against the background of excess energy consumption. A person seeks to solve all problems at once without an adequate assessment of the situation, being at the stage of anxiety. As already noted, this stage is characterized by high tension, anxiety, which often leads to asthenic reactions.
Most often, in such situations, a person experiences stress. Initially, the term "stress" (from the English stress - pressure, tension) was taken from technology, where it meant an external force applied to a physical object and causing its tension, ie a temporary or permanent change in the structure of an object. In some psychophysiological works, psychological stress is still interpreted from the standpoint of technical sciences as an external influence.
One of the first researchers of stress in physiology, Hans Selye, defined stress as a universal reaction of the body to stimuli of different nature. This means that both positive events (falling in love, success in professional activity, etc.) and negative events (parting with a loved one, losing a job, etc.) are physiologically expressed in exactly the same way.
As you know, Selye conducted experiments with rats. He exposed these animals to various factors, later called stressors. As a result, it was concluded that regardless of the source of stress, the body responds in the same way. In rats, a significant increase in the adrenal cortex, a decrease or atrophy of the thymus (thymus gland), spleen, lymph nodes and other lymphatic structures was found, eosinophilic cells (a type of leukocytes) almost completely disappeared, bleeding ulcers appeared in the stomach and duodenum. Selye called this phenomenon a general adaptation syndrome and identified the following phases of this syndrome: the anxiety phase with the mobilization of defenses, the phase of resistance or resistance as an increase in the body's resistance to the effects of various stressors, and the phase of exhaustion.
The anxiety phase is characterized by a decrease in a number of biochemical and physiological parameters (shock), but at the same time protective hormonal mechanisms are activated (anti-shock). Adrenaline is abundantly secreted by the adrenal medulla; the pituitary gland releases adrenocorticotropic (ACTH), thyroid-tropic (TSH) hormones; then the production and flow into the blood of adrenal cortex hormones - glucocorticoids - increases. The body begins to rebuild - a counter-shock occurs.
In the phase of resistance, the functional capabilities of the organism increase above the initial level. Adrenaline secreted by the adrenal glands accelerates all processes in the body. Blood pressure rises, heart rate rises, and blood sugar rises. The blood, which begins to circulate faster, gives additional energy to the brain and muscles, and the person, becoming "stronger", comes to a state of "alert", which is necessary to repel danger. A stressful situation mobilizes and directs the internal forces of the individual, he becomes more energetic than under normal conditions. With this reaction, which is called "resistance or flight" and which is characterized by excess energy, the body either enters into a struggle with the source of stress, or flees.
This stage is considered to be the phase of non-specific resistance and cross-resistance. This means, for example, that with a stressor in the form of physical exertion after the transition from the first stage to the second, the body can more successfully withstand a number of infections.
The exhaustion phase reflects a violation of the mechanisms of regulation of the protective and adaptive mechanisms of the body's struggle against excessively intense and prolonged exposure to stressors. Adaptation reserves are significantly reduced. The body's resistance decreases, which can result in not only functional disorders, but also morphological changes in the body. Selye called a stimulus that can trigger the stress response as a stressor. To denote negative, dangerous stress, Selye introduced the concept of "distress", which is associated with the gradual depletion of the body's forces and precisely the reactions that he described in rats.
An often overlooked fact is that Selye, unlike technicians, viewed stress as a state of the body and not as an external component of the environment. This explains the fact that many researchers have tended to use the term "stress" to refer to harmful external stimuli or circumstances.
The concept of "stress" was first introduced into psychological use in 1944, when doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists working in the US Army faced the problems of disorders in adaptation to military service and mental disorders that arose during military operations.
Undoubtedly, the stress effect depends on the intensity of the requirements for the adaptive capacity of the organism. D. and S. Schultsy give such an example in the book "Psychology and Work": "The results of medical examinations of air traffic controllers indicate that their physical condition depends on workloads: an increase in the number of aircraft in the sector monitored by the controller leads to narrowing of the coronary vessels and a jump in blood pressure. Air traffic controllers are three times more likely to suffer from hypertension than their peers with other specialties. " It would seem that this is a classic example of the detrimental effect of occupational stress on health, air traffic controllers should suffer more often from heart attacks and strokes, but "according to some medical indicators, air traffic controllers are even healthier than the average American."
R. Lazarus made a serious contribution to the study of the nature of psychological stress, who focused on the analysis of individual psychological factors that cause the development of stress. In his work, this author distinguished between the concepts of physiological and psychological stress, indicating that when a person is exposed to physical stimuli, for example, ice water, the process mediating the body's response is an automatic homeostatic mechanism. In the second case, "the assessment is of fundamental importance, during which the individual analyzes the meaning of the stimulus, deciding the question of its possible harm", indicating that "one of the sources of variation in the reactions is the individual himself with his predisposition to react to stress in a certain way" ...
Domestic psychologist L.A. Kitaev-Smyk investigated psychological stress and determined that at the first stage - the anxiety phase - a person activates adaptive forms of response due to the mobilization of mainly "superficial" reserves, which causes stenic reactions in most people and increases efficiency. In the phase of resistance, "programs" of restructuring existing in non-extreme conditions of reactions begin to operate. This stage, according to Kitaev-Smyk, usually lasts about 11 days, and it is characterized by a decrease in working capacity. In the phase of exhaustion, lasting approximately 20-60 days, this author identified individual differences in behavioral activity. Some people demonstrate increased activity associated with the implementation of a phylo- or ontogenetically formed program of adaptation reactions. The nature of protective actions in this group depends on the subjectively perceived effectiveness of their own actions and manifests itself in the sthenic emotional response to the stressor. It can be joy, satisfaction, or anger.
Another group of people reacts passively to stressors, trying to survive the impact of an extreme factor. These people reduce their activity, refusing any activity, and either deny the discomfort that has arisen, or demonstratively show poor health.
Behavioral reactions to a stressor depend on external and internal factors, primarily on the subjective assessment of the stressor's danger for the integrity of the subject, subjective sensitivity to the stressor and characteristics of the stressor itself, for example, on the duration of action, proximity of the stressor to the extreme points of the “dangerous - safe” scale, etc. ...
V.P. Marishchuk and V.I. Evdokimov, analyzing a person's reactions during the usual course of stress and when exposed to extreme loads, revealed fundamentally different consequences. Consider fig ..
| Categories of extreme situations | Functional requirements for the body for safety | Physiological and psychophysiological reactions | Security threat |
| The first category is low-hazard | An increased level of attention, readiness for emergency actions, volitional efforts to mobilize functional systems are required | Discomfort, increased irritability, accelerated development of fatigue and decreased performance | Minor activity: can continue while maintaining the ability to act quickly when the threat increases |
| The second category is dangerous | A serious mobilization of the body's functional resources is required with increased emotional tension | Increased fatigue, rapid decline in performance | Essential activities: can be continued, provided that the reliability (correctness and timeliness) of actions to prevent a security threat is ensured |
| Third category - highly hazardous | A high degree of mobilization of the most important functional systems of the body is required with significant psycho-emotional stress | Psychoemotional stress reactions, rapid depletion of the adaptive functions of the body, high probability of refusal from activity | Significant activity: can be continued subject to increased security measures |
| Fourth category - extremely dangerous | Ultimate psychoemotional mobilization is required, volitional efforts to act in conditions of danger | Psycho-emotional stress, shock, high probability of refusal to work | Emergency activity: the threat of human death is very high, the activity must be stopped |
Thus, these authors have established that during the normal course of stress in the stage of resistance, a person's functional capabilities increase by an amount above the initial level. This stage is usually considered as the stage of nonspecific resistance.
This means that under a stressor in the form of physical exertion, for example, after the transition from the anxiety stage to the resistance stage, the body can more successfully withstand a number of infections.
Under the influence of extreme factors, the functional state of a person deteriorates, not reaching the previous initial level. As you can see from the table. 4, after extreme stress, a person experiences various psychophysiological disorders and emotional disorders. These disorders can manifest themselves as a deterioration in visual, auditory and tactile perception, attention, memory, thought processes (a decrease in the criticality of thinking, pronounced reversible decisions as "opposite actions", stupor in thought processes). Movement disorders can also be serious, manifested as a deterioration in the coordination and accuracy of movements, a violation of the proportionality of efforts, a tendency to overdose loads.
These and other data of the ambiguous nature of psychological stress demanded a deeper study of this phenomenon from psychologists. As a result, it was found that various stressors have an ambiguous effect on a person. The results of some studies are shown in table. five.
YES. Tubsing figuratively stated that: “Stress is like seasoning: in the right proportion, it improves the taste of food. If there is too little of it, the food becomes insipid, but if there is too much, your throat will catch. " Therefore, in modern psychological literature, the term "psychological stress" is interpreted much deeper. Stress as a mental state includes emotional, cognitive, motivational-volitional, characterological and other structural components of the personality.
GG Arakelov identifies the following signs of stress: 1) clinical - personal and reactive anxiety, decreased emotional stability;
2) psychological - a decrease in self-esteem, the level of social adaptation and frustration tolerance;
3) physiological - the predominance of the tone of the sympathetic nervous system over the parasympathetic, changes in hemodynamics;
4) endocrine - an increase in the activity of the sympathetic-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal systems;
5) metabolic - an increase in the transport forms of fat in the blood, a shift in the lipoprotein spectrum towards atherogenic fractions.
Consequently, psychological stress is a reaction not so much to the physical properties of the situation as to the peculiarities of the interaction between the person and the environment. A person constantly evaluates both various external stimuli in an extreme situation, and his ability to cope with them. Therefore, to a greater extent, stress is a derivative of cognitive, i.e., cognitive, processes, the adequacy of a person's assessment of the situation, knowledge of one's own resources, the degree of mastery of management methods and strategies of behavior, and their adequate choice. And this explains why, falling into the same extreme situation, one person experiences stress, and the other does not.
Adaptation processes begin with a threat assessment. Assessment is a person's anticipation of the possibility of dangerous consequences of the situation affecting him. There are three types of stress assessments: a) traumatic loss of someone or something that is of great personal significance; b) the threat of impact, which requires a person to have more opportunities to counteract than he has; c) a problem, a difficult task in a potentially risky situation. Depending on the assessment of the degree of threat in an extreme situation, a person reacts to it differently.
If the person evaluating the situation is disturbed by the balance of the system "person - environment", i.e. he does not adequately assess the degree of threat, then the most typical form of response will be anxiety. An unclear threat is the central element of anxiety, which determines its biological significance as a signal of trouble and danger. The inability to determine the nature of the threat, to predict the time of its occurrence, etc., may be associated with the absence or poverty of information, with the inadequacy of its logical processing or unawareness of the factors causing anxiety.
Thus, anxiety is a signal indicating a violation of mental adaptation, characterized by a relatively small connection with the specificity of an extreme condition and aimed primarily at maintaining the functioning of the body and, to a small extent, at maintaining the structure of activity. Conscious control over behavioral reactions weakens, the subjective significance of the motives of activity decreases, and in extreme cases, unconscious behavioral acts such as panic are observed.
A person experiences anxiety as tension, which is externally manifested by changes in facial expressions, stiffness of movements, fussiness or numbness, changes in the intonational features of the voice. Physiological reactions can be monitored by the following indicators: a sharp, inadequate increase in heart rate, breathing, a sharp reduction in the expiratory phase, blood pressure disturbances, profuse sweating, a sharp change in the diameter of the pupil, a sharp increase in peristalsis, urge to diuresis.
An increase in the intensity of anxiety leads a person to the idea that it is impossible to avoid a threat, even if it is associated with a specific object or situation. This phenomenon was studied in animals and was named by V. V. Arshavsky and V. S. Rotenberg “trained helplessness”. The experiment consisted in the fact that the animal was subjected to electric shocks for some time, from which it was impossible to get rid of. After a number of attempts to find a way out, the animal became passive and lack of initiative, although vegetative indicators in some cases indicated a high level of emotional tension. So, the pulse and blood pressure fluctuated with a tendency to increase, more often urine and feces were excreted. After such experiments, the animal was placed in an environment where, in principle, it could find a way to avoid being punished with electric shock. However, most of the experimental animals turned out to be incapable of such a search. At the same time, animals that fell into the same conditions and were not exposed to electric shocks, after several attempts, found a way to avoid irritation by electric shock, if such a method was provided for by the experimental conditions.
In other words, the experimental animals displayed a passive-defensive reaction, which was called "anticipation of a catastrophe," or "trained helplessness." Such rejection of any activity in extreme conditions reduces a person's resistance to stress factors, since it is impossible to create a program of protective behavior. In this case, more often unconscious mechanisms of psychological defense of a neurotic nature are turned on, which for some time reduce the level of anxiety. The decrease occurs due to the fact that the anxiety, as it were, ceases to be unreasonable. For example, a person begins to worry about his health, although there are no objective reasons for this. A striking example here is the study of firefighters-rescuers, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the fire at the Smolensk State District Power Plant, carried out in 1991-1992.
A.B. Leonova, who researched the conditions of professional activity of firefighters, points out that “if regular shifts in the Chernobyl NPP zone usually did not go beyond normal situations, and the special contingent of fire and rescue brigades had higher professional training and better equipment with personal protective equipment than ordinary firefighters. ... then the fire at the Smolensk State District Power Plant was a truly major disaster, and the firefighters worked in open fire. " After the completion of the work, 90% of the firefighters working in Chernobyl and 40% of the firefighters from Smolensk complained about their health. A.B. Leonova explains such a large difference in the severity of health problems precisely by the presence in Chernobyl of a potential threat from the "invisible enemy" - radiation and the low predictability of events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Anxiety does not always interfere with adaptation. An increase in behavioral activity and the activation of intrapsychic adaptation mechanisms are associated with anxiety. So, it is indicated that "the variety of subjective and objective characteristics of neuropsychic stress determines the presence of different degrees of severity and different variants of the course." V. I. Lebedev gives an example of the behavior of the pilots before the first parachute jump: “On the night before the jump, all the“ newcomers ”did not have deep enough sleep. At this stage, they showed an increase in blood pressure, increased heart rate, respiration and other deviations in autonomic functions. The main factor affecting their emotional state was the lack of confidence in the failure-free operation of the parachute and the lack of insurance. Let me give you self-observation: on the eve of the jump, I could not sleep for a long time. I often woke up at night and finally woke up at five in the morning. Although I tried not to think about the jump, my mind kept returning to the details of unsuccessful jumps and tragic events. In my imagination I reproduced all the details of the upcoming jump, prepared those techniques that can be instantly used in case of emergencies in the air. "
Such mental tension mobilizes a person's capabilities, forcing, as it were, to play all possible circumstances of the situation. Of great importance in the adequacy of the response is the individual and personal characteristics of a person, first of all, his orientation to either active or passive-defensive resistance to the situation.
In addition, a particular environment can create conditions or hinder the satisfaction of a person's needs. Thus, R. Lazarus believed that human behavior under stress depends, among other things, on his ideas about the world, about himself and his ability to take responsibility and thus influence the consequences of an extreme situation.
Thus, the main stages of adaptation to extreme situations can be reduced to three proposed by Russian psychologists Yu.A. Aleksandrovsky, O.S. Lobastov, L.I. Spi-vakom, B.P. Shchukin:
1. Pre-impact, which includes a sense of threat and anxiety. This phase usually exists in earthquake-prone areas and areas where hurricanes, floods are frequent, or in areas where the danger cannot be felt, for example, in an area with increased radiation. The threat is often ignored or not recognized.
2. The impact phase lasts from the beginning of the natural disaster until the moment when rescue operations are organized. During this period, fear is the dominant emotion. An increase in activity, the manifestation of self and mutual help immediately after the end of the impact is often referred to as the "heroic phase". Panic behavior is almost never encountered - it is possible when escape routes are blocked.
3. The post-impact phase, which begins a few days after a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, is characterized by the continuation of rescue operations and an assessment of the problems encountered. New problems arising in connection with social disorganization, evacuation, separation of families, etc., allow the authors to consider this period "the second natural disaster."
Another classification of sequential phases or stages in the dynamics of the state of people during and after extreme situations is proposed in the work of M.M. Reshetnikov, which describes the events of the consequences of the earthquake in Spitak:
1. The stage of vital reactions. This phase consists of a person's primary and secondary response to an extreme situation. Thus, the above-mentioned work describes the earthquake in Spitak. At first, at the first aftershocks, assessments of the strength and duration of the tremors were contradictory. Those people who experienced the earthquake for the first time indicated that they initially noticed the unusualness of what was happening only by the behavior of other people. People who had experienced the impact of tremors earlier immediately realized the nature of the element, but could not predict its consequences. Estimates of the duration of the first strongest shocks varied greatly - from 8-15 to 2-4 minutes. Immediately after the first aftershocks, everyone who had the opportunity left the premises. Running out into the open area, some of the participants in the event tried to stand on their feet, holding onto trees and poles, while others instinctively lay down on the ground. The actions of the victims during this period were individual, but realized in behavioral reactions determined by the instinct of self-preservation. Such reactions are called vital with the phenomenon of narrowing of consciousness.
The victims demonstrated secondary reactions when, in front of their eyes, part of the 9-storey buildings that had survived after the first aftershocks collapsed with residents who ran out onto balconies and terraces. The numbness (stupor) reaction lasted for several minutes. Then everyone who could rushed to save people under the ruins. Hearing groans and screams, the majority experienced an acute emotional shock with manifestations of mobilization.
2. "Acute emotional shock." It develops after the state of numbness and lasts from 3 to 5 hours. It is characterized by general mental stress, the ultimate mobilization of psychophysiological reserves, an aggravation of perception and an increase in the speed of thought processes, the manifestation of reckless courage (especially when saving loved ones) while reducing the critical assessment of the situation, but maintaining the ability to pursue purposeful activities. In the emotional state during this period, a feeling of despair prevails, accompanied by sensations of dizziness and headache, thirst in the mouth and difficulty breathing. Up to 30% of those surveyed, with a subjective assessment of the deterioration of their condition, simultaneously note an increase in performance by 1.5-2 times or more.
All human behavior was subordinated to the imperative of saving people. On the first day, the duration of the rescue work was up to 18-20 hours. Up to 30% of those who took part in the rescue work noted an increase in physical strength. Reshetnikov cites R. as an example, who, having found his wife and daughter on the roof of a 9-storey building (the stairwells of the lower floors collapsed), with the help of a rope and a metal fence for a flower bed, in an hour was able to climb onto the roof and save his family.
3. "Psychophysiological demobilization". Duration up to 3 days. For the vast majority of the surveyed, the onset of this stage is associated with the first contacts with those who were injured, with the bodies of the dead, with an understanding of the scale of the tragedy (“stress of awareness”). It is characterized by a sharp deterioration in well-being and psychoemotional state with a predominance of feelings of confusion, panic reactions (often of an irrational orientation), a decrease in the moral normativeness of behavior, a decrease in the level of efficiency of activity and motivation for it, depressive tendencies, some changes in the functions of attention and memory (as a rule, they cannot clearly remember what they were doing these days). Most of the respondents complain in this phase of nausea, "heaviness" in the head, discomfort from the gastrointestinal tract, decreased (even lack) appetite. The first refusals to perform rescue and "clearing" work (especially those related to the recovery of the bodies of the dead), a significant increase in the number of erroneous actions in the management of transport and special equipment, up to the creation of emergency situations, belong to the same period.
M.M. Reshetnikov gives examples of the behavior of members of rescue teams who liquidated the consequences of a train disaster near Ufa. Analyzing the state of rescuers at this stage, the author points out that the most significant changes were observed in their mental state: 98% said that they experienced fear and horror from what they saw, 62% indicated a feeling of confusion, weakness in the limbs. In 20% of cases, their own condition upon arrival at the scene of the disaster was regarded by rescuers as near-fainting. All respondents, describing their state of health after the rescue operations, assessed their condition during the work period as negative. Thus, all respondents noted numerous somatic complaints that persisted during the rest period, in particular, such as dizziness, headache, pain in the stomach, nausea, vomiting, and stool disorders. In the following days, 54% of those surveyed complained of sleep disturbances, difficulty falling asleep, sleepiness during the day and insomnia at night, interrupted sleep, accompanied by nightmares, increased irritability and depressed mood.
4. "Resolution stage". 3-12 days after the disaster. According to the data of subjective assessment, mood and well-being are gradually stabilized. However, according to the results of observations, the absolute majority of the surveyed retained a lowered emotional background, limited contact with others, hypomimia (mask-like face), a decrease in the intonation coloration of speech, and slowness of movements. By the end of this period, there is a desire to "speak out", realized selectively, directed mainly at persons who were not eyewitnesses of the event, and accompanied by some excitement. At the same time, dreams appear that were absent in the two previous stages, including disturbing and nightmares, in various versions reflecting the impressions of tragic events.
Against the background of subjective signs of some improvement in the state, a further decrease in physiological reserves (by the type of hyperactivation) is objectively noted. The phenomenon of overwork is progressively increasing. The average indicators of physical strength and performance (in comparison with the normative data for this age group) are reduced by 30%. On average, mental performance decreases by 30%, signs of pyramidal interhemispheric asymmetry syndrome appear.
5. "Stage of recovery". It starts from about 12 days after the disaster and is most clearly manifested in behavioral reactions: interpersonal communication is activated, the emotional coloring of speech and facial reactions begins to normalize, for the first time after the disaster, jokes can be noted that cause an emotional response in others, normal dreams are restored. Taking into account foreign experience, one can also assume that persons who were in the focus of a natural disaster will develop various forms of psychosomatic disorders.
Despite serious achievements, the above direction of the study of adaptation offers analysis outside the context of a specific situation, which led G. Selye, for example, to the identification of the concepts of "adaptation" and "life". With this understanding of adaptation, the key, as mentioned above, is the concept of homeostasis, the preservation of which at all levels (biological, mental, social, etc.) is declared as the goal and significance of adaptation. The concept of "homeostasis" presupposes the presence of two interrelated processes - the achievement of stable equilibrium and self-regulation. Accordingly, adaptive processes are adaptation. However, almost all researchers note the irreducibility of human behavior, like other higher organisms, to a purely adaptive nature.
There is another paradigmatic tradition of research on adaptation processes, which goes back to psychoanalytic and humanistic psychological orientation. A person as a complex system has a multilevel character of adaptation processes. Thus, psychoanalysis interprets adaptation as mastering reality through the relationship between man and the environment, without dividing the biological and the social. In the work of H. Hartmann it is indicated that adaptation can be caused by three variants of changes that an individual makes in his environment. The first change, which Z. Freud called autoplastic, is characteristic of both man and animal. This change is associated with an active and sufficiently purposeful change in the environment. The second change is peculiar only to humans and is called alloplastic. This change involves two processes: "human action adapts the environment to human functions, and then the person adapts (secondary) to the environment that he helped create." The third form of adaptation is the selection of a new environment that is conducive to functioning.
The main regulator of human adaptation is "social compliance" as a "special form of correction of adaptation processes", which is formed under the influence of both biological and social factors that interact and are mutually determined by each other. Thus, Hartmann writes: “Is the relationship of a child to his mother or caring for children a biological process? Do we have the right to exclude adaptation processes from biology? Biological functions and environmental relationships are not in stark contrast to each other. ” Adaptation can be progressive and regressive, depending on the presence or absence of a person's formed social compliance. Progressive individual adaptation is characteristic of a person whose development coincides with the vector of development of society.
By regressive adaptation, Hartmann understands such a variant, as he puts it, “joint fit”, when regulatory mechanisms are formed that are not specifically adaptive. An example of such a regressive adaptation can be called fantasies, withdrawal into the inner world, etc. This author writes: “The world of thought and the world of perception ... are among the regulating factors and are elements of the adaptation process, which consists in withdrawal in order to achieve dominance over the situation. Perception and imagination guide us through space-time images. Thinking frees us from the immediately given situation and in its highest form seeks to exclude all images and qualities originating from the inner world. "
A. Maslow, a supporter of humanistically oriented psychology, points out that adaptive processes are reduced by the developed "conditioned reflexes, preliminary learning", that is, by the developed stereotypes of behavior. Such learning, which Maslow calls "habituation", is often an obstacle to the effective functioning of the individual. “Man suffers from bad smells. Abominations no longer shock him. He gets used to the bad and no longer pays attention to it, does not realize it as bad, harmful, despite the fact that it continues to adversely affect him, affects his physical and mental health. " From the position of A. Maslow, psychological stress unfolds primarily in the psychological space of the individual and is determined by the values \u200b\u200band meanings of each person. This author connects stressful processes with flexible, creative human behavior, which is in no way determined by biological factors. Any difficulties that a person encounters when interacting with the external environment, the world, have their roots within the person. Maslow writes: "When the war between separate parts of the personality ends, then his relations with the world will improve." Therefore, the main acting factor in the adaptation situation is the person himself, endowed with the function of choice. Therefore, the person himself can determine what is stress for him. If stress is experienced by him as a need for self-diagnosis and self-knowledge, when new perspectives of personality development are discovered, then this process can be called "eustress", in other words - "positive stress". If stress “turns on” the mechanisms of destruction of the personality as a system, blocking the possibilities of self-development and self-realization, then this is distress, i.e. "Negative" stress.
In Russian psychology, the problem of adaptation was developed in the cultural and historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky. The main principles of this concept are the principle of unity of socio-cultural and biological research of human adaptation to the environment as a qualitatively special, specific process, which L.S. Vygotsky calls "higher behavior" and the principle of historicism. A special form of expression of these two principles is the principle of the unity of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic study of mental adaptations and the principle of the unity of the psychological and pathogenetic study of mental adaptations. Emphasizing the qualitatively new character of man's adaptation to the environment, which fundamentally distinguishes man from animals and makes it fundamentally impossible to simply transfer the law of "animal life" (struggle for existence) to the science of man, L.S. Vygotsky writes: "This new form of adaptation, which lies at the basis of the entire historical life of mankind, will prove impossible without new forms of behavior, this basic mechanism of balancing the organism with the environment."
In other words, adaptation in this psychological approach is considered as a systemic process, which is based on the analysis of various levels of the "person - environment" system. We can talk about the contradictions that are ripening within the subsystem "personality" and are a kind of response to both the impact of environmental factors and the impact of internal factors. You can turn to the contradictions in the subsystem "external environment", which, on the one hand, interfere with the adaptive processes of the individual, on the other hand, they help. Thus, adaptation can be defined as an "open system", which is characterized by a state of mobile equilibrium that preserves the constancy of structures only in the process of continuous exchange and movement of all components of the system. "
Consequently, humanistically oriented psychology considers human behavior and activities in extreme, stressful situations, including the possibility of self-realization, creativity, i.e. reorientation from negative and problematic aspects to the positive and strengths of the human personality, which is in situations of constant instability.
Plan: 1. General characteristics of adaptation. 2. Adaptogenic factors - natural factors. - social factors 3. Forms of adaptation 4. Phases of development of the adaptation process (stress and general adaptation syndrome) 5. Mechanisms of adaptation
Adaptation is understood as all types of innate and acquired adaptive human activity, which are provided by certain physiological reactions that occur at the level of cells, organs, systems and the body as a whole.
Adaptogenic factors Natural factors Climatic: - gravity - the composition of the atmosphere - its pressure, temperature, radiation, insolation, - wind, precipitation, humidity, etc. Biological: - pathogenic viruses, microorganisms, - synthetic and genetically modified foods and drinks, - medicines - changes in the internal environment of the body, - absence of irritants
Adaptation to natural factors In the course of evolution, organisms have adapted to the action of a wide range of natural stimuli: a certain barometric pressure and gravity, the level of cosmic and thermal radiation, a strictly defined gas composition of the surrounding atmosphere, etc. The action of natural factors causing the development of adaptive mechanisms is always complex. Animals have acquired the ability to react in advance to changing seasons, for example, the approach of winter. According to PK Anokhin, "outstripping" reactions of adaptation develop due to the fixation in organisms of the surrounding world and the signal value of environmental factors.
Adaptation to natural factors A person also adapts to the changing seasons, day and night, etc. But a person, in addition to his physiological reactions, uses various protective means of civilization: clothes, construction of houses, etc. This frees the body from the load on some adaptive systems, but at the same time reduces the ability to adapt to natural factors (for example, to cold).
Social factors, working conditions, bad habits, lack of control over events, lack of purpose in life, group pressure, persecution
Factors associated with human labor The expansion of the habitat gives rise to new conditions and influences for the human body. A person is forced to adapt to noise, changes in illumination, weightlessness, limited mobility, EMF. Mechanized labor reduces efforts, but increases neuropsychic stress. Nervous tension is associated with the increased speed of production processes, as well as with increased requirements for the attention and concentration of the person carrying out the management processes.
escape from an unfavorable stimulus passive obedience to it active counteraction due to the development of specific adaptive reactions
The biological meaning of active adaptation consists in the establishment and maintenance of homeostasis, which allows one to exist in a changed external environment. As soon as the environment changes, or some of its essential components change, the body is forced to change some of the constants of its functions.
One can imagine adaptation as a long chain of reactions of various systems, of which some must modify their activity, while others regulate these modifications. Since the basis of life is metabolism, which is inextricably linked with energy processes, adaptation should be realized through an adaptive change in metabolism and maintaining such a level that best suits the new changed conditions.
The process of adaptation of metabolism to changed conditions of existence is relatively inert. It is preceded by changes in the "service" systems of the body. These include circulation and respiration. These functions are the first to be included in the reactions caused by the action of external factors.
Changes in motor activity are an essential link in adaptation. The motor system, on the one hand, is based on metabolism, on the other, it controls it in the interests of adaptation. A special role in the adaptive process belongs to the nervous system, to the endocrine glands and their hormones.
Hormones of the pituitary gland and the medulla and the adrenal cortex cause - initial motor reactions and at the same time - changes in blood circulation, respiration, etc. Changes in the activity of these systems are the first reaction to any strong irritation and prevent stable shifts in homeostasis.
At the initial stages of the influence of altered conditions on the body, an intensification of the activity of all organ systems is noted. This ensures the existence of the organism in new conditions, but it is energetically unfavorable, uneconomical and only prepares the ground for another, more stable and reliable tissue mechanism for restructuring service systems, which, functioning under new conditions, gradually return to the normal initial level of activity.
Phases of development of the adaptation process The first "emergency" phase: Endocrine system of the ANS Activation of the sympathoadrenal system Visceral service systems (blood circulation, respiration) Strengthening of catabolism Locomotor apparatus Tissue and, moreover, molecular processes in the cells and membranes of the body do not change directionally during this phase
Phase 2 - stable adaptation (resistance) is characterized by a new level of activity of tissue, cellular and membrane elements, rebuilt due to the temporary activation of auxiliary systems. In this case, auxiliary systems can practically function at the initial level, while tissue processes are activated, providing a new level of homeostasis, adequate to new conditions.
Phase 2 The main features of this phase are: - mobilization of energy resources; - increased synthesis of structural and enzymatic proteins; - mobilization of the immune system. In this case, the same type of changes is observed in the body, regardless of the acting stimulus, therefore it was called the general adaptation syndrome. It acquires non-specific and specific resistance.
The cost of adaptation Despite the economy - turning off "unnecessary" reactions and energy consumption - switching the body's reactivity to a new level is not given to the body for nothing, but proceeds at a certain voltage of the control systems. This tension is usually called the cost of adaptation.
Phase 3 - depletion Since the phase of persistent adaptation is associated with constant tension of control mechanisms, restructuring of nervous and humoral relationships, the formation of new functional systems, then, in the case when the cost of adaptation exceeds the functional reserves of the body, they can be depleted. Adaptation breaks down (disadaptation). In the course of the development of adaptive processes, hormonal mechanisms play an important role, therefore they are the most depleted link.
Adaptation mechanisms 1. 2. The emergence of an orientation reaction and generalized excitement in the central nervous system. Excitation of the sympathetic division of the ANS and the formation of the 1st (emergency) phase of adaptation. This is accompanied by an increase in afferent synthesis, targeted protective reactions and changes in hormonal levels (the ACTH-glucocorticoid system is activated). As a result: - - - The synthesis of proteins and enzymes is enhanced. The energy and plastic supply of the body improves. Immunity rises. If the action is short, the emergency phase does not go into adaptation.
With prolonged or repeated exposure to a sufficiently intense factor, the effects are summed up, "structural traces" are formed. Transient and then stable adaptation develops. It is associated with - the tension of the control mechanisms, - the restructuring of the nervous and humoral relationships, - the formation of new functional systems. Depletion of control mechanisms, on the one hand, and cellular mechanisms associated with increased energy costs, on the other hand, leads to disadaptation.
When studying changes in the body under the influence of a combination of environmental (natural and anthropotechnogenic) factors, the term "adaptation" is used. Adaptation is understood as all types of innate and acquired adaptive activity, which are provided by physiological reactions occurring at the cellular, organ, systemic and organismal levels. This chapter discusses approaches to the study of adaptation, evolution and forms of adaptation, adaptation theory, adaptogenic factors, adaptation mechanisms.
Approaches to learning adaptation
When studying adaptation, a systemic and individual approach is used.
Systems approach to adaptation (Fig. 2-1) implies the need to study adaptation both as a process and as a state of a system, which is characterized by a mobile balance that preserves the constancy of structures only with the continuous movement of all components of the system. As a result, equilibration with the environment occurs due to the acquisition of a new systemic quality.
Figure: 2-1.The systemic nature of adaptive changes
Individual approach to human adaptation can be characterized as a set of socio-biological properties and features necessary for the sustainable existence of an individual in a specific ecological environment. In other words, for every organism there is an optimal endogenous (internal) and exogenous (external) ecological environment, moreover, the habitat not only with optimal characteristics of physical conditions, but also with specific production and social conditions. On both sides of the optimum, labor and biological activity gradually decreases until, finally, conditions become such in which the organism cannot exist at all.
Evolution and forms of adaptation
Adaptation is closely related to the evolution of organisms, and those that have adapted to changed conditions, reproduce and give viable offspring in a new habitat are considered to be stably adapted. There are two fundamentally different forms of adaptation: genotypic and phenotypic.
Genotypic adaptation, as a result of which modern animal species were formed on the basis of heredity, mutations and natural selection.
Phenotypic adaptation is formed in the process of interaction of a particular organism with its environment.
Structural traces of adaptation are of great biological importance, since they protect a person from upcoming encounters with inadequate and dangerous environmental factors. At the same time, the results of phenotypic adaptation are not inherited, which should be considered beneficial for the conservation of the species, since the next generation adapts anew to a wide range of sometimes completely new factors that require the development of new specialized reactions.
Types of adaptive behavior. There are three types of adaptive behavior of living organisms in response to the action of an unfavorable stimulus: escape from an unfavorable stimulus, passive submission to the stimulus, or active resistance due to the development of specific adaptive reactions.
Homeostasis and homeokinesis. The life support system of the body, along with the mechanisms for maintaining the balance of the internal environment
(homeostasis), is also represented by genetic development programs, the implementation of which is impossible without a constant change in this internal environment (homeokinesis), realized through a variety of adaptive processes (reactions, mechanisms, responses, etc.). It is at the maintenance of genetic development programs, which are the leading driving force in a living organism, that the activity of the reproductive, energy and adaptation homeostat systems is directed (Fig. 2-2). The optimal functioning of the systems providing the three leading homeostats is realized through the intermediary systems (circulation, respiration, blood) and the regulatory mechanisms of the autonomic and endocrine systems.
Figure: 2-2.Ensuring the operation of the main homeostatic systems
In other words, adaptation is understood as all types of innate and acquired adaptive activity, which are provided by certain physiological reactions occurring at the cellular, organ, systemic and organismic levels. This universal definition of adaptation reflects the need to comply with the fundamental law of biology in the living world, formulated by Claude Bernard - the law of the constancy of the internal environment.
Adaptation theories
During the formation of an adaptive homeostat, the physiological processes providing adaptation unfold in stages. For example, V.P. Kaznacheev divides the process of adaptation when moving into successive phases: initial, stabilization, transitional and exhaustion.
1st phase - initial - characterized by destabilization of body functions. It can provide adaptation to the action of inadequate factors only for a short period of time, lasting, as a rule, no more than one year. In a number of cases, the phenomena of destabilization characteristic of the first phase of adaptation remain for many years, which, in particular, serves as one of the reasons for the return of migrants to their former place of residence.
2nd phase - stabilization - lasts from 1 to 4 years. During this period, synchronization of all homeostatic processes is observed, accompanied not only by functional, but also by structural reorganization of the biosystem.
3rd phase - transitional, lasting from 4 to 5-10 years. At this time, the stabilization of somatic and autonomic functions occurs in the majority of migrants.
4th phase - depletion, possible with long-term residence in the North, is a consequence of overstrain in the homeostatic systems of the body with insufficient genetically programmed mechanisms for long-term adaptation to disturbing environmental factors.
In a generalized form, the considered physiological processes at the organismal level are contained in the experimentally substantiated theory of the “general adaptation syndrome,” or stress reaction (Hans Selye, 1936).
Stress- a complex of non-specific reactions of the body in response to the action of strong or super-strong stimuli.
Stress in the classical interpretation proceeds in three stages (Fig. 2-3), or phases, namely "anxiety", transitional, stable adaptation.
The first phase - “anxiety” - develops at the very beginning of the action of both physiological and pathogenic factors or altered environmental conditions. At the same time, the visceral systems (blood circulation, respiration) react, the reactions of which are controlled by the central nervous system with a wide involvement of hormonal factors (in particular, hormones of the adrenal medulla - glucocorticoids and catecholamines), which in turn is accompanied by an increased tone of the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system.
Figure: 2-3.Stress phases according to G. Selye
Transitional phase. A transitional phase to sustainable adaptation is often distinguished. It is characterized by a decrease in the general excitability of the central nervous system, the formation of functional systems that provide control of adaptation to new conditions that have arisen. During this phase, the body's adaptive responses are gradually switched to a deeper tissue level.
The phase of stable adaptation, or resistance. New coordination relations are formed, targeted protective reactions are carried out. The pituitary-adrenal system is connected, the structures are mobilized, as a result of which the tissues receive increased energy and plastic support. This stage is actually adaptation - an adaptation - and is characterized by a new level of activity of tissue, cellular, membrane elements, rebuilt due to the temporary activation of auxiliary systems, which at the same time can function almost in the original mode, while tissue processes are activated, providing homeostasis adequate to new conditions existence.
Despite the efficiency - turning off "unnecessary" reactions, and, consequently, unnecessary energy consumption, - the switching of the organism's reactivity to a new level is carried out at a certain voltage of the control systems. It's stressful
this is called the “cost of adaptation”. Since this stage is associated with constant tension of regulatory mechanisms, restructuring of the relationships between nervous and humoral mechanisms, the formation of new functional systems, these processes, with a suprathreshold intensity of stress factors, can cause the development of the stage of exhaustion.
Adaptogenic factors
Selye named the factors, the impact of which leads to adaptation, stress factors. Their other name is extreme factors. Not only individual effects on the body can be extreme, but also altered conditions of existence as a whole (for example, the movement of a person from the south to the Far North, etc.). In relation to humans, adaptogenic factors can be natural and social, associated with work.
Natural factors. In the course of evolutionary development, living organisms have adapted to the action of a wide range of natural stimuli. The action of natural factors that cause the development of adaptive mechanisms is always complex, so we can talk about the action of a group of factors of one nature or another. For example, in the course of evolution, all living organisms first of all adapted to the terrestrial conditions of existence: a certain barometric pressure and gravity, the level of cosmic and thermal radiation, a strictly defined gas composition of the surrounding atmosphere, etc.
Social factors. In addition to the fact that the human body is subject to the same natural influences as the body of animals, the social conditions of human life, the factors associated with his work activity, have generated specific factors to which it is necessary to adapt. Their number grows with the development of civilization. So, with the expansion of the habitat, conditions and effects that are completely new for the human body appear. For example, space flights bring new impact complexes. Among them is weightlessness - a state that is absolutely inadequate for any organism. Weightlessness is combined with hypokinesia, changes in the daily routine, etc.
Adaptation mechanisms
Adaptation begins to develop against the background of a generalized orienting reaction, activation of a nonspecific, as well as a specific response to a causative factor. Subsequently, temporary and functional systems are formed that provide the body with either “escape” from the acting emergency agent, or overcoming its pathogenic effects, or an optimal level of vital activity, despite the continuing influence of this agent, i.e. adaptation itself.
Emergency adaptation phase (anxiety) consists in the mobilization of compensatory, protective and adaptive mechanisms. This is manifested by a triad of natural changes - activation, hyperfunction, mobilization.
Activation of the “research” behavioral activity of the individual, aimed at obtaining maximum information about the emergency factor and the possible consequences of its action.
Hyperfunction of many body systems, but mainly of those that directly (specifically) provide adaptation to this factor. These systems (physiological and functional) are called dominant.
Mobilization of organs and physiological systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, blood, immunobiological surveillance systems, metabolism, etc.), which react to the impact of any factor that is extraordinary for a given organism.
The development of the emergency phase of adaptation is based on several interrelated mechanisms, the launch of which is carried out as a result of activation under the influence of an extraordinary factor of the autonomic nervous (sympathetic division) and endocrine systems and, as a consequence, a significant increase in the blood and other body fluids of the so-called stressors, activating the function and catabolic processes of hormones and neurotransmitters - adrenaline, norepinephrine, glucagon, gluco- and mineralocorticoids, thyroid hormones.
The biological meaning of reactions developing in the emergency phase of adaptation (despite their non-specificity, imperfection, high energy and substrate "cost") is to create the conditions necessary for
the organism "held out" until the stage of formation of its stable adaptation (resistance) to the action of an extreme factor.
Transitional phase of adaptation characterized by a decrease in the excitability of the central nervous system, the formation of functional systems that provide control of adaptation to new conditions. The intensity of hormonal shifts decreases, a number of systems and organs that were initially involved in the reaction are gradually turned off. During this phase, the adaptive reactions of the body gradually switch to a deeper - tissue - level. The hormonal background changes, the hormones of the adrenal cortex - "hormones of adaptation", increase their effect.
The stage of stable, or long-term adaptation organism to the action of an emergency factor is implemented as follows. Happens:
Formation of a state of specific resistance of the organism both to a specific agent that caused adaptation, and often to other factors - cross adaptation;
Increase in the power and reliability of the functions of organs and dominant physiological systems, which ensure adaptation to a certain factor. In such systems, an increase in the number and / or mass of structural elements (i.e. hypertrophy and hyperplasia), endocrine glands, effector tissues and organs is observed.
The complex of such changes is designated as the structural trace of the adaptation process. Signs of a stress reaction are eliminated, an effective adaptation of the body to an emergency factor that caused the adaptation process is formed. As a result, a reliable and stable adaptation of the organism to the changing socio-biological conditions of the environment is formed. The processes are both activated earlier and additionally included. The latter include reactions that provide preferential energy and plastic supply of the cells of the dominant systems. This is combined with limiting the supply of oxygen and metabolic substrates of other body systems and is carried out through reactions of two categories:
Redistribution of blood flow - increasing it in the tissues and organs of dominant systems due to a decrease in others;
Activation of the genetic apparatus of long-term hyperfunctioning cells and subsequent hypertrophy and hyperplasia of subcellular structural elements with simultaneous inhibition of gene expression in cells of non-dominant systems and organs (for example, digestion, muscular system, kidneys, etc.).
Disadaptation.In most cases, the adaptation process ends with the formation of a long-term resistance of the organism to the emergency factor acting on it. And at the same time, the phase of persistent adaptation is associated with a constant tension of the governing and executive structures, which can lead to their depletion. Depletion of control mechanisms, on the one hand, and cellular mechanisms associated with increased energy costs, on the other hand, leads to maladjustment.
Incomplete adaptation occurs when the functional reserves of the body are depleted and includes the centralization of control and an increase in the reactivity of the mechanisms of autonomic regulation. The state of incomplete adaptation is characteristic not only of a significant part of people living in extreme climatic and geographical conditions, expeditionary workers, but also of a part of the population of megalopolises of the middle climatic zone, the ecological situation in which is unfavorable.
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL
1. Give a definition of adaptation.
2. What forms of adaptation do you know?
3. What is the essence of an individual approach to adaptation?
4. What theories of adaptation exist?
5. Name the phases of the general adaptation syndrome.
6. What adaptogenic factors do you know?
7. What is pending adaptation?
